Linda Leicht

News-Leader

For a week of sunny summer afternoons, about 30 kids gathered in a church basement to hear stories, make crafts, eat snacks and spend a few moments with their eyes closed in quiet meditation.

It sounds a lot like a typical vacation Bible school, but there is a big difference. Instead of reading Bible stories about Adam and Eve, these kids are reading from "Big Bang" and learning about evolution.

Evolution Camp was sponsored by First Unitarian Universalist Church of Springfield and was coordinated by parent and First UU's director of religious education Jennifer Lara. Lara created the curriculum from similar programs held at other UU churches.

Most of the kids who attended are not members of First UU. Some attend other churches; some don't go to church; some are homeschooled; some are in public school. But all are there because they love science, and their parents are "freethinkers" who want their children to be exposed to a variety of viewpoints.

"It's awe-inspiring, an amazing thing, how the earth came together," Lara said as she explained the program. "We can just enjoy the beauty of the science."

Dreams of galaxies

After the lesson and the snacks, and a few minutes outside to run off some energy, the kids gathered back inside for guided meditation time before doing their craft project. Most of them lay on the floor, their eyes closed, while some sat cross-legged, their hands held in the basic mudra position — the thumb and forefinger forming a zero.

"Once you were only a speck, but you could not stay small," Lara recited to one of the classes — the Andromeda Anteaters. "You grew and grew and grew until you were ready to leave the darkness. I too, had a special day when I was born. I am the universe. You were inside me from the very beginning, but not in human form. Like you, I started as a speck about 13 billion years ago. I was smaller than a piece of dust under your bed. I was bursting with wild and dazzling dreams of galaxies, stars and planets in radiant colors — bright yellow, molten red and piercing blue."

Despite the quiet music and recitation, 7-year-old Idahlia Hethcoat could not contain her excitement.

"When the world started it kept getting bigger," she declared after reading the first pages of "Big Bang: The Tongue Tickling Tale of a Speck that Became Spectacular" by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano.

Her friend, 6-year-old Ruby Brown, was more pragmatic. "We had a delicious watermelon and cherry snack."

Touchy subject

Learning about evolution was no problem for the kids at Evolution Camp, but Lara knows that it is "a touchy subject around here."

Lara decided to run the camp because she feels that area schools tend to avoid talking about evolution in an effort not to offend anyone's religious beliefs.

While she insists that the program is "not trying to change anyone's beliefs," she does want to provide children with language they can use to defend their beliefs in science and evolution if they are "hassled" at school for those beliefs. Creation beliefs "can be used to bully other kids," she said.

Parents took advantage of that opportunity, filling the camp roster in just a few days.

Angela McCoy, who homeschools her son, Finn, 6, and is a member of a local Assembly of God church, volunteered as a teacher for Evolution Camp.

"We love science," she explained.

"We do science at home sometimes," Finn chimed in. "We made a rainbow from light."

One craft project at Evolution Camp — making fossils — really caught Finn's attention. "He wants to be a paleontologist," he mom said. "We want to feed that passion."

Brandy Clory of Purdy drove an hour each day to take son Parker, 5, to Evolution Camp. "I wanted him to have experiences with other children learning science and be around open-minded children," she said.

Parker loved it. "Every day he tells me what he created that day," his mom said.

Parker also attends a Christian church on Wednesday evenings. "I want him to grow up knowing both paths so he can make his own decisions," she explained. "My job is to expose him."

Evolution Camp will return in '15

With such high interest in the inaugural Evolution Camp, director Jennifer Lara said she plans to hold a second camp next summer. To be put on the waiting list, email

springfielduu@sbcglobal.net.