Camp Middlesex Appeals to Different Tastes Among All Kinds of Kids

The 2011 summer camps at Middlesex County College - called, appropriately enough, Camp Middlesex - are underway for kids from 6 to 18, and there is as wide a variety of camps being offered as there are kids who different interests.

Lynn Lederer, director of professional and community programs at Middlesex, is responsible for handling and putting together Camp Middlesex and said there has been a “tremendous amount of success” since she first started working at the college 21 years ago.

“In my department, it’s all about change and continuous improvement,” Lederer said. “So, we use what we learned one year to make the program better in the future.”

Lederer said Camp Middlesex’s theater camp is the most popular program, and also the most economical course that Camp Middlesex has to offer. Sports courses, such as basketball, baseball, soccer, golf and volleyball, and computer courses that teach web design are also some of the camp picks that are chosen by kids, explained Lederer.

“All of our classes have a couple of things in common, and that is that our first priority is to provide safe and healthy environments for the children,” Lederer said. “Also, to have them learning something and to provide a fun experience so that they remain engaged and excited to come every day. We do believe that summer should be fun, as well as an opportunity to grow and to learn.”

One of the other more popular choices at Camp Middlesex is entitled Grossology, which teaches kids about the science of biology by making gross and disgusting experiments. Instructor Alissa Berse proved the camp was aptly named by making fake blood and scabs with the kids in her class.

“This is my fourth summer [working at Camp Middlesex],” Berse said. “In this class we go through different body parts and the human anatomy in sort of gross ways.

“We do all kind of interesting things to try and teach them stuff in a more hands-on, fun and interesting way,” Berse continued.

James Pan, an 8-year-old student in Grossology, said that his favorite project so far was the fake blood he made in class. He also enjoys participating in a karate class taught at Camp Middlesex on weeknights.

Another camp entitled 'Make Your First Video Game' teaches kids how to design characters in a video game by editing different frames on the computer that enables their character to be able to move in their video game.

Scott Emmer, a 10-year-old in the class, said some parts of the class are more difficult than others, and the hardest part is choosing the right character and choosing what story to use.

Other classes at Camp Middlesex include 'Desserts and More Desserts', a class in which kids make a different healthy dessert each day in class, and the ever-popular Theater Camp, where kids tryout for parts in a play on Mondays and then rehearse their roles from Tuesdays through Thursdays before putting on the final production of their play in front of friends and families on Fridays.

Camp Middlesex runs until Aug. 19, and prices vary based on the type of camp selected.