The Estevan campus of the Southeast College opened doors to its first summer camp students on Monday. Throughout this week a group of young explorers will have a unique opportunity to learn more about different professions in the Estevan area.
Their adventure started with an exciting hands-on ambulance tour. EMS paramedics Winston Hunt and Alex Critikos measured their heart rate and explained how everything works inside their vehicles. And while they were explaining some nuances of their job, children wanted to know why the garbage bin and everything else inside the ambulance were so tiny.
Later in the day with guidance from college summer students Janay Marr and Emma Gunnlaugson children learned more about paramedics and working with EMS, mixing educational activities with indoor and outdoor games.
Also this week students will also get to learn about the Estevan Police Service, will meet a farmer, learn about oil and the oilfield and finally get to talk to an electrician and learn about electricity. Some professionals will bring special equipment, so children would see everything up-close.
“It is a very exciting week. We get to do a lot of activities, that will relate to the daily theme that will help them learn more about that career path,” said Melanie Mantei, who is the Estevan campus manager.
The camps are weeklong and will run for five weeks Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. They are developed for children six to 10 years of age. The college provides one hot dog lunch every week, and the rest of the meals children bring from home.
Every Friday they also have a popcorn movie activity.
The next week’s topic is arts and crafts and will inspire participants to open up and create. Then students will dive into the world of sports with the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins coming over on Wednesday of that week. They will spend time with children playing hockey on the grass and talking about sports. But that week's camp won't be only about hockey.
“The other days are themed as well, so they will learn about different sports," said Mantei.
The following week will be dedicated to dynamic designs when kids will be working with all kind of mediums that will help them to use their imagination to build their creations from recyclable goods.
And the last group will explore performance arts. For a week they will practise a skit and do some other creative activities, and the performance in front of their parents and families will become a culmination of the camp.
All the crafts kids will make throughout the camp days they will be able to take home to impress their families. The SE College made sure that there were more than enough of the various materials for children to explore their ingenuity.
This is the first year when the Estevan campus is putting up summer camps and it is still a learning curve. But nevertheless, a lot of people showed interest in these new camps.
“Registrations were pretty successful seeing it is our first year running summer camps for five weeks,” said Mantei, adding that they will continue improving and plan on running camps again next year.
But those willing to hop on this year still have this chance. With about 70 kids registered as of July 8, the groups are not filled to capacity yet and anyone willing their children to learn something new in an exciting and fun manner during summer can sign up online. The camps cost $110 per child. The deadline to sign up is Monday morning of each week.
