Beacon Summer Camps

by Karen Maserjian Shan

Last summer Belinda Leon learned how to make salsa. She also planted and transplanted vegetables and took a course in culinary cutting skills while earning money, thanks to the Green Teen youth summer program she participated in through Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County.

As a student at Beacon Academy, the 18-year-old knew of the Green Teen program through her participation in the group’s weekly activities at the school. Leon wanted to stay with Green Teen through the summer because she was interested in its activities and she’d be paid for her participation. So, she filled out an application, interviewed for a summer position and got it, along with seven other candidates in the Beacon and eight in Poughkeepsie.   

“I learned more about planting and actually what’s inside foods,” Leon said, adding she’s now eating so much better that she’s lost 110 pounds. Recently Leon wrote an article for Green Teen on her experience in program and this summer she plans on attending Dutchess Community College.

“I want to get my bachelor’s degree in art,” she said.

Helanna Bratman, project coordinator for Green Teen, said the year-round program runs on a stipend in the summer, which allows them to hire 16 youths from Beacon and Poughkeepsie for the Community Food Project, a six-week program whereby teens aged 14 to 18 make and sell a food product.

“They work 30 hours a week and they work in gardens and on farms and they sell at the farmer’s markets in Poughkeepsie and in Beacon,” Bratman said. This year the group will develop a recipe for a salsa (different from last year’s), then grow vegetables for the salsa, make it, bottle it, market it and sell it, at several locations in Beacon and Poughkeepsie.

Like Leon, job candidates must fill out an application and be interviewed. Last year Bratman had 22 applicants for 8 positions in Beacon.

Beacon also is host to a broad variety of other summer programs for kids of all ages, including ones centering on sporting activities and arts and crafts.

Julann Cobb, recreation director for the City of Beacon, said counselors will be at playgrounds at Memorial and Green Street Parks for the summer for daylong supervised play for kids aged 6 to 12. Children must be signed up for the free program; costs for a T-shirt for participating kids and field trips, like Splash Down and Fun Central, both in Wappingers Falls, are extra.

“They do arts and crafts, they play organized games,” Cobb said, although the program isn’t actually a day camp. No counselors are at the parks on rainy days or on field trip days.

The Recreation Department also offers summertime tennis clinics, basketball programs, baseball camps, soccer, karate and junior bowling for kids and teens. Public swimming is also available at the University Settlement pool and swimming lessons can be had at the Beacon High School indoor pool.

Karate instructor, Krissy Juhasz, is a second-degree black belt, who has been studying Tae Kwon Do for seven years. As part of the World Tae Kwon Do Association, Juhasz will teach once-a-week classes through Beacon’s Recreation Department at the Bulldog Studios gymnasium over the summer, including basic moves, forms and sparring. No uniform is needed to participate and students aged 7 and up are welcome.

“They can be a complete beginner – never having done it before – or they can be up to a second-degree black belt,” she said of class participants.

Juhasz, who has been teaching the program for the past couple of years, said students get different things from the classes. Some are just interested in seeing what the karate is about; others are continuing from previous training.

“It’s a great workout, but it’s also a great art and a great sport,” Juhasz said, who expects up to 20 or so students this year.

Beacon High School, tennis coach, Dave Ryley, has been teaching tennis during the summer through the City’s Recreation Department for the past dozen years or so. Six two-hour sessions for boys and girls ages 9 to 18 will be held in July at the tennis courts at Beacon High School or Memorial Park.

“It’s for anybody from beginner all the way up to people who have played on high school varsity teams,” Ryley said, with better players playing matches against each other. Participants should wear shorts and sneakers and if they have it, bring a tennis racquet. 

“The kids really seem to have a lot of fun with it,” said Ryley, who typically gets 40 or so kids for the clinic. “Hopefully, it gets them interested in tennis, whether it means they’ll eventually play on the school team or not. Hopefully, they’ll learn to enjoy the sport.”

