Summer camp ends another year
Every year, summer camp at the North Fort Myers Recreation Center has gotten more and more popular, and this year proved to be the best one yet.
The traditional and teen camps came to a close Friday, featuring a cookout in which the parents were invited and many outdoor games were played by all.
The campers had fun, and will take home a lot of fond memories.
“It was fun because we did arts and crafts,” said Chloe Griggs, 6, who attended camp all nine weeks and couldn’t wait for school to start. “I like science because they do a lot of cool experiments.”
“I enjoyed going into the gym to play games. I like dodge ball because I really like to hit people with balls,” said Justine Crowder, 9, who missed a week for vacation.
There was a good reason to celebrate, as all 90 traditional camp slots and 40 teen camp slots were at or close to capacity for the entire nine-week program, leaving open the possibility of bringing more children in next year, especially on the traditional level.
“Summer could not have gone any better. We were basically full all summer as opposed to the past when numbers tended to drop toward the end,” said James Pittro, traditional camp director. “The only week we had openings for was the Fourth of July, which tends to be when everyone goes on vacation.”
Pittro credited the great numbers to pulling a lot of campers from outside North Fort Myers, as well as bringing in kids from other camps.
“That says a lot about us and being consistent by bringing the same counselors back every year,” Pittro said. “We also have an experienced staff. Most of them are teachers locally, so that helped.”
Jennifer Sytes, who runs the teen camp, said it was also another good year, with attendance up to between 35 to 40 campers weekly and counselors, in from college, who knew how to speak their language.
“Sun & Fun Lagoon and Sun Splash were great. The kids really love being in the water,” Sytes said. “My counselors are very good with teens, they came from college with a lot of good ideas for games geared toward teens and it kept their interest.”
Among the highlights of camp was the trip to Zoomer’s, bowling, and swimming at the pool is always a plus and one of the constant things they did, Pittro said.
The final week featured much of the same, swimming, bowling and the big ice cream party to go along with the final day cookout.
For the teens, the highlight was the cardboard boat regatta that was delayed twice before finally going off.
With such numbers this year, the thought becomes about expansion next year. Pittro said it’s possible.
“We hope we can expand. That’s a goal. We’re at 90 now, so the next number is about 120. Getting more kids from Fort Myers and Cape Coral would be great,” Pittro said.
“We may not expand, but I think we can max out every week next year and possibly have a waiting list,” Sytes said.
With the fun they had this summer as opposed to sitting in front of the TV, more people won’t be much of a surprise.
“I liked it. We went on cool trips and did a lot of cool activities. I loved being here,” said Savannah Davis, 14. “I’m going to miss my friends and the counselors.”
“I’m going to miss my friends and the little kids who liked to be around us,” Megan Serrano, 13. “I’m with the kids more than with the teens. They all love us.”