Local parents are lining up their family schedules as local camps are beginning to fill up for the 2017 summer season. It’s not too late to book a spot in one of the area’s dozens of summer offerings for kids. Ranging in price, activity, age group and location, our area hosts a seemingly countless slew of summer camps.
The Wrightsville Beach Parks and Recreation Department offers a wide range of summer youth programs, including lacrosse, tennis, basketball, football, cooking, manners and a nearly-full junior lifeguard camp. The Wilmington Hammerheads will also host two weeks of camp at Wrightsville Beach Park and they are beginning to fill up.
“Generally closer to the last minute people start signing up,” said Katie Ryan, recreation program supervisor for the Town of Wrightsville Beach. “We get a lot of sign ups the last couple weeks of May.”
With one of the top marine biology programs in the country, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s MarineQuest annually attracts a wide range of adventurers, scientists and explorers of all ages.
MarineQuest has provided summer enrichment programs to the community for 36 years during the spring and summer seasons. Some of their most celebrated camps are already full, but there are plenty of options left and scholarship opportunities available for this season.
“We always tell folks if you’re interested in the program, sign up as soon as possible if it’s something you want to do,” said Erin Moran, director of MarineQuest.
Each year, MarineQuest sees about 1,100 students and recently added an additional week of programming this June for their most popular offering, Sea GEMS (Girls Exploring Marine Science). MarineQuest’s counterpart, Engineering Expectations, offers robotics, engineering and STEM youth summer camps as well.
A fun local favorite, No Sleeves Magic Camp, hosts magic day camps throughout June and July for kids ages 7 through 13. No Sleeves Magic has served the area for over ten years and is consistently recognized as Wilmington’s Favorite Family Entertainer.
Learning to surf is a summer rite of passage in our coastal community. With the surf camp lineup from our local beaches, someone in your family can surely book a spot to catch their first wave this summer. Some of the reputable surf camps in the area include IndoJax Surf Camp, Sean’s Private Surf Instruction, JC Surf Camp, WB Surf Camp, Crystal South Surf Camp and Tony Silvagni Surf Camp.
