When Rooster’s Farm decided to run a day camp this summer, its mission was simple – get the children active and out of the house.

“We try to keep the kids outdoors and do something besides hanging out inside,” said Patty Ludy, who is the owner of Rooster’s Farm, which is located at 30903 Honey Locust Road in Jonesburg, just two miles east of the Montgomery County border.

The Rooster’s Farm Day Camp had two sessions. The first one was held on June 9-13 with 20 children and the other ran Aug. 4-8 with nine participants. It is the first time Rooster’s Farm has held a camp.

“We had a couple of people ask us if we ever thought about doing a camp,” Ludy said. “We never really thought about it, but (my mother-in-law) Fran (Ludy) and I did daycare for a lot of years together and we thought we could give it a try.”

Rooster’s Farm has been open for business for three years. It is named after Ludy’s son Brody’s nickname, Rooster.

The farm has plenty of activities for children of all ages, such as a corn maze, a 20-foot double pipe slide, duck races, bounce house, a petting zoo and cornhole. Every fall, it holds a pumpkin patch as it has six acres of pumpkins. This year’s pumpkin patch will open on Sept. 20.

Also this summer, Rooster’s Farm also held a Sip and Clip event in which participants bring a beverage of their choice and cut their own flowers. The farm also held birthday parties, graduation parties and class reunions.

“We’re trying to do as many events as we can get in,” Ludy said.

The day camp gave the children a chance to learn about farm life, animals and the beauty of nature. They also did some hiking, fishing, scavenger hunts and farm-themed activities.

“They all really love feeding the animals,” Ludy said. “A lot of them are not from our area and they don’t really get to be around farm animals and get to do too many outdoor activities.”

The participants in the camp were from communities such as Jonesburg, Wright City, Warrenton, Lake St. Louis and O’Fallon. The camp ran from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. each day.

Ludy said she was pleased with the strong turnout in the first session.

“We really got attached to the kids after the short week being with them,” she said. “They seemed to really have fun. We asked them at the end of camp what their favorite thing was and most of them said playing in the creek. A lot of them had never played in the creek before.”

Ludy said the successful turnout in the first session inspired her to do another session in August, giving the children to have some more fun on the farm before school goes back in session on Aug. 19.

“Some had recommended doing it after summer school,” Ludy said. “Then we had a lot of people who were available to do it before summer school, so we decided to try one camp in June and it filled. So we thought we’ll go with another one in August. The people who couldn’t do summer school would be able to hopefully come to our second camp.”