Community Corner
Camp Adds Some Color To Summer
The Niles Family Fitness Center provides kids with a way to get creative this summer, as well as get some exercise and burn off energy.
Two- and three-year-olds zoomed around the Niles Family Fitness Center gym on scooters or just on their own two feet as they chased balloons, basketballs, and soccer balls during camp sessions.
The activity of the hour let the camp-going kids enjoy coasting on scooters as the counselors pulled them, two at a time, using hula hoops.
These kids attend Camp Little, which the Fitness Center organizes for kids ages two to five, and Camptastic, for kids from six to 12. Both camps run through August 12; Camp Little meets 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., while the older kids go from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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“The kids here get to do sports and outdoor activities and also enjoy making crafts; it’s the best of both worlds,” said Jenny Steinfeld, the camp creator and director.
Along with swimming and going to the gym, the older set go on field trips.
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“My favorite place to take a field trip is to Enchanted Castle,” said Nick, one of the older campers.
At Enchanted Castle the campers can enjoy laser tag, games, prizes and many more activities.
Some kids said they were eager to get to an outdoor water park and even to get outside and play some kickball or soccer.
Aside from the outdoor and sporty activities, kids were also kept busy by the red, white and blue streamers and paper that scattered the room that the kids used to make flags last week to prepare for the Fourth of July.
But those weren't the only colors seen at the camps.
The gym was a mix of purple, pink, green and yellow as the four and five year olds whizzed by on colorful scooters.
The younger kids also brightened up the gym with the red, yellow and blue patchwork of a parachute that caused giggles all around as the kids ran under it as it billowed around them. The two to five-year-olds go on nearby field trips, such as a nearby park where there’s a jump house, slip ‘n’ slide and splish ‘n’ splash set up, according to Steinfeld.
Whether doing arts and crafts or sports the kids were engaged and interacting with each other. As Nathan, one of the younger kids, simply put it, “I like having friends at camp.”