Kids can also participate in summer programs through A Kid’s Place A Place for Kids to Be, currently located at Bulldog Studios. The not-for-profit group offers year-round day care and after school care program as well as state-licensed summer camps, including an eight-week full day schedule and a two-week mini camp.

“The unique part of the program is that parents are selecting the exact number of days during the week the children are attending,” said Pam Seegler, the facility’s executive director. Seegler also said that parents can select the weeks their children attend camp as well.

“They’re doing arts and crafts, sports, drama, music,” said Seegler, as well as swimming, dance, horseback riding and going on field trips to such places as The Bronx Zoo.

Artist Jennifer Sipple has traveled the world teaching art and now she and photographer/artist/writer Stacy Ward Kelly are offering summertime art classes to kids aged 5 to 12 through their studio, The Art Room, located at Bulldog Studios. 

Week-long half- and full-day programs are available and include sessions on drawing and painting, magic, wizardry, drama, creative writing, clay works, mask-making, puppetry, jewelry, cartooning and others.

“We’re anticipating to have kids that are already very artistic and artistically inclined, but, definitely, our classes are geared towards beginner and people that want to explore,” Sipple said.

In addition to creative instruction, one morning and one afternoon per week Sipple and Ward-Kelly will take their students on an outing to nearby Memorial Park for some run-around fun.

Michelle Rhone-Collins is the new director of LionSun Creative Arts Camp at University Settlement’s 84-acre campus at the foot of Mt. Beacon. Full day programs are available for kids aged 5 to 12 and half-day Mommy-and-me activities for youngsters aged 1 to 4. The campus includes a theater, gymnasium, open-air studios and open outdoor areas, where kids will have an opportunity to team-building activities, play sports and do creative work, including African dance, sculpture with plaster of Paris, performance arts/vaudeville, song-writing, painting, drawing and other activities.

“It’s a really nice combination of art and nature and outdoors, which, I think, sets it apart from everything else that’s going on,” Rhone-Collins said.

Every two weeks or so, the children will exhibit their work or perform their shows for their families. 

“I want the camp also to be a place for the community,” said Rhone-Collins, of her plan to have family concerts on Friday evenings, with music and picnic dinners. 

“I’ve met with the artists that I’m working with and I’m inspired by them,” Rhone-Collins said. “I just know it’s going to be great program, so I want people to be a part of it.”

Sidebar:
•    City of Beacon Recreation Department offers summer camps for kids, teens, men, women and seniors. Kids’ programs include: Mommy & Me Artsy Play, swimming academy, cheerleading, Pop Warner football, jr. baseball, summer playground, Beacon Hoops, girls Babe Ruth softball, karate, baseball camp and tennis.

Teens’ programs include supervised dances, karate, soccer, tennis, youth summer basketball, swimming academy, jazzercise, girls’ Babe Ruth softball and women’s volleyball.

Adult offerings include women and men’s softball, women’s volleyball, men’s basketball, karate, jazzercise and the swimming academy. Seniors’ programs include bowling, drop-in center, Beacon Seniors, Gadabouts and St. John’s Seniors.

Other summertime events include trout fishing at Cargile Reservoir (obtain a fishing permit at the City office), public swimming at the University Camp swimming pool, and the Hudson Valley Summer Music Festival, which sponsors free concerts at Riverfront Park.

For costs, meeting dates and registration information on any of the programs, contact the Recreation Department at (845) 838-5024 or beaconrecreation@yahoo.com.

•    Art School at Bulldog Studios at 211 Fishkill Avenue offers half- and full-day sessions from June 26 through August 18. Kids aged 5 to 12 are invited to participate in week-long camps on wizardry, drawing/painting, magic, clay, writing, drama, mask/puppet, paper/book, cartooning, Egyptian, wire work, studio art, jewelry, watercolor and writing.

Weekly costs run $135 for half-day program and $220 for full days. For information and registration, visit the Art Room Web site, www.theArtRoom.intuart.com, call (845) 416-5608 or email artroombeacon@yahoo.com.

