Winnetka District 36 summer camp provides Adventures in Learning

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Nine-year-old Charlie Ware lets one fly during Archery class at Winnetka District 36 summer school at Washburne School on Monday. | Joel Lerner~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: November 1, 2011 11:51PM

Archery, fishing and natural disasters, that’s quite a summer camp without leaving the North Shore.

Every summer for more than 50 years, Winnetka School District 36 has offered a wide range of activities in its Adventures in Learning day camp for second- through eighth-graders.

The 515 children who enrolled this year had their choice of 85 activities to fill four class periods, including animal care, party-planning and learning about famous disasters.

They study disasters like the 1980 eruption of the Mount St. Helen volcano and the sinking of the Titanic, “and the kids love it,” said Terri Atkinson, director of Adventures in Learning, which is held at Washburne School.

“They build volcanoes and go outside and explode them. They put a model of the Titanic together. They watch clips from news programs to support their studies.”

Some courses, such as archery and fishing, are held off-site. Fishing is practiced at Skokie Lagoon and the shores of Lake Michigan.

“The kids are gone for two periods of the camp. They do catch and release,” Atkinson said. “It’s very popular for both boys and girls. Not all of them have someone at home who likes to fish.”

Interest in the archery class, which is held in West Elm Street Park, has been ongoing and strong.

Jason Pomponi, said in the 26 years he has worked with the archery program, enrollment has been high enough every year to offer four sessions a day.

The instructors keep the class interesting for its full five weeks, by moving the targets farther away.

“We started with the targets at 10 yards and now they’re at 20 yards,” instructor Erik Fritzsche said. They also attach balloons and paper apples, a la William Tell, to the targets.

“The challenge is there for them,” Fritzsche said.

Katelyn Hughes, 9, of Northfield, said she signed up for archery, “because I wanted to try doing a new sport.

“It’s really fun,” Katelyn said, but “it takes a lot of skill to get a bull’s-eye.”

Before taking aim, “you have to pull (the string on the bow) all the way back to your cheek,” she explained. The difficulty of pulling the string back “depends on what bow you use.”

When Jack Wellehan, 7, of Winnetka started the Adventures camp, he couldn’t hit the target at all. Since then, he said, “I hit the bull’s-eye three times, maybe four or five.”

Megan Acri, 8, said she signed up for the course “because I wanted to learn about archery.” She likes “shooting at targets,” and has hit ones 20 yards away. “I got some bull’s-eyes,” Megan said.

Hands-on activities are key to the appeal of most courses, such as candle-making.

“They make some awesome candles,” Atkinson said. “They made these cupcake candles that look just like a real cupcake.”

When you combine the hands-on approach with animals, you have the hugely successful, animal care course.

“It’s definitely, the single most popular class in the camp,” Atkinson said. “We have local families who donate their pets (excluding cats and dogs), for five weeks of camp, and the children take care of them. We call it summer camp for animals.”

The course fills up right away, Atkinson said. “I have to turn families away.”

This summer, the children are caring for guinea pigs, hamsters, lizards, a toad, a hedgehog, a chinchilla and “lots of bunnies,” Atkinson said. “We have at least five. By the weekend there may be more.”

“The kids learn about the animal itself, what it eats, what kind of bedding it needs, how this pet can get exercise, how to handle the pet, how to clean up after the pet.”

The instructor prepares a schedule of which animals will be cared for and when, so no one animal is “over-handled” by the children, and “everyone gets to meet all the pets,” Atkinson said.

The animals either stay in the school for the full five weeks of camp, or they may go home with a camper on the weekend.

The arrangement is useful for petless families, because parents can see whether their child would be responsible and interested enough to own a pet. And it’s helpful for families with pets who will be on vacation and need someone to take care of their animals.

In some cases, the owners are offering their pet up for adoption. Taking the animal home for the weekend serves as a trial run.

The Adventures in Learning camp also allows children to visit classes they are not taking to give them ideas for next year.