One of the surest signs of summer in the North 94 and 370 Valley is gaggles of children in matching brightly colored t-shirts trekking to adventures and experiences throughout New Town.
Camp Glory Day Camp is celebrating its ninth anniversary at St. Charles Christian Church this year—and its under new, familiar and fun ownership—with a commitment to building community through children.
Camp Glory is a ten-week, full day camp that operates between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Open to those who have completed Kindergarten through Fifth grades, the focus is on creating a safe place for kids to grow socially, try out new and engaging experiences and get crazy creative in emotionally supportive and aesthetically beautiful surroundings.
All campers participate in the core activities of swimming, fishing and playing at the beach each week. All ages will give back to the community through Service Projects and Random Acts of Kindness.
Beyond that, camp activities are tailored to the developmental capabilities for unique age and interest groupings.
Lower Camp (entering grades 1-2) is structured to provide a welcoming, encouraging environment for campers to learn about working as a team, identifying emotions and expressing them in constructive ways—along with conflict resolution through play, arts and crafts, music and movement, STEM and surprises each week.
Middle Camp (entering grades 3 and 4) is intended to help young people transition from highly planned and programmed activities to building community and consensus through helping make choices about how they spend some of their time. Campers will identify personal interests, abilities and strengths through trying out new things and by doing familiar things in new ways.
Upper Camp (entering 5th and 6th grades) is designed to prepare campers for the next steps in their social and educational development: Intermediate and Middle School. Their interests and capabilities are much different than the Lower Camp kids. Instead of expecting them to like what the littles enjoy, Upper Camp provides opportunities for campers to really dig into untapped abilities and help them discover that they are capable of really cool stuff. Upper Camp will help with our weekly newscast, create new sports and games, participate in more advanced crafts, STEM activities and help plan and implement programming for the younger campers.
Though camp season is only 10 weeks, planning for Camp Glory is year-round. Susie Pundmann, third year Director and brand-new Owner of the day camp, lives and breathes creating childcare solutions for elementary aged children in the Orchard Farm School District. When camp is not in session, Susie is the Founder and Director of Spark School’s Out Club at St. Charles Christian Church (SSOC.) SSOC is a Before and After School Program for children attending Orchard Farm Elementary School—in addition to school day childcare, Spark is available for full-day programming on weekdays when school is not in session due to planned days off, Winter and Spring Breaks and even Snow Days.
Families can find year-round care in the same place, from the same core leadership team through Camp Glory and Spark School’s Out Club. Here they learn to have each other’s backs, to talk things through and to look out for one another—not just while together at Camp and Club—but at school, in the neighborhood and in the broader community. Their families meet other folks and lifelong friendships and connections are the unanticipated rewards of being part of these seemingly simple, but surprisingly innovative programs—right here in our own backyard.
Camp Glory and Spark School’s Out Club kids are building a strong, committed, and creative community, through play and partnership. Limited openings are available this summer at Camp Glory (www.campglorynt.com) and Spark School’s Out Club (on Facebook – website coming soon) by contacting Susie Pundmann at susiepundmann@gmail.com
