Matt, Alex and Nick Markoff
19936 Fisher Avenue
Poolesville, MD 20837
Website: https://calleva.org
Phone: 301-216-1248
Founded by the Markoff brothers in 1993 as a small summer camp, Calleva has grown to encompass a wide range of programming including summer camps, wilderness high adventures, weekend kayak and canoe excursions for all ages, environmental education and small-scale sustainable farming. Calleva’s menu of options emphasizes a healthy, integrated lifestyle that includes adventure, personal challenge, community connectedness and an appreciation for tradition.
Calleva Farm, 165 acres of land in Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve, is one of the organization’s three hubs. The Farm, along with Calleva Trough Outfitters in West Virginia, Calleva’s retail operation in downtown Poolesville and Calleva River School headquarters at Riley’s Lock, provide resources for adventurers who want to explore the rivers, trails and rural land that surrounds D.C.
Year-round experiences are available for people of all ages including horse riding lessons, Farm & Forest Cubs outdoor preschool, family pizza nights at Calleva Farm, kayak lessons, rafting and canoe excursions on the Potomac River and the always popular Markoff’s Haunted Forest. Meanwhile, Calleva works in partnership with many local schools and clubs to get people outdoors for adventure and education experiences that facilitate personal challenge and teambuilding.
“In the beginning, we were thinking about summer camp, getting kids outdoors for some fun in the sun,” says Matt Markoff, Calleva’s executive director. “Calleva has grown way beyond what we imagined back then. We’ve become a go-to for people’s bucket lists, and we absolutely love getting people out of the city to experience a little bit of adventure right here in D.C.’s backyard.”