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Click Here:  List of CCC Museums & Exhibits

Museums & Exhibits

Is there a  cornerstone on your favorite CCC structure?

Camp Okoboji SP-9, 1934

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Camp Okoboji, SP-9, Iowa

 

 

Up ] Elementary ] Happy Days Booklet ] Visualize the Vastness ] Uncle Sam & CCC ]

Telling the CCC Story

One of the main purposes of the CCC Legacy is education. 

What are we doing to teach the heritage of the CCC?  

How can you help?  If you have an idea please contact us.  

Happy Days Booklet - The Happy Days Booklet is an educational activity supplement focusing on the 5th and 6th grade level.     Happy Days is an expression that is well connected with the Roosevelt era.   It was the title of the national newspaper of the CCC.  "Happy Days are Here Again" was the theme song for President Roosevelt's election campaign.  

Visualize the Vastness - The Boys of the CCC planted approximately 3 Billion trees.  How can we visualize 3 Billion trees?  Applied math questions for the 8th grade and above. 

K - 5 Elementary Education Package - Designed to coordinate with the recognition of CCC Members Appreciation Day in Virginia, March 31, but it can be used at any time.  

Historical Tidbits

  It was President Roosevelt's hope that the young men who entered the CCC under such desperate economic conditions would be discharged being fit in body and mind.  

Preliminary conditioning camps evaluated the health and condition of the young man's body. Sketch by CCC artist Marshall Davis - Home Work Exercise, good food, lessons on physical hygiene and medical care physically prepared the enrollees for the manual labor that would be required.  However, organizers soon realized that it took more than a sound physique to prepare a young man for the world once he left the camp.   

In the 1930s, it wasn't uncommon for students to quit before high school because they too were required to play a role as bread-winners within the family structure.    There was less emphasis on formal education because the masses of American citizens earned their livelihood from agriculture and manufacturing.  

The requirement for camp educational and training programs was not written into the original legislation that enacted the Emergency Conservation Work Act in 1933.  Within weeks, training was highly recommended and by 1934 a formal program had begun.  

Each Camp had a C.E.A., Camp Education Advisor.  It was his responsibility to design lesson plans for any enrollee who wanted to volunteer and use his free time in the evenings and weekends to further his education.  Programs ranged from basic elementary skills such as reading and writing to college level classes.  Vocational training was designed based on the skill level available from within  camp personnel or neighboring community.  

Education made a difference in the lives of the Boys of the CCC.  It is said that approximately 40,000 men learned how to read and write.  A CCC classroom was located anywhere that you could find a chair, blanket or tree stump. Subjects covered the liberal arts and a wide range of vocational endeavors.  Truck driving, mechanics, cooking, furniture building, forestry, masonry, road construction, dam building, conservation techniques and any number of other related professions were all derivatives of the public service projects of the New Deal.  

CR_Staff_1937.jpg (39584 bytes)Company 322, Edinburg, VA.  Capt. Joseph W. Koch, C.O,; 1st Lt. Donald J. Woolley, Exch. Off.; 1st Lt. Edward J. Schultz, surgeon, Mr. W. Davidson Tenney, C.E.A.   (1937 3rd District Annual, Subdistrict 13)