TO REGISTER FOR THE PROGRAM: Call 360-487-7100 or stop by the Marshall Community Center, 1009 E. McLoughlin Blvd., Vancouver, and use course code 101902.
More details: Summer Playground Program
Like many of his fellow campers, Ryan Joseph, 10, enjoys spending his summer days playing field games, such as bear hunt, and board games, such as chess, but Ryan’s absolute favorite activity at camp doesn’t always involve other campers.
“I like helping out the staff,” said the soon-to-be sixth-grader at McLoughlin Middle School. “I sometimes help keep track of how many lunches are handed out and help bring stuff to the pod (storage unit).”
This summer is Ryan’s second attending half-day camp at Evergreen Park, one of three locations in this summer’s McClaskey Family Foundation Summer Playgrounds Program through Vancouver’s Park and Recreation department. The other two are at Crestline Elementary School and Hough Elementary School. One day, Ryan hopes to work at the camp, as well.
One of the counselors at Evergreen this summer followed that exact path. Eduardo Reyes, 17, attended camp at Evergreen Park for five or six years, volunteered for two years and is partly through his first summer as a counselor with the program.
“I remember the staff was awesome every year and always made camp a fun place to come,” said Reyes, who will start his senior year at Hudson’s Bay High School in the fall. “A lot kids don’t have places to go over the summer, so they stay home and just play video games. It’s better to get outside and be active.”
On Tuesday, campers and staff members in the program had a chance to thank some of the people responsible for keeping the summer camps open and free for the last eight years. The program is funded completely from business sponsorships, foundation grants and individual donations.
Members of the Parks and Recreation department led a tour of the camps at Evergreen and Crestline. Joining parks department staffers on the tour were Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt; city councilors Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Larry Smith and Bill Turlay; and Diane McWithey, executive director of Share, which provides lunches for all campers.
At Evergreen, the three councilors met with campers and answered questions about their favorite movies, where they went to school and their favorite football teams. One precocious camper did ask the councilors for their thoughts on climate change.
This year’s camp kicked off during a heat wave in late June. Bret Kertz, recreation specialist with the parks department, oversees the camps program and said for especially hot days, there are water games staffers can play with campers. They also have plenty of indoor activities they can do, if the staff feels it’d be better to keep the kids out of the sun.
Each camp sees up to about 60 kids a day, Kertz said, although some campers don’t go every day. So far this year, she said, about 100 different kids have attended camp at both the Crestline and Evergreen locations; about 50-plus kids have gone to Hough.
“It’s a safe, fun place for kids to come play,” Kertz said. “Before the program, we heard from families who didn’t feel safe in Evergreen Park, and we got some funding to set up the program, and now families over there can’t wait for us to show up. We hardly have to advertise. We just show up in our red shirts when camp starts, and families start bringing their kids.”
The camps run from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. five days a week. During the day, campers can play sports, use the playground, work on art projects and receive a lunch. Isabella DeLeo, 7, has attended the Evergreen camp for a few years, and said her favorite part of camp is the playground. There, she likes climbing the ladder to the big slide, and using the megaphone with friends to play restaurant, with some kids ordering food and others working to serve it.
“I like going to camp because it’s fun here,” said Isabella, who will be a third-grader at Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary School in the fall. “There’s a bunch of stuff to do, and the (counselors) let us play with their hair sometimes.”
Kertz said giving the kids options is part of what makes the program so successful.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for families to give their children somewhere to go over the summer and something to do,” she said. “It’s the hidden gem of Vancouver.”
