Playing with kittens, crafting Minions out of pom-pom balls, and splashing around on a Slip ‘n Slide – life is pretty sweet for campers at Flin Flon’s Summer in the Parks.
Since July 6, local children aged 5 to 9 have been enjoying sports, crafts, field trips and games at the day camp, based at the Joe Brain Children’s Petting Zoo.
The camp runs until August 28 this year, and is coordinated by the City of Flin Flon.
Camp supervisor Erin Hall says the program is funded mainly through local donors, who contribute both monetary and in-kind gifts, and through camp fees.
Hall, in her third year in the supervisor’s role, has put together a creative and diverse program with help from assistant supervisor Taylor Davidson and three counsellors.
The supervisors have to be flexible in their programming – and responsive to quick changes in weather, staggered arrival times for campers and variations in the size of their group.
The number of campers can range from 16 to 30 and changes from day to day, as kids can sign up for a day, a week, or the whole eight-week session.
While a typical camp day, which runs from 12 to 5 pm, includes an outdoor activity, a craft and a game, there is so much variety that no day is typical.
Each week’s programming is organized around a central theme, such as holidays (with a Christmas celebration, trick-or-treat stations and a big “un-birthday” party for all the campers); “dig-it” (where campers discover dinosaur eggs and other buried treasures); and survivor (where campers, teamed up in tribes, compete in challenges together).
“The kids got really into that, because they all had funny names,” recalls Hall.
Hall and her team maintain the excitement level with field trips around town – the campers were visiting the SPCA on the day The Reminder dropped in – and visits from special guests.
Among those guests: Carla Wabick, who led a Zumba class, and geologist Dave Price, who provided hands-on environmental education via the Green Project (where volunteers spread limestone on barren areas to stimulate revegetation).
“It’s a fun job,” says Davidson. “It’s such a treat to get to know [the campers’] personalities. They are so creative and have such an imagination that people lose as they get older.”
Hall nods in agreement: “We feed off their imagination.”
Davidson recalls a recent activity in which counsellors prepared homemade dinosaur eggs with a reptile toy hidden inside a concoction of baking soda, shampoo and conditioner.
To get the toy out, campers had to add a mixture of vinegar and water to the eggs.
“It started foaming over so bad, it was growing,” says Davidson, “and the kids were playing in it and having so much fun.”
“They didn’t even care about the toy inside, they were just like, ‘Foam!’” laughs Hall.
On rainy days, the supervisors and counsellors get creative, leading craft sessions in their cramped home base in the former concession area at the zoo or heading to the RH Channing auditorium, Rotary Wheel or Aqua Centre for some play time.
The campers are shuffled from place to place either through a supervised walking troupe or via the city bus, an adventure for the campers.
The last week of camp, Hall explains, is usually the most fun for kids and counsellors alike.
During this “talent week,” campers hone their performing skills, from puppet shows to dance routines, and prepare a special show for parents and guardians on the last day of camp.
Summer in the Parks is something of a Flin Flon tradition, with many campers coming back as counsellors when they come of age.
“It’s an experience,” says Cait Bailey, recreation programmer for the City of Flin Flon, who has been both a camper and a counsellor at Summer in the Parks. “It’s just as fun for the kids to spend their summer at camp as it is for the counsellors.”
Davidson agrees.
“Being at Summer in the Parks makes me feel a bit like a kid again,” she says with a smile.
