Subscribe by RSS
Belvidere Park District hosts Day Camp Carnival
By Kathryn Menue
EDITOR
On Wednesday, June 29, the Belvidere Park District held a carnival day for the kids of the Belvidere Park District Day Camp.
The carnival took place at Belvidere Park behind the Rivers Edge Recreation Center facility, located at 1151 W. Locust St. in Belvidere.
The carnival began at 11 a.m. with sack races, a duck counting game, water games, and a hula hoop bubble station before breaking for lunch from noon to 1 p.m.
With the start of the afternoon, the fun increased with even more activities.
Inside Rivers Edge, children could play dress up in costumes that ranged from princesses to pirates.
Outside, kids could enjoy a variety of snacks including cotton candy, snow cones, and popcorn.
Catherine Jarrah, a first year camp counselor, handed out cotton candy to the children in attendance at camp that day.
Jarrah has enjoyed working with the children this summer.
“I love it here. It’s awesome,” Jarrah said. “I’m with the kindergarteners and the first graders. They’re a lot of fun.”
Jarrah said she has the largest group of children with 24 kids on average in her group with the camp averaging about 70 kids a week, which varies because children can sign up for one week of camp at a time.
For the Carnival Day Camp, about 84 children were in attendance to enjoy the various activities such as the Wizard’s Castle bouncy house and the inflatable obstacle course.
Camp Counselor Margery said the afternoon was “a free for all” with kids getting to pick where they wanted to spend their time. This could include dancing to fun pop music, playing with the bubbles streaming out of the bubble machine, and getting their face painted by Belvidere Park District Youth Specialist Tonya Vant.
Tonya Vant had a selection of designs she could paint on the children including a patriotic heart, a bumble bee, palm trees, and more.
Vant said the carnival is only one of the fun activities they do over the summer with the Belvidere youth.
According to Vant, the Belvidere Park District does a field trip or special themed event each week of the camp program, which goes for 11 weeks and is offered to children 3-years-old to children in 8th grade.
Some of the other themed activities include an entertainer coming to Rivers Edge or the camp journeying off to the Madison Zoo.
“We’ve had a great summer so far,” Counselor Jarrah said. “We have a lot more activities planned this summer. We’re excited.”
