By offering various activities and field trips, Souderton Area Community Education (SACE) organizes day camps aimed to provide kids with lasting memories from June 16-August 15.
Camps are run at Oak Ridge and Franconia Elementary Schools.
According to Oak Ridge director Jeff Zaleta, one of the goals during the camp is to keep the kids active and engaged.
“On an average day, we offer kids the opportunity to participate in gym and camp games, we do arts and crafts, we have STEM experiments and we offer plenty of opportunities for self-directed play outside,” Zaleta said.
Zaleta also says that the last week of camp is often the week that most kids look forward to the most.
“During this week, we take a different field trip each day. We also offer weekly swimming trips to the high school pool,” Zaleta said. “Our goal is to create a fun and memorable experience for all the campers that come to us each week.”
According to Franconia director Letica Clark, she has seen many teens who were campers at one time, become counselors.
“We have had quite a few former campers that are now counselors. They loved it so much as a kid that they want to help create that same experience for the new campers,” Clark said.
Selecting new staff members each year is not an easy task for Coordinator of Community Education Joe O’Hara.
“This year we received more applications than ever, which made the task of picking the best candidate very difficult,” O’Hara said. “I try to not only sort out the applicants based on experience, but also what they can bring to our camp and campers.”
O’Hara also said having a staff with such a wide variety of interests and skills has helped to build our camp and “create a fun and exciting experience,” for both the campers and staff.
According to senior Evan Hamm, the connections made between himself and the kids are what he enjoys the most.
“Being able to connect with the kids is special. I see them around Souderton a lot and being able to give a high five and see that they remember me is special,” Hamm said.
Senior Lindsey Yanacek also experiences those special connections with the kids which can make saying goodbye at the end difficult.
“There are lots of tears and lots of hugging. It just shows how much of an impact you can make on kids and how important the little connections are,” Yanacek said. “It is hard to say goodbye, but it makes me excited that I’m coming back the following summer.”
For many people, summer camp is a great way for kids to be active and outside all day instead of sitting inside on electronics all summer. “Summer camp is the best way to provide a memorable summer for your child while avoiding the brain rot of staring at a television screen or video game all day for nine weeks,” Zaleta said.