City of Sunny Isles Beach has completed another successful program: Summer Camps 2013, provided by Cultural and Community Services at Pelican Community Park. Almost 600 children were able to attend those camps this summer.
Along with the general and sport camps, 10 weeks of Specialty Camps were offered in 6 exciting specialties: Fine Art, Movie Makers with Legos, Musical Theatre, Circus, Ballroom Dancing & Hip Hop and Lego Robotics. Specialty Camps give children who have strength or interest in a certain area, the opportunity to focus on a particular skill and interact with other children with the same interests.
Perhaps a child is a budding dancer or musician; maybe he or she has a passion for painting, or interested in acrobatics and cir- cus silks. Specialty Camps offer exciting programs where campers can develop new skills.
Each day of camp was scheduled with blocks of time for instruction, practice, and just simple summer camp fun – either outdoors or indoors. Professional instructors ran each specialty camp. At the end of each week parents were treated to a demonstration of what their child had learned.
Here are some quotes from our happy campers sharing their summer experience:
Anna: “I love Musical Theater because I get to act, sing, and dance too.”
Michelle: “I love Circus camp because I learned to walk on stilts and rolla bolla. I love Fine Art camp because I learned the Britto art.”
Gabriella: “I think Musical Theater camp is great because the counselors are really nice and you get to try out acting.”
Abigail: “I loved doing art projects and putting on shows in Musical Theater. I also made a lot of new friends.”
Amy: “What I like about Specialty Camp is I am doing what I love. And I like Theater because I love acting and I want to be an actress.”
Fine Art Camp offered a great opportunity for children to paint with acrylics in Romero Britto style, create Papier-maché sculptures, and sew soft toy animals. Children learned how to handle a needle and a thread and how to sew buttons while making eyes for their toy pets.
Musical Theater and Dance campers were introduced to different dance styles such as Ballroom, Latin and Hip Hop. Theater campers were tutored in singing and acting. These two-week sessions ended with beautiful showcases, Lion King and Alice in Wonderland.
Circus Camp students learned basics of aerial arts, juggling, acrobatics, circus style dance routines, and much more. Young acrobats made a colorful presentation at the final Talent Show.
The themes of this summer’s Lego Robotics projects were Mars Adventure and Ocean Discovery, where campers were engaged in a hands-on approach to the exciting world of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Children used specialized Lego pieces and computer instructions to build robots and program them to follow various tasks and commands.
During the Movie Makers – Stop Motion Animation camp, students were making their own animated movie with thousands of Lego pieces, a video camera, and a computer. They edited the movie, added sound effects, music, narration and titles – just like a real movie.
The end of camp brought the Summer Camp Talent Showcase, the culmination of the camp activities, which was once again awesome! Joint effort of students, counselors, teachers, coaches, and administrative staff of Pelican Community Park resulted in children’s happy smiles and compliments from appreciative parents.
Special thanks go to our Yoga teacher Alvaro Minor and his assistant Teresa Garson for their generous contribution to Summer Camp Tot Lot Yoga program as well as the ongoing free Yoga on the Beach ‘Sunrise Yoga’ program for adults. This long time city resident is a passionate athlete and yogi who donates his time, talent and professionalism to our City’s Summer Camp. We hope to continue working with Alvaro and Teresa in the future.
City of Sunny Isles Beach has opened fall enrollments into the following exciting recreation programs at Pelican Community Center: Musical Theater, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Youth Choir and many more.
The complete listing of all City programs for Youth and Adults for Fall 2013, with detailed descriptions and registration requirements, is available in the City’s main publication, SIB Living, posted on the City’s website www.sibfl.net, or on cable TV Channel 77. Registrations and classes are held at the Community Center of Pelican Community Park, 18115 North Bay Road. For more information, call Cultural & Community Services Department at 305.792.1706.
