Today’s guest columnist is Verna Gates.

When you read this piece, you’re going to think I’m crazy.

But I’m having the time of my life.

I’m Birmingham’s Queen of Controlled Chaos.

And I’m here to tell you about an experience your children can find only in Birmingham and Alabama.

Hi, I’m Verna Gates, and I run Fresh Air Family’s Gross Out Camp, where slimy salamanders are friends, not foes, and finding a slug under a log is basically winning the lottery.

For 19 years, I’ve been unleashing hordes of gleefully grimy children into Alabama’s great outdoors, armed with nothing but curiosity and an inexplicable desire to touch everything that moves (and some things that don’t).

This year alone, 1,600 kids got their hands dirty across 108 weeks of summer camp.

That’s a LOT of laundry loads, parents. You’re welcome.

Here’s What I Love about Kids

Give them a hose, some rocks, and a muddy slope, and they’ll build you an entire ecosystem.

That’s exactly what happened when a group of my campers spent a week engineering their own river system, complete with dams, fish gates, wildlife bridges, and habitats.

When they proudly presented their masterpiece to parents, someone couldn’t help but notice there was probably more mud on the boys than left on the ground.

The response from one gloriously mud-caked architect? “Dad, it’s Gross Out Camp!”

And there it was the perfect summary of everything I’m trying to do.

My Dirty Little Secret

While your kids think they’re just playing outside, I’m sneaking in some seriously sophisticated science. (It’s science, but please don’t tell the kids, they might catch on.)

We’re talking hands-on field biology where touching IS the curriculum. Creek beds become laboratories. Roly-polies’ become research subjects. And yes, that green stuff your kid tracked through the house? That’s data collection, thank you very much.

I’ve got the credentials to back this up too. I’m a former Reuters, TIME, and CNN reporter who decided that instead of covering people making bad decisions, I’d rather teach kids how to make GOOD ones. Through bugs. And mud. Obviously.

Why I Believe in Getting Dirty

After covering the underage sex trade, it became my mission to strengthen families and children. At the time, I was president of the Birmingham Wildflower Society and believed deeply in nature’s curative powers to teach and heal.

Turns out, research backs me up. The Greatest Generation wasn’t an accident. Outdoor exploration builds brain power and resilience.

Science carves a logical path for good decision-making. When kids make good decisions, it helps them, their families, and their whole community.

The Results Speak for Themselves

After 19 years of muddy kids, I’ve got proof this works.

Four of my original Fresh Air Family campers now hold doctorates in science and they credit my program with getting them interested in biology in the first place.

One young woman who graduated with honors from Purdue Veterinary School actually cites Fresh Air Family as her inspiration in her official job bio.

And it’s not just about future careers. One parent learned to fish from his daughter after she came home from camp knowing how to do it Huck Finn-style (find stick, add tackle, dig worm, catch dinner).

These kids learn life skills they’ll never forget.

What Your Kid’s are Getting Into

My Gross Out Camp isn’t just summer fun, it’s a full-contact sport against screen time. I take kids ages first through fourth grade and let them loose ,

We’re the only camp where parents have to WAIT at pickup because kids are literally stalling in the creek, refusing to leave. One mom told me it’s the only place she has to beg her kids to get OUT of the water.

Financial aid

And here’s the beautiful part, thanks to $106,000 in financial aid, (with $61,000 going to Birmingham-area families alone), every kid gets to experience the joy of coming home looking like they wrestled a creek and lost. I don’t turn children away. I make a way.

Here’s What I’m Really Doing

We’re staging a full-scale rebellion against the sanitized, screen-obsessed world our kids are growing up in. I’m betting that the same outdoor exploration that built the Greatest Generation can still work its magic today.

My goal? Teach children HOW to think, not WHAT to think. Put a kid in a creek bed and you have to beg them to come out. It’s just as much fun as when cave children played in water.

So Birmingham parents, prepare yourselves. Your washing machines are about to get a workout. Your kids are about to discover that the best classroom doesn’t have walls. And you’re about to learn that sometimes the messiest days make the best memories.

Because at the end of the day, when your beautifully mud-caked child runs up to show you the salamander they found, you’ll realize I was right all along.

Getting gross never felt so good.

Verna Gates is the founder and executive director of Fresh Air Family and a former journalist who worked for Reuters, TIME and CNN. Ready to embrace the chaos? Visit www.FreshAirFamily.org and let me show your kids the best kind of mess they’ve ever made.

David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown.  He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com