Jacob, a student builder from southern Oregon, remembers getting off the bus. “Didn’t know where we were sleeping. Didn’t know I didn’t know really anything,” he said. Within the first hour, he and about 160 people he had never met were putting up the tents they would sleep in for the week. “I was nervous, I was definitely stressed out,” he said, “but I mean it great experience throughout all of it.”
Eligibility and cost. Students must be at least 14. In 2026 most were rising juniors and seniors, with some sophomores and recent graduates. Camp was free, including meals, lodging and gear. The camp did not provide transportation: families and schools arranged it, and a parent or guardian had to drop off and pick up each student under 18.
Builders come as school teams. A construction educator recruits about six students from their own program and leads them as a pod for the week.
Specialty villages recruit statewide. Culinary, fire and EMS, and communications drew students from many schools. Planning caps in April were 20 for culinary and 12 each for fire/EMS and communications; each ended up larger. By late May the safety village had 20 students from nine schools, from Bend to Coos Bay to Medford. The communications village filled almost entirely from a single film program at Thurston High School in Springfield.
In 2026 the villages ran from 17 students (culinary) to 27 (safety), with about 23 in each builder village.
Mixing is deliberate. At the opening briefing Taylor asked students to raise their hands by region: southern Oregon, eastern Oregon, Lane County, the Willamette Valley, central Oregon. Every region was in the room. The safety village went further, splitting up students who knew each other so that every squad had to form a new team. “We were very intentional about our groupings, making sure that they didn’t know each other, that they had to find out about each other,” said Stanislaw.
Women in the trades. Builder villages were mostly male. A student builder from Salem, said the best part was getting to know the other girls on site. “You kind of just create a bond with them,” she said. Eric Wright singled out an all-female build team that stayed ahead of the others all week. Recruiting for the next camp should make that kind of team more likely.
How recruitment worked. Educators announced the opportunity in class. Parents then completed a short reservation form that asked only for the student’s name, school and teacher; all other contact information was the parent’s. The team invited families to one of four information sessions, held in the evening, early morning and at lunch, or families could request a recording. The full registration packet followed once a school had assembled its team.
The reservation message was plain about cost: “The camp is free, but transportation is not included. We are working on ways to help with transportation, but teachers and families should keep this in mind when deciding to join.”