A lot of fun and a little learning, too

Children are having fun but they’re also keeping their minds sharp at District 13’s summer recreation program, held each weekday morning at the Wheeler Avenue and Willow Road schools.

Reading and math have been incorporated into the program this year, which is open to children in the district entering kindergarten through sixth grade. Children in the older and younger groups get together a few times a week to read with each other. And on Italian ice days, students break out their math skills by guessing which flavor will be most popular, then graphing the results.

“We wanted to bring math to life,” said summer school Principal Denise DeMeo. “It gets them thinking even though they’re on vacation.”

However, DeMeo said, it still is summer so there are all the fun recreational activities of the past including arts and crafts, sports and games, running through the sprinklers and coloring with sidewalk chalk. Third-graders have music instruction twice a week where they learn to play the recorder.

Enrollment is up by about a dozen students this year. There are 337 children registered for the program, and group sizes average 25 to 28 a piece.

Those children are supervised by a staff of about 40 people including building directors and counselors. There are also about 20 volunteers.

The children entering kindergarten and first grade are led by counselors who are actually certified teachers. The counselors and junior counselors for the older groups are typically high school and college students, most of whom return year after year. DeMeo estimates that 90 to 95 percent of her staff typically comes back each summer.

One of them is Kerri Collura, who is studying at Adelphi University. Collura has been working with the summer recreation program for nine years, starting as a volunteer and working her way up to counselor. The former Willow Road School student also attended the camp herself as a child.

“I love it,” said the aspiring teacher. “I love being in the school in the summer. I love the kids.”

Raishme Singh is a junior counselor at Wheeler Avenue School after volunteering with the program for two years. She will be entering her senior year at North High this fall.

Singh, who also attended the summer recreation program in District 13 when she was at Howell Road School, said her primary responsibility is to keep the children safe. She also makes sure that they play fair, and that they have a good time so they want to come back the next day.

DeMeo described the volunteer program as a “feeder program” for the paid staff. She said the volunteers are evaluated throughout the summer and must have completed ninth grade. Paid staff members must have completed 10th grade.

“The volunteers are very important to us,” she said, noting that one or two or them are assigned to each group of campers. “We get to see how they will be as future counselors.”

Michael Barbuto, an incoming sophomore at North High School, is volunteering for the first time and said he would like to follow in the footsteps of his older brother and become a counselor. “I like working with all the little kids,” he said. “They’re fun to be around.”

As many of the staff members return every year, so do many of the campers. Joe Gisonda, a sixth-grader at Willow Road School, has been coming to summer recreation since the summer before he entered second grade. “If you’re bored, this is the place to be,” he said. “It keeps you active all day.”

Chris Manzi, a Willow Road sixth-grader, said that the program has given him the chance to make friends from the district’s other schools. Danny Knoblach, a fifth-grader at the James A. Dever School, enjoys the variety of activities.

Dever sixth-grader Jack Harkin attended summer recreation when he was younger, but last year went to a different camp. He said he couldn’t wait to come back to District 13’s program this summer because it is a lot more fun.

Wheeler Avenue School sixth-grader Melissa D’Elia said her favorite activity is the dance classes twice a week. She has been coming to the program for six years. So has her classmate, Elizabeth Colgan. “I get to hang out with friends and it gives me something to do,” she said.

The program is held each morning from 9 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. and runs through Aug. 3.