IN THE CLASSROOM:

Though summer is winding down for many in Glendale, the city’s YMCA day camp is still bustling with activity.

The annual camp fills up with about 75 students each week and offers a wide array of activities at its Isabel Street campus and field trips in Southern California.

On Monday afternoon, the center buzzed with commotion as 6- to 14-year-olds from around the region shot small black disks along a carom board, played animated games of foosball and swung wooden paddles at white plastic balls across a netless ping-pong table.

“The net kept breaking, so we just took it down,” said Saleh Saleh, the camp’s assistant director. “They have fun with it.”

Though the camp’s weekly schedule reads like a tightknit agenda consisting of field trips on Wednesdays and park outings on Friday, some afternoons give way to free play where Saleh and other counselors allow campers to play board games or relax on one of the many couches that fill the YMCA room.

The camp runs for 10 weeks each summer, starting after school lets out at the end of June until the end of August, as children prepare to return to class.

This summer, the camp has such summer stalwarts as Disneyland and the Santa Monica Pier.

In July, more than 60 campers faced off against one another during an ice-cream-eating contest and fundraiser at a nearby Baskin-Robbins.

Seven-year-old Peter Filippi points to his win during the contest outing, which aimed to raise more than $250 for the YMCA, as one of the highlights at camp this summer.

During the contest, Filippi wolfed down an ice cream cone faster than most of his peers, earning him a beach towel, certificate and notoriety from his family.

“It was pretty fun,” he said.

Recently, as private schools in the region begin their 2008-09 school term, camp attendance has dwindled by about 10 children each week, said Ryan Nekota, director of wellness for YMCA Glendale.

Still, “it’s been a really good summer,” he said. “We get about 75 each week.”

Those 75 also participated in arts and crafts sessions and swimming lessons, scene of one of the summer’s strangest moments, said 10-year-old Yoofi Amonoo-Monney.

“The weirdest thing to happen this summer was probably when a friend was drowning in the pool here,” he said. “He was doing laps, going up and down the lanes, and he started drowning. A lifeguard jumped in and saved him. He was OK.”

Others pointed to the July 29 earthquake as one of the more unique days during the eventful summer.

Most had just finished swimming when the magnitude 5.4 quake struck as counselors scrambled to dress children and ensure everyone’s safety.

While the camp serves some children from outside Glendale’s city limits, some parents continue to enroll their kids for the YMCA’s central location near downtown.

“I work right by here, so it’s really convenient,” said Adriana Capano, mother of 10-year-old Camila Capano. “But, she is happy with it here. She knows the counselors and kids.”