Seaford Manor a flurry of activity

The Seaford Summer Recreation Program is being held for the ninth year at Seaford Manor School from July 14 to Aug. 8. The camp is held for children entering kindergarten through sixth grade and runs from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Activities range from recreation and sports to arts and crafts with a plethora of events in between. The program started in 2006 and there have been some new additions while keeping old successful events. “A lot of other communities had summer programs and there weren’t really any in Seaford so we wanted to set one up for our town,” said Bill Dietz on what inspired him and his co-founder Ralph Pascarella to establish the program.

Every year the camp gets roughly 160 to 180 attendees. The children are then separated into groups each led by a head counselor that is a district teacher or alumnus. There are also supporting counselors and helpers that consist of college and high school students volunteering their time to work at the camp.

“My job is to watch over these kids and keep them happy all day,” said Christian Wendt, a counselor at the camp who is going into his senior year at Seaford High School.

The camp also has a theme each year and this year it is “Going for the Gold.” The theme is tied into the daily activities and there is a camp-wide carnival during the last week. The carnival started as a final camp celebration, but soon became a fundraiser devoted to a cause involving the community. This year, donations will go towards a scholarship for a Seaford student whose mother recently died of cancer.

In addition to daily activities like outdoor games and arts and crafts, every Wednesday is spent cooling down with “Wacky Water Day,” a day where campers bring water guns and enjoy water slides and sprinklers. Also, each day features a special activity in which guest instructors come in to teach the kids about certain topics. These include circus arts, ceramics and zumba.

The Seaford Fire Department stopped by last week to teach the kids about fire safety on “Wacky Water Day” and cool them down with their fire hose. “My favorite part (of camp) is when you get sprayed by the fire truck,” said James Price, who is going into third grade. “I remember it last year and the year before that and the year before that!”

Price sat and made crafts with his friend, Ryan Lukaszewski, who he met at the camp and goes to Seaford Manor School, while Price goes to Seaford Harbor. Their counselor, John Olson, explained how a lot of kids at the camp are given the opportunity to make friends with the children from the other schools.

Olson is in his second year as a head counselor at the recreation camp. “It’s great,” he said. “They’re full of energy so you have to master energy. Three hours is not enough with them.”