This summer, under the fantastic leadership of Bekki Messenger, Program Manager Children’s Services, we were able to offer 4, one-week virtual summer camps to youth on the North Shore.
Camp experiences offered were, Bricks for Kidz Lego, Chef Club with Zuzana, Yoga for Youth, Divergent Dance, Circus, First Step Actors Studio and MAB Art. We received a West Vancouver Foundation Emergency COVID 19 grant which was used towards the purchase of camp supplies which were packaged and dropped at camper homes the weekend before camp started.
Kudos to employees Alanna Martin and Deepak Virk who coordinated and delivered camp supplies to families and co-facilitated the camps using the Zoom platform. Their enthusiasm and hard work helped make these virtual ‘camp in a box’ weeks extremely successful!
“NSDRC’s summer virtual camps have been such a wonderful gift to our kids and parents like us. Faced with the loss of the wonderful NSDRC summer day camps, we needed something to help fill the days while we juggle working from home and making sure the kids had something fun and constructive to do. Our son has a diagnosis of Fragile X Syndrome and Autism and he needs routine, something to look forward to and something engaging to stay on track. He had a great time.
What was also ingenious and generous of NSDRC was the inclusion of siblings! Allowing neurotypical siblings to join meant some good fun together and peace in the house at a time when everything seems rather unfair to kids because of the pandemic.
The cooking camp was AMAZING! A great variety of recipes, so organized and great food.
So thank you for the camps. Thank you for supporting the kind of programming that is meaningful to our kids – but also so helpful to parents.” Karen B.
“We were very impressed with the art supplies that were delivered to our home. We had never used watercolour pencils, so that was fun and different. And the supplies are still new so there will be many more uses for them beyond the classes this week. Lovella has proudly showed off her work to our family and her friends. Thanks very much for this program and to Deepak and Monika for their leadership.” Diane W.
