What an amazing summer we have had here at the Club. Not only have we had more families join our BGCLT family than ever before but we’ve had more activities, more fun and more events than any other summer program in the basin.
Here are just some of the summer highlights:
· 2 adventure camps
· 1 art camp
· 1 week long FREE teen backpacking trip (thanks Tahoe Rim Trail!)
· 1 STEM camp (in partnership with LTCC Connect)
· 5 Epic Discovery Days at Heavenly (thanks Epic Promise!)
· 1 magic show by Alex Ramone (thanks Alex!)
· 1 children’s Shakespeare show at Valhalla
· Junior Judging at the Wooden Boat Show (thanks Nor Cal Wooden Boat Society)
· Beach clean-up by the teens
· 2 trips to Carson Valley swim center
· Daily Brain Gain
· Bowling and pizza party
· Discovery Museum trip
· Weekly swimming
· Weekly ice-skating (thanks Tahoe Ice Arena!)
· Trip to Fallen Leaf
· Nutrition lessons and a Farmer’s Market from UC Nutrition Outreach
· Daily teen offsite field trips
· Leave No Trace workshop (thanks Aaron and Donielle)
· Trip to Vikingsholm
· 4 water days
· FREE Entomology Camp (thanks TINS!)
· 54 breakfasts, lunches and afternoon snacks
And that’s not including all the different programs the children have done on topics such as the Olympics, Circuses, the Human Body and Outer Space. I am also really pleased to report that our experiment with giving our members more playtime and building up their social and emotional learning has gone well. The teens have suffered through ‘electronic free’ time on their afternoon field trips and I’ve been delighted to see them interact and have fun together. Enjoying being kids and swinging on a rope swing in the afternoon sun – just as we did before Facebook and Pokémon Go was invented! Our younger members have become masters of the sandpit and the handball wall. Working together, making friends, breaking friends, and learning how to communicate and settle differences without adult intervention. It has been great to see and we will continue to focus on social and emotional growth as we go into the school year.
The only cloud in our summer was that not every child who wanted to be a part of the Club was able to be this summer. This is the first time in our history that we have had to operate a waitlist to get into the Club. As we look forward to finding a new home for the Club within the next two to three years, we know that we need a bigger building. One designed for lots of activity and also where we can continue to offer quality programs and put on magic shows and water days. The future is bright and make sure you sign up early for summer 2017 as we expect it to be even bigger and better!
