After months of preparations, summer is finally here and we have beautiful sunshine to kick off our first week of summer. The Summer Programs at the Club have grown in popularity again this year and sadly this has meant that to ensure quality programs and safety we had to stop enrolling new members last week and instead are operating a wait list for all age groups.

We’ve also made some changes to the way we operate the summer programs based on feedback from staff, members and families. This summer each member will be assigned to a specific staff, rather than just an age group. This means that they and their leader will get to know each other really well and as the leader will be with them for all or the majority of the day, it will enhance their care and supervision. We also listened to the school district when they told us that children need more social and emotional intelligence in these days of technology. So the first 90 minutes of the day and the last 90 minutes will be spent doing free play on the playground. It is during those times that the children will learn how to make friends, how to solve arguments and how to work as a team (as shown by the large ant collection operation yesterday afternoon).

When not learning SEI on the playground, the members will be involved in programs. These range from Brain Gain to Arts to Sports, but even when doing activities designed to keep their brains ticking over, the focus will be on fun. We also have special activities of swimming, ice skating and our field trips to bowling, the Discovery Museum and many more. We also have the very special opportunity to take all our members over the age of 7 on the Epic Discovery Ropes course at Heavenly. A HUGE thank you to Vail for this fabulous adventure. We’ll also be Junior Judges at the Wooden Boat Show, lucky participants in the Tahoe Institute of Science Nature Camp, and have our own week long adventure and backpacking camps.

It is going to be a packed summer – with more opportunities, more fun and more growth than ever before. Great Summers Start Here!