Ely Chapman Kicks Off Summer Camp

MARIETTA, OH — Lori Ullmann is the Executive Director for the Ely Chapman Foundation. They just started their summer camp program yesterday. Their Sensational Summer Camp is 10-weeks and academically based, it runs from June 7 through August 13.

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Their summer camp offers 10 weeks of S.T.E.A.M. (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) to school-age kids K-8.

“We have a different theme every week, this week is It’s A Bugs Life.” So the camp counselors took the kids out to search for bugs. “And we’ve gotten caught in the rain.”

They’re working hard to keep the kids involved on multiple fronts. “Our physical activity is also part of the process. We’ve got downtime to read, they can read independently, in groups, we can read to them.” They want kids to know that reading is super important.

This summer camp encourages board games. “Because board games enforce those reading skills. Sometimes you’ll walk into a classroom during math time and they’re playing a board game. Because they’re adding and subtracting as they move.” The idea is to meet the kids where they are, and also give them the opportunity to step up.

They’ve partnered with the Betsy Mills to make sure that kids get a couple of opportunities to swim each week. There are even a couple of special camp programs, media studies, and culinary arts. Each program will take on three high school freshmen.

The Columbus Zoo will be making an appearance this summer. COSI will drop by as well. They’re working on nailing down a date for Professor Bubblemaker, he will hopefully be doing his thing at Muskingum Park so that other kids can show up and enjoy the show. “We’re going to Campus Martius Museum and the Ohio River Museum.”

There is still space for more kids. So far they have 84 students registered, and they can have 134 in the building. They just added five more kids so that leaves 45 open slots. Anyone interested can go on their website or call Ely Chapman themselves.

They’re also looking for two part-time male counselors. “They have to pass background checks,” Ullmann said the ideal candidate would be a high school graduate with some college. “As long as they’re not doing anything stupid on social media.” She said they make sure the counselors have a clean social media presence. “Parents will go online and look them up. They want to know who’s in charge of their kid!” She said a lot of employers do it now and so they try to impress upon their young counselors the importance of social media responsibility.

Ullmann said things are always improving at Ely Chapman. She just started as executive director a couple of months ago, but she said she’s inherited a top-notch crew that makes anything possible.

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