Camp Director Diana Bliss loves summer camps as much as the kids do! If it were up to Senior Park Naturalist Diana Bliss, she’d be running youth camps all year long! “I think that it is essential to give kids an opportunity to be outside in the summertime doing ‘old school’ things, like catching frogs, swimming at the pools and beaches, building forts, and having supervised unstructured play - where they can choose their own activities,” Bliss said. “I am hoping that the time we spent was impactful enough that it generates a positive memory, is safe, and they cannot wait to come back.” “Diana has years of experience working with children in camps, challenge courses, preschool programs, history programs, and nature, wildlife, and outdoor skills programs,” noted Bliss’ current supervisor, Outdoor Education Manager Andrea Joslin. “Her experience allows her to be able to make camps both fun and educational as well as makes it easy for Diana to manage the day-to-day opportunities and challenges that camp brings. She is overflowing with creativity and loves nature.” This will be Bliss’ fifth summer as a naturalist working at the Outdoor Discovery Camp at Ernie Miller Park. She started with JCPRD about twelve years ago as a seasonal assistant director for the Outdoor Discovery Camp at Shawnee Mission Park, and went on to take on a full-time role as a program director for JCPRD’s Children’s Services Department’s Out of
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School Time program between 2008-2012 and 20132017. While in that position, she was the outdoor camp director at Shawnee Mission Park Shelter #8 for seven summer seasons. In March of 2017, she took on her “dream job” as a park naturalist at Ernie Miller Nature Center in JCPRD’s Outdoor Education Department. Bliss holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture with a major in park management and conservation from Kansas State University. She also has a secondary major in natural resources and environmental sciences. In the summer of 2007, she interned at Rock Springs 4-H Camp in Junction City, Kan., and she held seasonal positions following graduation at the Sunset Zoo in Manhattan, Kan., at the Wildwood Outdoor Education Center in La Cygne, Kan., and has been a challenge course facilitator at JCPRD’s TimberRidge Adventure Center. In 2016, she completed the requirements to be a Kansas Master Naturalist within the Kansas State Research and Extension program. In 2017, Bliss was nominated for “Kindest Kansas Citian” by a JCPRD Starside Elementary student. “I have made many friendships over the years with staff, participants, and program parents that I am still in contact with today,” she said. “I love the sense of working for the community and building long-lasting relationships. My original Starside Kindergartners are graduating in 2023 and we have stayed in touch over the years. I attend their games and programs, and one of them is even an assistant teacher for an Out of School Time site!”
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