Miami's recreational sports center offers day camps to Talawanda students
Rec center day camps
What you need to know:
The remaining day camps for Talawanda students in kindergarten-6th grade will be on Oct. 11, Nov. 5, Jan. 20, Feb. 14, April 10, May 5 and May 22.
Children can be dropped off from 7:30-8:30 a.m. and picked up from 4-5 p.m. at the rec center’s Oak Street parking lot entrance. They should bring a bag for the day that includes their lunch, snacks, towel, swimsuit, water bottle and sunscreen.
The cost is $40 for the first child and $30 for any additional children.
Registration is open now online for the Oct. 11 camp. The camps fill up quickly, so early registration is suggested. Registration opens a month before each camp.
For more information on any of the camps, contact Bardon at bardongw@MiamiOH.edu or 513-529-8085.
Day and summer camp participants get to use the climbing wall. (Photo courtesy of recreational sports center.)
By Kristal Humphrey, university news and communications
During some of the days that Talawanda schools are not in session, parents often scramble to find day care for their children. Miami University’s recreational sports center now has an option for eight of those days.
The center is offering day camps for Talawanda students in kindergarten-6th grade that include swimming, gymnastics, rock climbing, board games, physical games and arts and crafts.
The program is run by recreational sports staff members as well as student staff who have worked with the center’s other youth programs: Learn to Swim, the Youth Climbing Team, gymnastics, and summer camps.
Geremy Bardon, associate director of intramural sports, summer camps and special events, said the rec center offers a variety of programs to not only serve Miami students but also Miami as a whole and the Oxford community.
The summer camp program, which has been in place for more than 20 years, includes nine weeklong camps with activities like the day camps, as well as a day trip on Fridays.
Bardon said the parents of children in the summer camps expressed an interest in camps being offered at other times. After providing a day camp last year on Election Day (a day Talawanda didn’t have school), he said they decided to offer eight day camps this year.
The first camp, held on Aug. 30, was full with 32 participants.
Bardon said the challenge in offering a program like this is the logistics, including staffing and facility space. The Miami students who staff summer camps are not as available during the school year, and Bardon had to find facilities that were not already being used by other programming.
Even though it was challenging, he came up with a plan that worked logistically, ensured safety and allowed the children to have fun.
Coming full circle
“This year we had two summer camp counselors who had attended camp when they were kids, and we have former counselors who now have kids of their own who are attending camp,” Bardon said. “One of the benefits of working in recreation is building relationships and sharing in people’s journeys.”
