With school officially out for summer, as the academic year concluded Friday, June 13, the Wrightsville Beach Parks and Recreation Department launched its annual summer camp program for kids of all ages Monday, June 16. The summer camps consist of a variety of sports and art opportunities to allow kids to stay active while outside the classroom.
“It is absolutely important for kids to be involved over the summer,” said Kris Thompson, Wrightsville Beach Parks and Recreation Administrative Support Assistant. “Kids have to stay active. Especially for the younger ages, it gives them a good taste of things that are out there.”
Thompson said there is a camp that is the right fit for any child, depending on his or her interests.
“It all depends on the child’s interests and what they want to get involved with,” she said.
In total, there will be eight summer camps offered by the Town of Wrightsville Beach this summer. Four of these camps will be sports-themed, including basketball, soccer, tennis and lacrosse.
Although Wrightsville Beach Parks and Recreation hosts the camps, the leaders and counselors primarily come from outside of the department.
The Wilmington Hammerheads are sponsoring and teaching two soccer camps already in motion June 16-24. Likewise, the head coach of the Cape Fear Academy Lacrosse Team, Paul Gilbert, is coaching and leading a lacrosse camp July 14 -18.
There are also plenty of options for children who are not interested in sports. The four arts camps offered involve a variety of themes, including a parent and child art camp, a cotillion manners camp, a performance club camp and a kids’ cooking camp.
“The cooking camp is our newest camp and it started about two years ago. They’ve all been around and they are all successful,” Thompson said.
All of the camps are held at Wrightsville Beach Park, in the fields, at the tennis courts or in the Fran Russ Recreation Center.
No camps will occur at the same time, so children have the opportunity to enroll in multiple camps.
Registration is currently open for all summer camps. To enroll, visit the Wrightsville Beach Parks and Recreation website at www.townofwrightsvillebeach.com
