On July 25, Centennial Park was filled with children and families enjoying the good weather and the waterpark, too. Amongst those taking advantage of the summer heat were a group of children and their three young instructors from one of Canlan Ice Sports’ summer camps.
Throughout the rest of July and August, Canlan Ice Sports will host a variety of children’s camps at the South Cariboo Rec. Centre. The group who stopped by Centennial Park on Thursday were part of a camp that took place from July 22 to 26: Wacky Water Week.
Laura Albert is the Programs Coordinator for Canlan Ice Sports and has been involved with the corporation’s summer programming for many years. She is glad to see that parents are keeping their kids busy over the summer months and has watched participation in the program grow steadily since she first began her involvement with the programs.
“When I started six or seven years ago, I only had maybe 12 kids,” she said. “This camp here, I’ve got 26 [kids registered]. It’s a big group. It’s been growing and growing over the years. New people moving into the community probably from bigger centres that are used to these camps, they’re not too sure where to go and of course, they’re finding us and they’re coming here.”
The Wacky Water Week camp was not the only summer program offered by Canlan this year.
The Make it, Bake it, Grow it Camp took place from July 8 to 12 and allowed children to experience the acts of baking, growing plants, and even decorating the pots for their plants.
“The Wacky Water and the Extreme Ball, which are sports camps, they run from [ages] six to 11,” she added. The Summer Chef camp accommodates children aged eight to 12, while the Make it, Bake it, Grow it Camp accommodated ages six to nine, she said.
“All costs are different,” added Albert. “The community programs we run only as part days, so they run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The multi-sport camps, which are Wacky Water and Extreme Ball, run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. so they’re full days. So prices vary through all of our programs. That’s all online.”
Albert noted that the children participating in Wacky Water Week have been using the ball fields behind Canlan a lot, but on Thursday, the Wacky Water campers strolled down to Centennial Park to play in the water facilities there.
Jazmyne Bittner was one of the instructors for the program and said that the kids have been having so much fun.
“We play in the ball fields all the time with sprinklers or squirt guns and lots of games,” said Bittner.
Treyh Dickerson also helped instruct the program and noted that for the last day of Wacky Water Week, they plan to have a big water fight with the children.
Albert noted that there are still a few spaces available in the summer camps, and specifically, there is room for nine to 11 year olds to participate in the Dance Camp that will run from August 6 to 9.
Any interested parents can learn more about Canlan’s summer programs and camps by visiting their website at www.icesport.com. Parents can register their children online and can also complete the new online waiver form, too.
raven.nyman@100milefreepress.net
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