School’s almost out, which means it’ll soon be time to find a way to fill the days of all those newly-liberated kids.
In Woolwich, that means gearing up for summer day camps.
There’s the kids camp for children 5-10 years of age and youth camp for children 9-14 offered by the township, which includes games, crafts, and indoor and outdoor play based on weekly themes that guide activities. Activities are held at the Woolwich Memorial Centre, the Breslau Community Centre, and for the first time the Conestogo Park clubhouse.
The new location in Conestogo came about after coordinators saw a demand to offer children and youth a camp closer to home.
“We used to run it in Maryhill and Heidelberg, but we just found that the numbers weren’t quite there. We found that a lot of people came from Conestogo so we wanted to cater to that,” said Emily Orr, Woolwich’s summer camp coordinator.
Camp locations are spread out by week. Generally speaking, Orr notes, you can count on a camp in Elmira at the Woolwich Memorial Centre just about each week, as well as in Breslau with the exception of the two weeks when it shifts over to Conestogo.
After last year’s successful introduction of the Youth Adventure Camp (YAC), the township will be running the program once again this summer.
“YAC, which was a new program last year, ended up being really successful and we were really excited about that, so we continued it this year,” said Orr.
The adventure camp runs at the WMC all but two weeks near the end of the summer, when it shifts to Breslau.
This time out, coordinators have put a real focus on weekly themes for the activities, outings and special guests.
“The biggest new thing is that we are just really focusing on catering it to the themes. Whether you’re signing up for kids camp or YAC, your camper is going to have those themed activities,” said Orr.
Adventure campers can choose from themed weeks such as bubble soccer, graffiti and mural painting, and Canadian adventure week where youth will get to go skating as well as swimming. Kids campers can expect themes such as game show mania and storybook summer.
“For storybook summer they will be taking different fairytales and debunking them with different science activities and things like that there are some neat ones,” said Orr. “That’s the main thing parents should know when they sign up for a theme catered to your child’s interest – we will cater to those themes, immersing them into those kinds of games and themes.”
For those who can’t make pick up right after camp, swimming lessons at the Woolwich Memorial Centre are available for children and youth.
Available again this year is the leaders in training (LIT) program. Offered to ages 13-16 Orr says it is a great way to get your volunteer hours as well as experience in camp leadership.
“We have two full-time leaders this year who actually started out as LITs, so it is a nice way to get the experience. They can sign up for one to as many weeks in the summer as the want. They go on the trips with us, and they are kind of the righthand man for the leader. They are kind of what saves us some weeks if we need extra help,” said Orr.
Camps run from July 4 through to the end of summer.
