Viewfinder: Camp Perkiomy’s Carnival Day

While there were many fun and engaging attractions at Camp Perkiomy’s first Carnival Day, Aug. 2, one attraction in particular made a big splash among the camp members and a few brave counselors.

“I actually feel really good right now, because it’s really hot,” Sean O’Neill said, as he pulled himself up from the watery depths of the dunk tank attraction.

O’Neill, an Eagleville counselor of Camp Perkiomy, was one of several Camp Perkiomy counselors who sat upon a platform, suspended above an approximately 5-foot-tall tank of water.

Campers that were successful in hitting the adjacent bulls eye with a ball, would trigger a spring in the platform, making the counselor suddenly drop.

And, there were a lot of campers with apparently excellent aim.

“It was awesome, because I never got to do this before” Maddy, a camper from Camp Eagleville said with a grin.

Camp Perkiomy is the summer program of the Lower Providence Township’s Parks and Recreation Department. The program, which is geared for youth ages 6-13, is divided into three camps with separate locations at the township’s schools:

• Camp Arrowhead

• Camp Audubon

• Camp Eagleville

The camp runs from June 18 – Aug. 3, and, according to Karen Hegedus, the township’s Recreation Superintendent, approximately 300 youth attend Camp Perkiomy.

Hegedus said the youth campers from all three camps interact only a few times during the camp season. Such full Camp Perkiomy activities have included, weekly swimming days, field trips on Fridays and a talent show.

According to Hegedus, through the guidance of the Parks and Recreation Department, it is up to the camp counselors to come up with activities and ideas for the rest of the week.

“The staff this summer have been great,” Hegedus said. “A lot are really creative with the children.”

The Aug. 2 Carnival Day, which took place throughout Eagleville Park and involved all three camps, was an activity held for the first time last year, just at Camp Arrowhead.

“It was a real hit, and we decided to expand,” Hegedus said.

The idea for the carnival day is credited to Steph O’Donnell, 20, who has been a counselor at Camp Arrowhead for two years.

“We just wanted to something new, and for them to get really excited,” O’Donnell said.

Bringing the best from Camp Arrowhead last year and combining traditional carnival attractions, Camp Perkiomy campers were treated to a games-filled morning and afternoon.

Along with the dunk tank, other featured Carnival Day activities included a

• Soda bottle ring toss
• Clothespin Drop
• Lolipop Tree (game of chance)
• Sink or Swim Fish Bowl
• Frisbee Toss

Other attractions ranged from face-painting to fortune telling with ‘Sir’ Christian.

“It’s fun,” ‘Sir’ Christian Bruno, 18, said. “I’m telling fortunes.”

Bruno, a counselor at Camp Arrowhead, said that the fortune telling booth was popular last year, and was glad to don the mock-fortune-telling costume again. Watching Bruno at work, it was apparent that the youth campers enjoyed sharing their career goals, skills and dreams with a listening adult.

Many of the counselors have continued to be involved with Camp Perkiomy for several continuous summers, even as youth campers themselves at one point.

“It’s the atmosphere in general,” Rachel Meir, 22, explained.

Meir, who is finishing her fourth and final year as a Camp Perkiomy counselor, will teach 6^th-grade English in a school in Wilmington, DE in the fall.

She said she has enjoyed her time at Camp Perkiomy.

“It’s working with the kids and counselors,” Meir said. “It’s a really fun and positive environment.”

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For more information, visit http://www.lowerprovidence.org/parks_recreation.htm