Email
Print
FeedBeyond band camp
At today’s summer camps, kids can create graphic novels, palpate a pregnant cheetah, learn soccer from the British and practice being rock stars. But parents have to act fast.
Whetstone Recreation Center’s camp registrations were about 30 minutes from opening when mothers started forming a queue at the front desk. Center director Rick Bruhn knew they were in trouble.
Now that camp registrations also could be made online, there were other parents poised at their keyboards at home, waiting for the sign-up window to open. And the most specialized camps—such as gymnastics and cheerleading—were sure to go fast. Just how fast became apparent five minutes later, when cheerleading camp reached capacity.
Five minutes after that, two gymnastics camps had filled.
“Before we got to the third person in line, all of those camps were full,” Bruhn says. “Some of those moms were pretty frustrated.”
Welcome to the new world of summer camps.
Once a land of crafts and campfires, swimming and s’mores, summer camps now have become as specialized—and sometimes as elusive—as private schools, with parents seeking to use the summer months for education and experience first, entertainment second. No matter what skills are being sought, Columbus is home to some of the most creative and competitive camp offerings around.
“I think everyone wants something unique for their child, and for them to learn something they might use beyond the camp experience,” says Shelly Casto, director of education for the Wexner Center for the Arts. “And when you have a good opportunity, a lot of people want to share in it.”
Creative classes
Casto should know, since the Wexner camps are some of the city’s most popular. Although the camps were put on hold this year due to ongoing renovations at Sullivant Hall and other Ohio State facilities where classes have been held, the Wexner Center has been home to such offerings as environmental art camp, cartography camp and even mud art camp. Last year’s videography camp—where students learned to shoot, edit and produce video projects—filled in less than 30 minutes. A new education center under construction at the Wex will provide space for camps in the future.
Casto says parents’ desires to offer their kids unique experiences outside of school drive the artistically inclined to the Wexner. The most popular options come from the instructors themselves, who are encouraged to be as creative as possible when devising the summer sessions.
“Instead of saying, ‘We want to teach painting or drawing,’ we put out an open call for proposals to artists and grad students: ‘What is a class you have been dreaming about?’ ” Casto says. “We look for a really unique approach that is consistent with the Wexner being artist-driven.”
Wexner kids who have been lucky enough to squeak through the enrollment windows have made graphic novels and learned more about Photoshop than some graphic designers. They’ve also been architects, deejays and music video producers.
Camps at the Wex also offer parents a way to push their kids toward the future, says Casto: Roaming the Ohio State campus for a week in the summer is the next best thing to being a student there. “This could be where they go to college,” she says. “We like that we can help kids make sure they are thinking about their future.”
Rocking out
Parents seeking quirky camps will discover numerous ways to focus on their kids’ futures, whether that involves art, athletics—or even becoming a rock goddess.
Those with daughters who dream of being the next Joan Jett need look no further than the drums and guitars of Girlz Rhythm n’ Rock Camp, a weeklong Lollapalooza where girls ages 8 to 18 can work on songwriting, drumming, vocal techniques and performance.
Former musician Suzie Simpson says she quickly realized that playing in a band was not her thing, so she became a music organizer, working to secure sounds for events such as Red, White & Boom! and First Night. After helping a friend start a “girlz” rock camp in Massachusetts, she brought the concept to Columbus 10 years ago. That camp remains the only overnight version among nearly 30 similar international endeavors.
Simpson says the camp, which takes place at the YMCA’s Hoover Y Park in Lockbourne, offers far more than just music. “It is something that gives those girls encouragement to do whatever they wanted to do in life,” she says. “Girls do not find it very fair in the music world. I’m not saying these girls will all be in bands, but it gives them a chance to be part of something while they are here.”
Campers start by writing songs in whatever genre they like—from ’70s hippie music to punk to country. Throughout the week, they get lessons from local musicians on various instruments, including drums, keyboards and guitars.
But the music business is more than just tunes, so Simpson also counsels the girls in advertising, marketing and designing band fliers. The final camp day is filled with performances.
Simpson says the camp, which maxes out at 24 per session, was popular enough to require a second week this year, but she cautions parents that big dreams may not be enough to make for post-camp musical careers.
“We are not there to tell them they can make it in the music world,” she explains. “What we are here to do is offer this experience and encourage them to do whatever they want to do in life. We show them all the different aspects of music—whether they want to be musicians, writers, sound technicians or managers. It can be as serious or loose as they want it to be.”
Well mannered
While a week in the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle may be the stuff of fantasy, other parents seek camps that are geared toward the realities of life. That was the case for Teresa Haro of Beechwold, who was dismayed to find that her third-grader seemed almost suffocatingly shy in social situations. Haro decided to put daughter Elena’s summer break to good use—at etiquette camp.
