House of Culture runs summer sessions
The closing of schools for the summer usually signals the opening of camp season; summer camp that is. For the second year UNICEF is sponsoring a month-long programme for Belizean children ages eight to fourteen years at the House of Culture. Camp Director, William Neal says spaces are available for your child.
William Neal, Camp Director
“It’s going to be a dynamic camp, because we will have members of the Young Artists Association being the facilitators. They did it last year, and because of their ability to relate with the kids, the kids usually have a lot of fun. We’ll be offering dancing, the arts, sports and we’ll also be doing some music, so it’s more artsy than anything else. We have some wonderful young people who will be co-ordinating and making sure that the children who attend have a wonderful time. We’re going to try as much as possible to tailor to the needs. We’ll have something that they’ll be doing generally, but the idea is for each one of these areas tailor to meet the needs of the specific children.”
“It will run on a rotation, but at the end of each day there will be a free movement period, during which time the children will able to go into whatever area they prefer and they can do it along with the person who is facilitating that area, for maybe half and hour everyday. And it’s in an effort to really bring about “the best of the me”, that’s the name of the camp.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“What is it that you’re hoping parents will see a little bit different about this camp?”
William Neal
“Well, camps are very funny things. You can have your aims and your objectives, but you don’t want parents to think it’s a babysitting club. We want children who will participate, we want children who will come and be active, and that’s the way we’ve structured the camp. If children are here and they’re putting up too much resistance or whatever, we don’t want to necessarily give them the idea that they can just come and sit down and do nothing, the idea is to get them involved.”
The camp, which opens on Tuesday July second and ends on the twenty-fifth, runs from 8:00 a.m. until 12 noon. Registration is five dollars per child.
A number of activities for children will be offered by other organisations over the course of the summer. The Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Centre, for example, will run two, one-week sessions that focus on conservation. The camp targets students from twelve to seventeen and the children will be housed in dormitories at the eighty-four acre site just off the Western Highway. The first session begins on Monday July first, the second a week later. Spaces are still available and can be reserved by calling the zoo at 220-8004.