•    LionSun Creative Arts Camp at University Settlement, 724 Wolcott Avenue offers day camp for kids aged 5 to 12 years old. Daylong schedules from July 3 to August 4 include creative workshops, snacks, lunch, singing, story telling, board games, creative writing and outdoor activities. Among the camp’s specific programs are: dance, sculpture, scavenger hunts, volleyball, basketball, soccer, ropes courses, music, yoga, hiking, swimming, knitting, writing, drum circles, jewelry-making, cooking, drawing, painting and collage. Themed events also are included, like Group Talent Show and Art Exposition, and special guests will participate in the camp, including presenters from Stonykill Farm and the Bubble Lady.

Half-day Mommy and Me toddler programs also are available.

Costs run $200 per full week; $20 per week for the toddler camp. For information and to register, call (845) 838-3044 or email lionsun@verizon.net

•    Kid’s Place A Place for Kids to Be, June 26 through August 18 and August 21 through September 1, provides full day activities for youngsters, including daily field trips, theme days, horseback riding, instructional swim, arts and crafts, music and drama, tennis and more.

Enrollment for two to eight weeks is available, with campers attending three to five days per week. The center is located near the Beacon Train Station at I 84 and Routes 9 and 9D.

For information and to register, visit the Web Site at www.kidsplacebeacon.org or call (845) 838-9934.

•    Green Teen of Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County offers summertime and year-round youth programs. Located at Beacon’s Bulldog Studios, 211 Fishkill Avenue and the Family Partnership Center, 29 N. Hamilton Street in Poughkeepsie, the summer six-week summer program pays 16 teens aged 7 to 17 from Beacon and Poughkeepsie to work 30 weeks growing vegetables, learning culinary skills and bottling a food product. 

For information, visit the Green Teen Web site at http://www.greenteen.org/index.htm or contact
coordinator, Beacon: Helanna Bratman, hgb4@cornell.edu, (845) 831-4287 or coordinator, Poughkeepsie: Brian Farmer, bwf9@cornell.edu, (845) 485-2564

Comments

[Lina Perez]

I have two sons ,who will like to start practicing Tae kwon Do again since they had stopped for the couple years and they had their Blak Belt but want to go back ,How can we do it and thank's for your help.
Sincerely:
Lina Perez.

[Joshua]

I signed up for the beacon hoops and went to the orientation and they gave me the wrong number and i have no way to contact them and have no clue what is going on.please respond on my email.

[carlos]

I don't know when is beacon summer camp start?

[Girls Camps]

Girls camps are dedicated to offer the spiritual programs for girls. Spiritual programs provide emotional, social, behavioral and character development of girls. These training centers give the real life experiences to girls. Girls camps activities are usually conducted by skilled instructors who are experts in the field. Some of the sports that are much enjoyed by campers are football, basketball, tennis, volleyball, golf, etc. these camps are helping the students and giving them the excellent opportunity to study and enjoy in the healthy atmosphere. Trainers of these camps are very friendly with the campers and they try to fulfill the desires of each learner. These camps are recommend various recreational activities to develop learners behavior and develop the qualities of teem building in students. Environment of these camps are very attractive. Girls can take the support from the instructors while performing any activity.

[Teens Camps]

Beacon Summer Camp is really exceptional and offers outstanding programs for the kids and youths. There are numbers of summer camps, Christian camps, boot camps, military camps available for the teenagers camping programs. Christian camps are the special training centers that are associated with high quality devotional learning. Christian camps are generally associated with various communities for developing sociability, responsibility holding skills, independent thinking skills and Christ like values and morals in troubled teenagers. Youth Christian camp programs are easily affordable by the families and never show any type of discrimination in teenagers. Theses programs are also supportive in safe and life long drug addiction recovery and emotional, behavioral, and psychological disorder recoveries.

http://www.teenscamp.net/Teen/Christian-Camps-For-Teens/index.htm