Hey, how was your break?
Over this first week back from the April break, it’s the question most asked by colleagues, students, and parents. Consider, for a moment, what your answer might be. Stories of faraway travels, family time, staycations, and good books filled the responses I heard. For some, however, the adventures and joys of both the February and April vacation weeks are experienced right here on the Belmont Day School campus.
And what incredible experiences they are! Under the creative and innovative leadership of Blair Fross, director of school-year auxiliary programs, her team transformed our campus into two unique and captivating vacation camps this year. In February, our campers blasted off to the far reaches of the galaxy. Campers created customized cardboard robots before boarding an inflatable Millennium Falcon in the Barn. Last week, the campers went wild in Zootopia! There were science presentations on animal skulls, creative animal costumes, and an Animal Olympics and scavenger hunt led by a ferociously funny Chris Parsons as Baron von Big Roar and Blair herself as Trixie the Toucan. While our vacation week camps are primarily populated with students from the Belmont area, most of whom do not attend Belmont Day School, the parents who drop off their children each day marvel at the joy they are bringing home with them.
How does this magic happen? It takes a visionary leader in Blair, to be certain, and it takes a skilled and caring staff who work diligently behind the scenes to bring the camp experience to life. Like our school-day program, our school-year auxiliary programs center the children and their social-emotional development, their support, and their joys in the design of all activities and schedules. Through it all, our core values are on full display.
Our After School families can fully attest that the same joyful creativity that dreamed up Mad Lib walls, student artwork coming at you from every direction (watch your head!), a Mars-ready rover model, countless obstacle courses, and crazy cooking classes, for their students, would obviously create wonders for campers over the break weeks.
So, if you hear animal noises or lightsaber sounds coming from the Downing, there’s no need to worry or run the other way. Those are the beautiful sounds of a program that sets the standard of excellence for auxiliary programs in the region.
Welcome back, everyone.
