WESTLOCK — The Town of Westlock has remodelled its youth summer programming at the Rotary Spirit Centre (RSC) to better serve the community’s needs and in particular, working parents.
The new program, for youth ages six to 12, will feature a weekly camp that now runs July 4 to Aug. 25, and will include field-trip Fridays. That’s a change from the previous Monday to Thursday program, while other changes include early registration and a summer lunch program.
Early registration for Westlock-area residents opens April 5-7, while registration for the rest starts April 8 at 8 a.m.
“That was some of the feedback that we had heard from the parents. If we could better align our hours with working parents’ hours, it just made more sense,” said director of community services Gerry Murphy. “We’ve got new management at the Spirit Centre and a new philosophy, so we took that information and we looked at our service delivery and made some changes.”
In addition, the summer camp program helps kids develop confidence, independence, healthy living, and leadership skills that carry forward into adulthood, said RSC supervisor Courtney Fedrau. "We hope to grow leaders from our campers."
To help support those skills, Murphy noted the town is also working with schools to encourage youth over 14 to participate as volunteers interns. Youth who do volunteer can receive a multi-use, 10-time pass to the RSC or the pool, he said.
Murphy said they expect “uptake to be greater this year than in previous years”, as people return to pre-pandemic routines, and he anticipates to fill up fast.
“We really just re-jigged our process to enable us to provide better and more service,” said Murphy, noting that registration will stay open until all spots are filled. “We’re expecting that this year is going to be very popular, especially with the changes so register early.”
Those interested in volunteering with the summer camp program can e-mail Fedrau at [email protected].
