Children choose from slate of activities for Kids on Campus
BUTLER TWP — This week on Butler County Community College’s campus, students played competitive sports, learned to sew, made their own slime and played mermaid and pirate games.
These sessions are not for any degree offered by the college, but for summer enrichment activity for children in kindergarten through eighth grade.
BC3’s Kids on Campus program offers one-week-long summer day camp sessions over six weeks that tackle a range of activities children can choose from. Eva Lowerre, the Kids on Campus coordinator, said parents often sign up their children for several weeks of activity.
“A lot of kids come back later,” Lowerre said. “Some come every single week; they kind of pick their interest areas and come to those.”
Campers are separated into groups based on age, which includes a kindergarten group; a group for first grade; a group for second through fourth grade; and a group for fifth through eighth grade. Many of the Kids on Campus sessions are at capacity because Lowerre said most camps have a 14-person cap as a COVID-19 mitigation policy.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Lowerre said, which caused BC3 to cancel Kids on Campus in 2020, the program has been extended from half-day sessions to 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. sessions, which has been well-received by parents and students.
“It serves mainly Butler people, but we have some kids who are from out of state visiting family members who come,” Lowerre said.
Elle Livergood, 9, was in the sewing session this week. She said she enjoyed being in summer camp because she gets to meet new people, learn new skills and get new crafts in the process.
“We made really cool purses and pockets,” Livergood said.
For more information on BC3’s Kids on Campus programs, visit bc3.edu.