Cathi Fallon, director of the Etiquette Institute—which holds Etiquette University Summer Camp in the Saks Fifth Avenue store at Polaris—says her camp specializes in preparing young men and women to be better received in the “real world” by teaching such basic skills as conversation, telephone manners and even social media etiquette.
“First impressions go a long way,” says Fallon, a former teacher. “Anyone who sold a house knows you need to fix up the outside to have curb appeal. … We are not so different in how we act, speak, dress. The first seven to 10 seconds is so important to how we make a first impression.”
That opportunity to make a good impression is what Haro sought for Elena, who despite being outgoing among friends was “timid and awkward” in public settings, Haro says. A week spent in Fallon’s day camp for “young ladies” (she offers separate sessions for girls in grades 1-9 and boys in grades 4-9) taught Elena about eye contact, body language, good posture, proper dining and how to make and keep friends.
“Those were skills I really wanted her to have, and even though she resisted at first, she actually loved it,” says Haro. “She is so different in the way she presents herself that I received a letter from her teacher thanking us for teaching her manners.”
And Fallon says enough parents share that feeling that it’s created a wait list for the camp. “It drives me crazy when I hear people think of manners as boring, stuffy, formal,” she says. “What they don’t realize is social skills make them successful. We groom children for success.”
International goals
Future success, although far less guaranteed, also is the driving force behind what is perhaps Whetstone’s most popular camp. It draws in more than 250 kids annually for a chance at soccer stardom. Challenger British Soccer Camp not only offers half- and all-day soccer instruction from trained coaches, it does so with a staff imported straight from England.
Bruhn says the popularity of the camp, which has been in the Columbus Recreation and Parks system for 15 years and at Whetstone for the past three, grew as more parents began to view sports as a path to college—and even professional—opportunities for their kids.
“As youth sports became more specialized, parents are looking for that next level of sports to take them to travel soccer and travel baseball,” he says. “They want that edge to take beyond rec sports.”
But Bruhn says parents looking for all work and little play actually have come to the wrong camp when it comes to Challenger. True, campers go through a full curriculum of skills, including dribbling, passing, shooting, heading and defending. But they also learn world geography through the World Cup competition, which can include bringing food, flags and costumes from their assigned countries. There also are games such as coach dress-up and soak the coach, which need little explanation.
Camp families have the opportunity to host a Challenger coach—who can come from any part of Great Britain—in their homes for the weeklong duration of the camp, allowing them to build an even stronger bond and develop an understanding of different cultures.
“Some parents are actually disappointed that we don’t drill [kids] more, in terms of skills,” Bruhn says. “But we want it to be fun for the kids. The idea is fun first, and then they work on their skills within that fun.”
The mix has worked for Augie Reber, a 6-year-old soccer “fanatic,” says his mom, Alisa Reber of Clintonville. Augie is attending his third Challenger camp this summer, and even though he gets to talk all about his favorite team, Manchester United, with his coaches, he also has come a long way in developing his on-field skills.
“He was 5 and doing things my husband and I couldn’t believe he was doing, like bouncing the ball on his neck,” says Reber, who also has hosted a coach. “Being around someone who can talk soccer, who had as much of an obsession as he did, was great. And he was learning from someone from a different country. It totally opened a broader perspective on the world.”
Animal attractions
A broader worldview also is the goal of camps at the Wilds, which each year fills up with kids—and sometimes parents—seeking a chance to go where the wild things roam.
Mallory Vopal, conservation education specialist and camp coordinator, says the wildlife conservation center offers weeklong WildeCamps for ages 8 to 19 as well as weekend family camps, which give the families lucky enough to secure a spot a taste of the wild life.
While other zoological camps might involve some interesting animal visits amid the arts and crafts, camps such as WildeCamp Xtreme let campers go backpacking for days in the wilderness, cooking their own meals, carrying their own packs and living off the land with edible plants.
WildeCamp Naturalist in Training, also known as Dirty Wild Jobs, lets campers ages 16 to 19 select veterinary or animal management paths. The lucky participants (only 24 out of nearly 50 applicants are chosen) are immersed in animal care, learning everything from how to shoot a dart gun for animal tranquilization and palpate a cheetah for a pregnancy check to listening to a zebra heartbeat and even performing animal necropsies.
“We don’t have time for arts and crafts,” Vopal says with a laugh. “We are at it from sunrise to sunset. There is no other camp that gets you more hands-on.”
As the summer camp season moves into full swing, parents everywhere are loading up their minivans and SUVs, ready to cart their kids hither and yon for activities they could only have dreamed of for their own childhoods.
Area camp experts agree that the breadth and depth of opportunities make summer a pretty magical time around Columbus.
“If you want to do arts and crafts, you can do that,” says Bruhn. “If you want to be a cheerleader or play hockey or do some crazy art, you can do that, too. With camps nowadays, you can do pretty much anything.” n
Nicole Kraft teaches journalism at Ohio State University and is a freelance writer.
