A new camp in Eagle County offers teens an opportunity to learn about safe driving, mental health, substance abuse

Vail Health, Mountain Youth and the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office are partnering to keep Eagle County teens a little bit safer this summer.

The organizations are putting on a Safety, Health, Impact, Future, Thriving (S.H.I.F.T.) camp, a free, one-day workshop for teenagers to learn about safe driving, mental health and substance abuse while having fun.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about safety,” said Elizabeth Kruger, Vail Health’s trauma program manager. “We wanted it to be meaningful and empowering and impactful.”

S.H.I.F.T. camp is open to up to 50 students in grades 8-12. The camp takes place Aug. 4 from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Battle Mountain High School in Edwards.

The origins of S.H.I.F.T. camp

This is the first year of S.H.I.F.T. camp.

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Every summer, Vail Health hosts Camp 911, a summer day camp for kids ages 7 through 11 to learn about Eagle County’s emergency services agencies and how to react during emergencies.

Last summer, Dustin Oakley, an Eagle County Sheriff’s Office deputy who serves as the school resource officer at Battle Mountain High School, proposed hosting a similar camp targeted toward teenagers, specifically about safe driving.

Kruger and Kim Greene, Vail Health’s injury prevention specialist, took the idea and ran with it. 

“We’re always trying to find other things for adults or for older teens,” Kruger said.

Vail Health and the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office looped in Mountain Youth’s safe driving steering committee in the early planning stages, but Kruger said she knew the event needed more than just safe driving information.

Last summer, the event organizers hosted a meeting with teenagers from schools across Eagle County to ask them what they wanted to learn at the theoretical event that would become S.H.I.F.T. camp.

“We decided that it might be best to get the thoughts of the kids,” Kruger said.

“The kids were great,” Kruger said. “They got to name the event.”

In addition to giving the event its name, the teenagers shared that they wanted to meet people who had experienced the dangerous situations they were learning about, like unsafe driving and substance abuse. This became the event’s victim impact panel.

The students also asked for more information about substance use and abuse, and mental health first aid.

“Mental health first aid looks like resources for the kids,” Kruger said. “There’s the hard conversations that this mental health first aid will give that not a lot of people are comfortable with.”

A SpeakUp ReachOut representative will help students understand the mental health resources available to them in Eagle County, including where to go, who to call, how to access resources, what remains confidential and what happens if they access the resources.

The mental health first aid is “evidence-based,” Kruger added in an email. “In addition to resources, it equips individuals with the skills to recognize, understand, and respond to signs of mental health challenges and substance use disorders of their friends.”

This summer at a safety fair, to collect more student feedback, Kruger asked teenage visitors to Vail Health’s Stop the Bleed booth to fill out a survey about S.H.I.F.T. camp to receive swag. The survey received over 165 responses.

The responses confirmed that students wanted to learn about mental health first aid, substance and alcohol abuse and car safety.

But there was a specific angle students cared about most: “They wanted more conversation on consequences of what would happen, not just how it happens,” Kruger said.

For example, she said, students wanted to learn the consequences of getting pulled over while driving under the influence, including how long a DUI charge stays on their record.

“We started with the kids, we listened to the kids, and we’re going to do what the kids want — or need,” Kruger said.

A day at S.H.I.F.T. camp

“The first hour is pretty heavy,” Kruger said.

The day will begin with a safe driving talk delivered by Oakley, followed by the victim impact panel with three or four panelists. Next, students will have time to visit several booths and interact with the panelists, including Maggie Seldeen, founder and director of High Rockies Harm Reduction.

“We want it to be impactful,” Kruger said, but also fun.

Around noon, Vail police officers will provide a barbecue meal, followed by games of kickball and flag football and a dunk tank.

As teens and adults mingle, students will have the opportunity to get to know role models in the community, including first responders, Vail Health nurses and trauma providers.

Every student who attends S.H.I.F.T. camp will receive a flashlight with an attached seatbelt cutter, a gift card from a local establishment and a raffle ticket. The raffle tickets will enter them into the running to win a mountain bike donated by Vail Resorts or a S.H.I.F.T. hat.

The Central Mountains Regional Emergency Medical Trauma Advisory Council, a nonprofit organization that assists in coordinating emergency medical care in Colorado’s central mountains, will have its booth, raffle and trivia games. Through the raffle, the council will give away five $500 driver’s education scholarships.

The S.H.I.F.T. event will not cover e-bike safety this year.

“From a clinical perspective, as the trauma program manager and data that I see every day, there are no injuries to children in our community from an e-bike so far,” Kruger said. “Personally, as most people will tell you, it’s just a matter of time.”

Vail Health is reexamining its safety program to see how to better incorporate e-bike safety going forward. “We want to facilitate giving out helmets with education,” Kruger said.

Sign up for S.H.I.F.T. camp at MountainYouth.org.