Week 4: A Luau Party!

Summer camp is off to a great start for this week! With a new weekly theme for Discovery Camp, Discovery’s Camp Chefs Specialty Camp, MVP’s Basketball Specialty Camp, and an exciting week ahead for MVP, there is already a lot going on at the Princeton Family YMCA. Here are your updates for the week ahead!

Campers finished last week strong with a great all-camp activity and awesome games. In arts and crafts, Discovery campers got to make “gak” – a gooey green substance – and then pour it on Mr. Paul at the end of the day! Needless to say, things got pretty messy. MVP Campers got to spend a day playing games against the counselors to see who could come out on top. Age didn’t seem to be a factor for many of these campers, as they were able to own the field and show us why they earned the title of MVP!

Now that last week is all wrapped up, this week’s theme for Discovery Camp is “Luau Party!” Campers can look forward to a limbo contest, a water balloon fight, and Hawaiian style arts and crafts projects. To end the week, campers will have fun in the sun during the Hawaiian YMCA Barbecue!

Specialty Camp is back this week! This week, campers will get a feel for the culinary arts with Camp Chefs. They will get to make their own kitchen supplies, create an assortment of dishes and desserts (such as pizza and cupcakes), and participate in exciting field trips to local eateries and businesses. Today, campers went to Teresa’s Café to make their own pizzas… based on their work today, we’re very eager to see what they make the rest of the week!

MVP Campers can also look forward to an exciting week. Today, campers like Lucas (pictured left) learned about and played lacrosse, a sport with which many of them were unfamiliar. Tomorrow, in order to get into the spirit of the 2012 London Olympics, campers will get a chance to break camp records in track events and in other games! After playing a classic American game of baseball on Wednesday, campers will get to explore a different world by playing Quidditch on Thursday! Finally, campers will round out the week with a barbecue on Friday.

MVP Specialty Camp also returns this week with basketball camp! Campers will learn the fundamentals of basketball, the rules of the game, and techniques for becoming skilled players—a real triple threat! The camp will also emphasize sportsmanship in order to help players grow as individuals. It already seems like some of our basketball novices will be superstars by the end of the week!

This week, Leadership Academy picks up where it left off with communication. Campers will continue to discuss the benefits and importance of effective communication as a leader and will practice public speaking techniques. On Tuesday, they will head over to The Crisis Ministry at Princeton Presbyterian to manage the food pantry for the day. Then, on Wednesday, campers will meet YMCA board member Bruce Trapp and discuss the qualities of a leader and what leadership means to Mr. Trapp. On Thursday, Leadership Academy will hold a car wash, their fundraiser for the YMCA’s “Strong Kids Campaign.” The car wash will take place all day in the YMCA parking lot. Seems like another fun and busy week for Leadership campers!

That’s all for now, but keep checking back here throughout the week for updates and new sections—we’ve got a lot of interesting new content planned for the blog!


Also, CONGRATULATIONS to MVP Director Allan! He was the only sweepstakes participant last week, and is this week's winner. Parents and campers, be sure to look for this week's sweepstakes picture—one post on the blog will have a photo of a camper wearing a lei—and email us at PrincetonYMCAsummercamps@gmail.com with your name and the location of the picture to be entered to win a prize! We don't want Mr. Allan and the counselors stealing any more of our prizes!

Also, don't forget to stop by the YMCA parking lot this Thursday for Leadership Academy's Car Wash. Get your car washed to support the Leadership Campers and the YMCA's Strong Kids Campaign!