By:JOSEPH KELLARD
The Kiwanis Club in Oceanside and the Island Park school district provide programs that keep kids occupied with fun and games, even if for just one week or a month.
As it has done for over 30 years running, Kiwanis Club this past weekend sent a group of 12 Oceanside kids to its camp in Taberg, N.Y., outside Utica. Kamp Kiwanis, owned by the club's international division, provides "underprivileged kids," as local president Bob Transom describes them, with an opportunity the probably otherwise wouldn't have.
On the drive up to the rural camp, these kids who come each school in Oceanside (except the high school) often wear uneasy, uncertain expressions on their way to the unknown.
However, after a week away together at Kamp Kiwanis - where they engage in activities from hiking, fishing, and paddling a boat around a lake to arts and crafts, swimming in a pool, and barbecuing - they display much different faces on their return home.
"They go up to the camp kind of scared of the unknown and come back beaming," said Transom, who has been involved with coordinating or directing the camping trip for seven years.
Because of these kids' station in life, Kiwanis and Transom have agreed to keep their identities anonymous. But Transom speculates that what they bring away most from their week upstate "is meeting new kids and making new friends and exchanging numbers and e-mail addresses."
And while this group of twelve will meet new kids from across their own town, they also likely become friendly with their counselors from various part of the globe. Last year, some of these counselors, who range in age from 19 to 26, traveled in from Norway, Brazil, Ireland and England.
Transom said the kids think it's "cool" to meet foreigners, but that they're just as excited and intrigued to meet new people from Oceanside. "In the end, they come back best friends," Transom said.
These opportunities for these kids are made possible through the Kiwanis Club's fundraising activities, particularly its Super Bowl pancake breakfast held at St. Anthony's Church the morning of the big game. Some of that money goes toward the necessities to amenities the kids need while away, from toothpaste to sleeping bags to pants.
"Just seeing their faces when they get off the bus," Transom said when asked what he enjoys most about his work with Kamp Kiwanis. "It's like night and day. And they don't stop talking the whole way home. It's especially great to see them have an opportunity they otherwise wouldn't have."
At Lincoln Orens Middle School in Island Park, 425 kids from grades pre-K to 9 are enrolled in the school district's summertime recreation program throughout July. Among the diverse programs offered are karaoke, tie-dying, soccer, basketball, computers, air hockey, ping pong, pinball and theatre arts, which offers two productions that kids perform at summer's end.
Theatre arts is the one program all recreation-goers are basically required to participate in. "It aims to give them all a sense of confidence and a sense of stage presence," said Superintendent Ed Price as he watched the kids of various ages practice together in the school's gymnasium.
"I've made some friends here," said Briana, a soon-to-be fourth grader who is already a veteran of the theatre group.
Meanwhile in the gym, boys and girls play wiffleball together. The Herald asked Middle School student and outfielder Rachel Virgilio what she does more during the summer than during the school year. "I go upstate more to my family's house up there," she said, "and I see my friends a lot more."
The rec program's counselors range in age from 14 to 75. Barbara DeLucia has been a counselor for 12 years. "I just see that they love being here," DeLucia said when asked what she finds the kids enjoy most about the program. "It's a place they find they are comfortable in...They love both being with their friends and playing the games they have for them here."
While some counselors are parents, others are former participants in the program. For one counselor, the program once provided her with much fun and games, but now provides training in her future career. Nora Hoffman, a sophomore at Adelphi who is majoring in education K to 6, said, "In terms of preparing me to be an educator, it definitely helps out a lot to be with the kids."
The kids and counselors have director Nina Hargrove to thank for spearheading the effort to create the rec program 27 years ago. During the 1970s, Hargrove was a PTA president who formed a committee that eventually created the program. Her associated say the rec program would be the success it is today without Hargrove.
"Mrs. Hargrove is the mastermind behind this program," Price said. "I've worked in many districts in a few different states, and this is the finest one I've ever seen."
