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.