AMES, Iowa – Air conditioning, video screens, sack lunches and a convenient ride to summer camp. What more could a kid ask for?

All this is possible at the Iowa 4-H Center, which has put together a plan for transporting campers from the four corners of the state. Due to the challenge of being a statewide camp and centrally located, the 4-H Center has organized four weeks of charter buses to pick up and drop off youth who live two, three and even four hours from camp.

Campers choosing to ride the bus will be picked up on Sunday and will return the following Saturday of the week they go to camp. The cost of the trip will be $89 for round trip and $50 for one way, but Traci Haselhuhn, camp program specialist, said, "The bus option is still a smart, economical option.

“If you’re driving three hours to drop your child off and three hours home, that's a six-hour round trip, and you still have to go back to pick them up at the end of the week,” she said. “That’s a lot of expensive gas, and this will be cheaper.”

The northeast Iowa bus route will stop in Clear Lake, Iowa Falls, Waterloo, Manchester, Dubuque, Strawberry Point or West Union for the second week of camp June 8-14. The northwest Iowa bus route will stop in Algona, Spencer, Hull, Le Mars, Sioux City, Early and Denison for the third week of camp June 15-21. The southwest Iowa bus route will stop in Missouri Valley, Council Bluffs, Red Oak, Creston and Osceola for the fourth week of camp June 22-28, and the southeast Iowa bus route will stop in Newton, Iowa City, Muscatine, Mt. Pleasant and Ottumwa.

“We know it’s not perfect for everyone because someone from northeast Iowa may not be able to come the week that the bus charter is there, but at least it gives campers and families an option,” Haselhuhn said.

Campers do not need to be 4-H members to attend camp. More information about the summer camps and registration forms can be found on the 4-H Center's Web site at /4hcenter/ or by calling the office at (515) 795-3338.

In Iowa the 4-H program is administered by Iowa State University Extension 4-H Youth Development and headquartered on the Ames campus.

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