{"id":959,"date":"2011-08-14T22:24:14","date_gmt":"2011-08-14T22:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/middleislandcivic.com\/?p=959"},"modified":"2011-08-14T22:24:14","modified_gmt":"2011-08-14T22:24:14","slug":"good-stuff-happening-in-our-school-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/?p=959","title":{"rendered":"Good Stuff Happening In Our School District"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Longwood expands summer camp for first time in 20 years<\/h1>\n

From The North Shore Sun <\/em><\/strong> By Samantha Brix<\/a> | August 11, 2011<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>SAMANTHA BRIX PHOTO | Kayla Quattropani, 10, of Coram, Jessica Hartcorn, 11, of Coram, and Baylee Tullo, 10, of Shirley, make a robot out of Legos at Longwood Booster Club Summer Recreational Program, a new summer day camp.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For the first time in two decades, Longwood School District is running a summer recreation camp that includes more than just sports.<\/p>\n

In the past, kids could attend a summer camp that offered a variety of sports. It had long been the vision of history teacher Paul Infranco and physical education teacher James Castiglione, who are both in the booster club, to create a summer camp with much more. And due to recent cuts in programs in this school year\u2019s budget, the duo knew now was the time.<\/p>\n

Enter the Longwood Booster Club Summer Recreational Program.<\/p>\n

This year, the camp includes programs in art, science, Legos, reading, computers, social studies, math and dance. And there\u2019s still sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to give the community something more \u2014 something special the kids could enjoy and embrace,\u201d Mr. Castiglione said in an interview during an arts and crafts class, speaking over noisy 7-year-olds painting masks and holding them up to their faces.<\/p>\n

The camp, which runs from July 5 through Aug. 19, offers seven weekly sessions for $125 for the early session, which lasts from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m., or $150 for an extended program that runs until 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

The booster club donated a minimal amount to cover start-up costs, and the instructors \u2014 Longwood teachers, students and alumni \u2014 earn wages that are \u201cnot tremendous amounts,\u201d Mr. Castiglione said, to keep the camp affordable.<\/p>\n

Twenty-one staff members oversee 95 kids in the camp, a number that ballooned after word spread and camp began. Less than 20 children were enrolled when the camp was first announced.<\/p>\n

Andrew Earely, 11, of Coram said in between games of foosball that he didn\u2019t go to camp last summer and instead stayed at home with his grandmother.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s much more to do here than at home,\u201d he said, noting that he\u2019s had the most fun playing dodge ball and hockey. \u201cAnd there\u2019s more people to play with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last summer, 9-year-old Jacob Grabia, who lives in Coram, went to Kid\u2019s Quest Day Camp in Mount Sinai, but prefers Longwood\u2019s booster club camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of sports here and I love to play sports,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Currently, children ages 5 to 12 attend the camp, but Mr. Castiglione envisions expanding programs for kids up to age 18. Offerings, he said, could include journalism, radio, television, visual arts, engineering, architecture and digital photography.<\/p>\n

He said children are already flourishing and benefiting from the camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact on the kids has been the most rewarding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

samantha@northshoresun.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longwood expands summer camp for first time in 20 years From The North Shore Sun By Samantha Brix | August 11, 2011 SAMANTHA BRIX PHOTO | Kayla Quattropani, 10, of Coram, Jessica Hartcorn, 11, of Coram, and Baylee Tullo, 10, of Shirley, make a robot out of Legos at Longwood Booster Club Summer Recreational Program, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}