These Orcas kids love summer camp at Funhouse Commons

||| FROM EMILIE GINCIG for FUNHOUSE COMMONS |||

Summer Camp at The Funhouse has been super amazing! Each day the building has been full of smiling children playing games and running through sprinklers. “The best thing about summer camp is having fun,” said Funhouse kid Ember. Thea enjoyed playing basketball, Maggie liked making new friends and Koda enjoyed the monkey bars.

Funhouse Program Director, Sarah McKay said that she will miss summer camp. “My favorite part of camp is getting to spend long amounts of time with the kids getting to know them better. This year we extended our camp by 2 additional hours each day and added Fridays. It’s been awesome!”

“Messy week was one of my favorites,” she added. We filled the sandbox with water and made a mud pit, played with oobleck & shaving cream, and walked across paper with painted feet. We couldn’t stop laughing! And the coolest thing we did was make up a game called Ape Escape.”

Bernard, Funhouse kid, and creator of Ape Escape said “It was fun! It’s a game of freeze tag, mystery, and hide & seek. I’m glad everyone liked it. All the kids want to play it all the time.”

Another memorable moment was when the YMCA Camp Orkila Counselors in Training (CIT) came for a visit as part of their community service hours and training.

York, Assistant Director of YMCA’s Camp Orkila brought 9 Counselors in Training and 2 Camp Directors to The Funhouse to play games and interact with the kids for an afternoon. “Part of our Camp Counselor Training program is service hours working in the community. We chose to come to The Funhouse today to see how other summer camps on the island work and to get to know our community’s children better,” said York.

The kids loved playing with the CIT’s! After everyone introduced themselves and proclaimed their favorite animal, a very lively game of tag ensued followed by basketball and soccer skills, playground play, and small group discussions getting to know each other.

Summer Camp is coming to a close with the start of the new school year in September. We will miss all of the summer fun but looking forward to gearing up for our Afterschool Program coming in the fall.