WonderKids Adventure Camp was a blast this year! We served about 90 year-round Vermont-resident working families. Children enjoyed breakfast, lunch, and snacks, in addition to their many activities that they could choose from each week. Our campers stayed outside, without any screen time, engaging in theater, music, paper-arts, martial arts, woodworking, horse husbandry, and more, six hours per day, five days per week.
Campers arrived at the drop off location on Craftsbury Common, and walked the footpath to summer camp each morning.
Thank you to Mike Lapierre for the slab wood we used to build bridges over the wet spots!
Outdoor activities took place in different spots around Craftsbury Common and Sterling College campus.
Base Camp was our huge canopy tent where we ate meals together and had end-of-week sharing presentations about what we had made.
Campers got to choose which activity group to join for the week.
Activities ranged from sports and movement, to building musical instruments, to paper arts, and much more!
Our camp featured colorful, whimsical ways of showing schedules and camper locations. This is our weekly activity board.
The benches in the tent were made by the WonderKids Afterschool Program last fall.
Paul Ruta of Cabot taught animal husbandry skills with his Percheron, Babe.
Campers experienced all aspects of caring for their spaces, including chores!
Everyone had a chance to say hello to Babe on our last day of camp.
Rainy days were great for activity where kids would get wet anyway!
Week 3 was lake week!
At Caspian Lake in Greensboro, groups rotated through lawn games, exploring the habitat around the lake, and swimming.
Sand castle building was a must...
Lawn games and shade awaited our more than 60 campers on lake week.
Experts like Tule Fogg designed and taught our art experiences.
Following our sustainable values, our campers used reusable hand towels instead of paper towels in the bathroom. Folding laundry was one of our morning chores.
Some kids had never touched loose wool fibers before they experienced this felting workshop with Barb Mutrux.
Campers shared the projects they had worked on all week at Friday community presentations.
As long as the weather was safe, all our activities took place outdoors, with the exception of paper arts and Tai Kwon Do that required indoor infrastructure.
The excitement of wet felting...
Reeve Basom from the Center for an Agricultural Economy in Hardwick brought a variety of seasonal cooking activities.
This camper wants everyone to experience what her hands smell like: olive oil soap and sheep wool!
Thank you to our Counselors and Junior Counselors who worked so hard and developed such fun and supportive relationships with our campers!
A bar of felted soap
The Canopy smelled like dill and other herbs for most of week five.
Our last day of camp was rainy, but the campers embraced being outdoors even in the rain!
A wool felted ball
Expansive outdoor areas offered campers the freedom to get up and move, even during writing and journaling activities.
Campers and counselors hung out in the shade or played games and soccer during free time.
Thank you to Vermont Electric Coop community grants for the $500 grant that allowed us to create this amazing garden for our campers!
Soccer and lawn games on Craftsbury Common, all summer long!
A collaboration with Craftsbury Public Library brought nature inside, and brought kids into the library for book and activity time.
We celebrated colors and patterns with paper arts all summer!
Pallet knife painting was one technique of many that our campers learned.
Rain didn't stop our intrepid outdoor adventurers!
Hikes in the cedar swamp, along the foot path to summer camp, and across fields were offered all five weeks.
Friday presentations for our printmakers.
The rain drove us inside if we were working with paper and ink, but nature was never far away.
Meredith Holch taught puppet making.
Puppets came to life in the hands of our campers.
Rainbows were a common occurrence over the fields and gardens.
Campers were awarded silky colorful ribbons for achievements and good behavior. All summer, the collection of ribbons in the tent grew.
Meal times were social times, and often down time for kids to rest, explore an individual interest, and recharge for afternoon activities.
Thank you to Vermont Electric Coop community grant that allowed us to harvest veggies from our garden for afternoon snacks!
Our Counselors and Junior Counselors were a great community of caring individuals... who loved s'mores!
Swim lessons at Caspian Lake during beach week.
Thank you to the Pleasant's Fund of the Greensboro United Church of Christ for the grant support that helped pay for these swim lessons. No family had to pay any portion of the lesson tuition.
Here our campers are learning how to put on a puppet show.
Lots and lots of walking this summer, on the footpath to summer camp.
Here we all are at a Friday community presentation.
Paul Ruta of Cabot also taught woodworking skills, like measuring, marking, cutting, nailing, and filing.
We worked with reclaimed wood to practice these skills.
Kids even practiced with chisels and learned about different kinds of joinery.
The day we practiced nailing with hammers.
Thank you Counselors!
Camp staff end-of-day meetings closed each day for us at 3:30 - 4:00.