Local campuses provide a variety of activities for Butler County children throughout the summer.

Butler County Community College offers its 21st Kids on Campus summer enrichment program for students in kindergarten through grade 12. The college's program will feature 68 new camps this year, for a total of 104.

Kids on Campus offers four-day camps that include hands-on acting experience, arts and crafts, athletics, cooking, gardening, sewing, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The camps run June 17 through Aug. 1 on BC3's main campus in Butler Township.

“We have classes in a wide variety of selections. The students are building, creating, programming and exercising while they are on campus,” said Eva Lowerre, BC3's Kids on Campus coordinator.

For the best all-around experience, Kids on Campus will host a new four-day Best of Kids on Campus programs Aug. 5 to 8, for students up through eighth grade.

“Students will get a taste of the best parts about Kids on Campus,” Lowerre said.

Programs are divided into three age groups, so the children are interacting with others around their age. Lowerre said the program helps children work on their social skills.

“Students come with friends, but most times make new friends while creating new things together in the classroom,” she said.

Students can learn to use sewing machines, make flower arrangements and other skills. Some baking and cooking classes include Your Bacon Me Hungry, Candy Shoppe and Soups and Sliders.

A new floral academy, for students in grades nine through 12, runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 24 to 27.

“(Students) can walk away with the knowledge to get a job within the field,” Lowerre said. “It's job training.”

Other programs aim to inspire the children, Lowerre said. She said the Cubelets and EV3 Robotics returns have been a popular choice in past years.

“(These programs) are a huge hit, especially when combined with LEGOS,” Lowerre said.

Those interested in the programs can attend an open house May 22.

Slippery Rock University's campus plans to score with athletic camps, and has 16 this year.

Marie Voitus, SRU director of camps, said about 90 percent of university-sponsored camps are athletic. Voitus said band and music programs are among the nonathletic camps.

“All of the camps that are sponsored by SRU are run by a faculty or staff member,” Voitus said. “The majority of the camps are through the athletic department.”

Voitus said the camps introduce newcomers to a sport or more serious athletes to the college experience.

“I think their camp experience here gives them the pre-college experience,” she said. “I think it lets them see the flow of things and how that all works.”

Voitus said camps could be a great networking tool for some who want to play for the Rock.

“That gives them the kind of hands-on experience with the coaches,” Voitus said.

Laureen Lokash, SRU's head women's volleyball coach, said this is a great way for high school athletes who want to compete at SRU to network.

“With recruiting the way it's going the last couple years, kids want to make their decisions earlier and earlier,” Lokash said. “They want us to see them.”

Lokash said camps offer a chance for potential recruits to get the feel of the team and environment and evaluate their potential role in the lineup.

“They get to measure themselves up to our kids, and then we get to see them as people,” she said.

Lokash said there's been a volleyball camp every summer since she arrived a little more than 30 years ago. She said the camp usually attracts younger children of elementary age, who are trying the sport out for the first time or perfecting the basics.

“Volleyball is the No. 1 girls participation sport in the country. I think it gives kids a chance to be exposed to skill instruction,” Lokash said. “I think we're just trying to expose these kids to good coaching and put them in a position to worry about good technique without worrying about failure and trying to figure out if they like it.”

Lokash said the camps also draw older and more serious competitors, especially to their team camp, which uses all eight of the available courts. She said the camp is three teams short of being full for the summer.

“We do an instructional camp where they work on different concepts and things like that and then hold a tournament at the end,” Lokash said.

Voitus said the university also hosts nonaffiliated camps. She said about 80 percent of these camps involve athletics. She said there have also been some religious camps and workshops, but the only consistent nonathletic camps have been a yearbook group and marching bands.

“A math or science camp, we don't currently have,” Voitus said.