Enrichment camps hosted by Warsaw Community School Corp. have met with enough success that camp director JoElla Smyth hopes to expand them next summer. This was the first year for the camps. Friday, students in two of the camps this week displayed to their families and friends the results of all their work and what they learned. Dan Wray taught the “Candy: the Commodity and the Chemistry” camp. For students in fourth through seventh grade, Smyth said students designed their own candy shops and t-shirts, named their shop, and made different candies from mint patties to peanut brittle. The students also had to market their candies so people would want to buy their goods. During the camp, Wray taught the students the chemistry behind how the cookies and candies were made. Jill Western, who operates a candy store with her sister in Huntertown, helped teach the students in the camp. Parents came into Edgewood Middle School, where the camps are held, around 11:30 a.m. Friday to see their students’ success. “I think it was really fun,” said Emily Puckett, who will be a fifth-grader at Eisenhower Elementary this fall. “They helped us on instruction.” The best part of the camp? “Probably making the fudge,” Puckett said. “I thought they did a very good job of how to make (the candy) and start the business,” said Abby Doberstein, Puckett’s classmate and camp partner. Doberstein said she learned “just how to make the candy. You would think it would be easy, but in some ways, it’s harder than you think.” “I liked making the hard candy because you used a lot of stuff,” Doberstein said. “You had to pour (ingredients) out, and be exact.” First- and second-graders in the Creative Kids Club also got to show off their art work to their parents Friday. Jaimie Kinsey taught the camp. Nicholas Rata, who will be a third-grader this fall at Jefferson Elementary, showed off his painting of Taiwan. “I really like it because there’s lots of cool stuff there. I know a lot of stuff about Taiwan, too,” he said. The piece Justin Park showed was a Q-tip® painting. Park, who will be a third-grader at Harrison, said he liked making the piece because it’s “like painting, but a little different.” Zoe Wagner took several steps to make her self-portrait. The Leesburg third-grader said she drew it first, then painted it and then outlined the portrait with a Sharpie®. Conner Hyde took the first letter of his first name and made it into an art piece. Also going to be a third-grader at Leesburg, Hyde first drew the letter, then traced it with a marker and finally decorated it. He used feathers and puff balls on it. For Madison second-grader Brenten Lamb, he decided to make art that he could wear, though it was kind of itchy. He took a pair of sunglasses and decorated them with colorful pipe cleaners. He even put one in the middle of his shades.Last week, Smyth said, there were camps on cartooning, hunter safety and archery called “Outdoor Adventures”. Students ended up with two licenses for that, she said, and some archery skills. Don Swartzentruber taught the cartooning camp. With 24 children enrolled in second through seventh grade, Swartzentruber had volunteers come in to help with the camp. High school students also volunteered for some of the other camps. When parents came in to see the work the students did last week, Smyth said, it was “packed.” The enrichment camps were a fun and neat experience for everyone. “We ran four camps. They all had enough students to run the camps so it was cost neutral to Warsaw Schools,” said Smyth of the 2011 enrichment camps. “I want to expand it for next year.” Each week-long camp was $100 per child. The fee includes transportation to and from Edgewood, breakfast and lunch. Scholarships were available for qualifying students. Camps were on a first-come, first-serve basis. Camps were offered to Warsaw Community School Corp. students first, and then students outside the corporation, space permitting. A camp needed a minimum of 15 students to be cost neutral to Warsaw Schools.
