City’s Summer Daze Plus day camp program keeps kids busy over their summer break
Olivia Galutza, 13, of Burbank plays the cat in a cat-and-mouse game with a large parachute at the annual Summer Daze Plus Teen Camp at Johnny Carson Park in Burbank on Thursday.
As summer comes to an end, so must the season’s activities.
About 900 teens between the ages of 11 and 14 years old have taken field trips to places like Six Flags Magic Mountain, Venice Beach and Knott’s Berry Farm over the last 11 weeks as part of the Summer Daze Plus day camp, one of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department’s most popular programs.
On Thursday, about 65 campers spent the second-to-last day of the program doing various activities, such as playing soccer, cat-and-mouse and using the swing set at Johnny Carson Park, which reopened late last month.
“We normally have 80 kids a week, but for this particular week — since it’s the last week of the program — a lot of parents wanted to spend a week with their kids before school starts next week,” said Mike Graceffo, a recreation coordinator for the Parks and Recreation Department.
Whether it was the first week or the last week, Graceffo said that this summer has been very busy and full of activities for the children.
From left, Marcus Halm, 13, and Wilson Harting, 12, play soccer at the annual Summer Daze Camp at Johnny Carson Park in Burbank on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.
Unlike the other Summer Daze day camps, which are for children between 5 and 10 years old, Summer Daze Plus is catered to teens.
“We give them a little more freedom, a little bit more choices, because they’re older,” Graceffo said.
Though the teens are more willing to participate in the activities on their own on most days, Graceffo said there are times when it takes more effort to get their attention.
“There are certain kids that can handle that freedom and there’s others that if we don’t tell them anything they’d do nothing,” he said. “But all in all, it works.”
Camper Wilson Harting, 12, said that he would much rather be outside playing different sports than spending the majority of his summer at home.
His favorite part of camp was anything that involved sports, including one of the camp’s special events days where they competed in various sports and challenges.
“I like sports a lot and it’s fun to do,” Wilson said.
Camp counselor Esmee Hernandez, left, and Ari Allen, 13, show off the friendship bracelets they made at the annual Summer Daze camp at Johnny Carson Park in Burbank on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.
For Tommy Himmel, 11, who has been attending Summer Daze since he was in the first grade, going to Venice and Six Flags were his most memorable times during camp.
“Venice Beach was fun because we got to walk around and doing what we wanted,” he said. “Six Flags was fun because of all the rides, the food and the games.”
While Tommy and Wilson both enjoyed the camp’s activities, Lauryn Bailey, 12, said she enjoyed the summer program because she met new people and made new friends.
First-time camper Cecile Habash, 12, said she had a lot of fun participating in all the games and events that were organized and thought all the counselors were nice and helpful.
“The whole thing was my favorite part of camp,” she said. “It’s just been great and I’m going to come back next year.”
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Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
