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Date: 3/1/2023
HUNTINGTON — Registration is open for Gateway Regional School District’s free summer camps, and program and communications coordinator Martha Clark says people need to sign up immediately in order to secure a spot.
There are some changes in the two camps this year. Both the Gateway Junior Explorers at Littleville Elementary School, for kindergarten through grade 4, and Gateway Explorers at Gateway Middle School for grades 5-10, run from July 10 to Aug. 10. Both camps are for students registered in the Gateway Regional School District only.
One big change is that Gateway Explorers, run by Clark, will be a five-week enrolled program and not a drop-in program. Participants must enroll in all five weeks so that the program meets the requirements of the 21st Century Supporting Additional Learning Time Grant for after school and summer programs, which also funds free after-school programming at Gateway.
However, Clark said the district will make allowances for planned family vacations.
“We understand that families have commitments planned and that’s fine. Just let us know,” she said.
Students currently enrolled in the after-school program will get the first priority for the camp.
The focus of the Gateway Explorers camp will be on science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM), with weekly field trips. Some of the field trips already planned include visits to the Springfield Museums and MassMOCA in North Adams.
“For one of the STEAM units in the middle school, students are going to design a prosthetic fin for a fish through the Science Museum in Boston,” Clark said, adding that she would love to take the students whale watching in collaboration with the grant project, and is looking for a sponsor to do so.
Closer to home, students will be donning waders and studying the pond behind the school to look at organisms and test nitrogen levels, and what can be done to make it healthier. Clark said she also plans to have the campers clean up the stream that leads to the pond.
Another change this summer will be in the Junior Explorers camp program for Gateway students who will be entering kindergarten through fourth grade in the 2023-24 school year.
In order to provide free summer programming for the elementary students, all elementary summer programs will be located at Littleville Elementary on the Gateway campus in Huntington, combining with the Title I summer program previously offered in Chester. Students must be potty trained in order to attend.
Gateway Junior Explorers, which will be run by Melinda Slowey, is funded by a state After School and Out of School Time grant. The camp will run Monday to Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and also has free wrap-around hours available 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Camp transportation is provided within district towns, and lunch is provided on non-field trip days.
The camp focus will be watermelon science, art, games, literacy and lots of fun, with field trips offered weekly. Unlike the Gateway Explorers program for older students, elementary students may attend all five weeks of Junior Explorers or just one or two.
Registration for both Gateway Junior Explorers and/or Gateway Explorers camp is available at forms.gle/9AbQfXvLsURNRB5n7.