Another Summer has come and gone, but the memories of Summer Program 2017 will last forever. 6 Fantastic Leaders + 1 Coordinator + 1 On-Site Director = 1 Buzzin’ Beehive! Lindsie “Lasagna with Cheese” Driver, Emily “Embrella-Ella-Ella-Eh-Eh” Oatway, Evan “Microwave Evan” Hoffmann, Marc “Marker” Pacia, Lee “from Leon’s” Park, Sabrina “Sabri-NO-NO” Smith, Eli “Y’all I’m from Winterfell” Winterfeld and Spencer “Subzero” Burton. As a team we worked together through the highs and lows of the summer to run a fantastic seven weeks of camp! So let’s take a trip down memory lane as we explore the fun and the excitement of Summer Camp!

Fresh off of celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday, we jet setted around the globe with 25 magnificent world-class travellers. We started off by travelling around the world through a global scavenger hunt. After getting tired of traveling, we brought the world to us! Hands On Exotics came by for a visit and brought numerous animals and birds from around the world! Next, we travelled to the most magical place on Earth, Disney World! We enjoyed a fun filled morning of Disney themed games, including Bowling for Olaf, Pin the Tail on Eeyore and Tinkerbell Badminton. We ended the week off in Africa at the African Lion Safari! We marveled at the height of the giraffes, the flight of the eagles and the strength of the lions! It truly was a fantastic start to an amazing summer!

Calling all athletes! We dribbled our way into week two of camp, with a fan-favourite theme: Get Your Game On! This year, we played so many sports that rivaled the Olympics! Basketball, floor hockey, soccer, soccer baseball, badminton, you name it, we played it! On Wednesday, we danced the morning away with our Aussie friend from X-Movement who let us unleash our X-tra awesome dance abilities! With all the fantastic athletes we saw at camp, we decided to reward everyone with a trophy. We made trophies during craft time and handed them out at the end of the week. We kept active with different sports on Friday, and hit the town to go bowling at Bingemans and swimming at the Waterloo Recreation Complex. This week definitely deserved a gold medal!

We decided to give back to the community on our Vibrant Volunteers week of camp, where our focus was to help other people. We spent a full day at the Family Centre baking cookies, cleaning up toys, and writing a summer camp song! The Mennonite Central Committee stopped by and gave us the supplies needed for us to create care packages for refugees across the globe, and taught us about the importance of volunteer work. We took breaks from volunteering and giving back by playing life-sized Angry Birds, making wind chimes and bird feeders, and dodgeball! At the end of the week, we spent the morning in the sun at the Hacienda Sarria Market Garden planting, weeding, and watering all types of plants, and cooled off swimming at the Waterloo Recreation Complex.

Everyone had their moment in the spotlight at our Hidden Talents week! We hunted for items in a school-wide scavenger hunt, cheered our hearts out with our very own camp cheer, became Minute To Win It all stars, captured all the flags, and made our own flower pots! We were in awe when Mad Science came in with ice and fire and gave everyone the chance to taste a burp! We gave everyone the opportunity to perform their hidden talents and had superb singers, daring dancers, ballin’ basketball tricks, brilliant beatboxers, and we gave out amazing awards to everyone! We hit as many strikes as we could bowling at Kingpin, and ended our week watching the Emoji movie.

As the temperature peaked, we cooled off with Wacky Water Week! Everyday, we refreshed ourselves with a bunch of different water games. Drip Drip Drop, water balloon toss and more water fights than we can count! Participants also painted the leaders in Reverse Paintball and used water balloons, water guns and sponges to undo their painted masterpieces. Everyone also unleashed their inner Da Vinci’s by creating works of art that they took home: tie dye t-shirts! As Wacky Water Week reached its course, we decided to visit the wackiest creatures of them all – the Minions! Our big day trip involved a visit to the theatre where we munched on popcorn, sipped on soda and laughed our banana’s off during Despicable Me 3!

As day program came to a close, there was still two weeks of overnight camp with a lot of fun to be had. We settled into cozy Camp Impeesa with nothing but beautiful nature in sight. We started the week off with a campfire, singing classic around the fire songs such as Down By The Bay, The Moose Song, the Littlest Worm and so many more. Award winning food was served by the staff, being cheered for at every meal. The days went by quickly, being filled with mindfulness colouring books, card games, outdoor activities, and friendship bracelets. The evenings were full of movies, bingo, and a dance on Thursday to finish off a spectacular week. A big hit was the photo scavenger hunt, creating some friendly competition among the participants and leaders. Bags were packed and we headed home Friday afternoon where everyone was excited to see their families, but sad to leave their new found friends and the wonderful relationships that we all built.

Before we knew it, summer program came to a close, leaving behind beautiful memories and new relationships. We want to extend many thanks to those who were involved in making the 2017 Summer Program a success. Shout out to the custodial staff at St. Dominic Savio Elementary School for going above and beyond, once again, to make our stay as welcoming and inclusive as possible. Another shout out to Extend-A-Family staff, who came to visit us and supported us through Summer Program. It has been an unforgettable summer that we will all cherish for many years to come!

Written By: Summer Program Staff 2017