SMYRNA – Each summer, roughly 400 children from across Chenango have the chance to experience four fun-filled days at camp at no cost to their parents during the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office’s annual Sheriff’s Camp.

According to Sheriff Ernest R. Cutting Jr., the program, now in its 17th year, gives kids the opportunity to participate in something they might otherwise not have the chance to experience.

From structured camp activities and fire prevention and law enforcement demonstrations to character building, Sheriff’s Camp is definitely an experience like no other. And one that Cutting says is proof that “you can make a difference in kids lives.”

The annual camp continues a tradition started during the reign of former Sheriff Joseph Benenati, with the founding of the New York State Sheriff’s Camp program. In 1994, several years after the state camp was relocated to another locale, then-Sheriff Thomas Loughren revived the program on the local level.

“We’ve been doing it here ever since,” said Cutting.

Since that time, he said, more than 3,800 area children have participated. By the end of this summer, that number will be over 4,000.

Each week for camp, a different crop of approximately 100 campers between the ages of 9 to 12 meets at the Sheriff’s Office to begin their adventure. Together, they travel to Camp Thompson in Smyrna, where the camp is hosted each year. For four days they enjoy structured activities, like swimming, canoeing and evenings around the camp fire. They are also treated to demonstrations by law enforcement officers and other emergency responders, including the Sheriff’s Department’s K-9 officers, SCUBA, fire prevention, 911, corrections and LifeNet.

According to Cutting, these demonstrations and the face time officers get with the kids helps open the lines of communication.

“They come to see us in a positive light,” he explained.

The camp’s counselors and the deputies who are on site daily also work to build character in their young campers.

“We try to focus on a character trait each day,” Cutting said. Those traits – Responsibility, Honesty, Caring and Respect – provide the foundation for the entire program.