By Anna Skinner
With the recent consolidation of parks and recreation programs into the Westfield Washington Township, the township will be organizing all summer camps through parks and recreation as young as preschool ages.
All camps are theme based and cover topics such as cooking, which ends with a cookie sale, and wild and wacky, which provides arts, crafts and activities and ends in a water day.
“We had a big bake sale at the end of our cooking camp last year, and all the kids got to split the proceeds,” said Danielle Tolan, township trustee. “It’s a fun activity, and the kids love it.”
Camps available for younger children expand on the same subjects and offer more complex activities for the older children. Camps range from ages 3 to 11.
“We pride ourselves on the diversity of offering something different to the community than what the schools can bring and at a low cost,” Tolan said. “We aren’t providing these camps to break the pocket book. These are for the kids and families so they can enjoy it.”
Some other camps include weather, animal behavior and a paper camp, where kids learn about how to make paper from different plant materials and construct their own journal. STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – camps are also offered.
“Each day at the camps, the kids will come home with something they made,” said Stacy London, program coordinator. “They’re half day camps, because they are so popular, and we want to make sure we can get as many to attend as possible, so there will be two sessions a day.”
Registration opens at 9 a.m. April 11 and can be completed at westfieldwashingtontwp.us. Tolan said spots fill up quickly. Costs range from $75 to $125.
