Karen Schneider and Mary Ann Schulte facilitated a children’s camp at the Anderson Mercy Healthplex the week of August 3-7. Although seven children were registered, two siblings did not come. We had the cream of the crop! The children, ages 6 to 11 were interested, attentive, participated in the activities we planned and loved the food. Each day had a theme: Monday was an overview of Scandinavia—where it is, how people can live there even if it is so far north, the long, bright summer days and the long, dark winter days, etc. Tuesday was troll day. Lois Whitney was our guest and talked about the trolls who came to Icelandic homes thirteen days before Christmas. The children had great fun making troll puppets. Wednesday we talked about the Vikings. Fred Schneider built a small version of a Midsummer pole and the children made tissue paper flowers that they added to the pole before we all danced around it.  Thursday we discussed culture, especially handcrafts. Conrad and Elizabeth Muzzy joined us. Conrad displayed some of his carvings, talked about the carving process and some of his carvings. He then helped the children carve a fish or whale from a piece of Ivory soap. Even the six-year-olds did a good job with Conrad’s coaching. Elizabeth played the Lucia Fest song as the children, dressed in costume, paraded through the rotunda of the Healthplex.  Friday we talked about modern Scandinavia. Although Festelavn is not a modern in origin, it is still practiced today. The piñata was a big hit. We asked for a cat or a barrel, but of course the children did not care about the shape of the container. The candy was still there!

            Betty Howell, the coordinator of children’s camps, said that this camp did not get into the brochure printed last spring and that she would correct that next year. I think this means that we will be invited back. I have some ideas of how to vary the program from this year, but will need more helpers. I will ask the Board to approve cooperating with The Sons of Norway and the young Swedes for next year’s camp. If there are more children, depending on the ages, we may want to divide into two groups for some of the activities, especially crafts.

            Mary Ann and I had a wonderful time and so did the children. One girl was pulled out of camp one day because it was the last day the tennis coach would be at the Healthplex before her move. Syndey lamented on Friday, “I missed the best part!” I think she may have felt that way no matter what day she missed. Her brother would not leave early Friday even though someone came for him. He stayed to the bitter end. It was great fun to have children so excited about learning about Scandinavia, something dear to our hearts.