Jamie Sherlock has a pretty busy summer in the works for Sicamous youth.
The newly hired district recreation programmer began work on June 16, and is off and running with a couple of programs in the works. These include summer day camps for youth and swimming lessons.
The day camps will be targeted at two different age groups. There will be a kids club for ages six to nine, and a pre-teen club for ages 10 to 14. The two clubs will be based out of the Sicamous curling rink and will rotate days of operation, with the kids club being held Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and the pre-teen Tuesdays and Thursdays one week, and then vice-versa the following week. Hours will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Sherlock says there will be a different theme for the clubs each week.
“So we have things like getting to know your community, a couple of sports weeks, we have science week, an arts week, a cooking week, we have try-out week and we have an everything can happen week,” said Sherlock. “Each week has different activities and different things the kids will be participating in.”
Field trips are also in the works, from visits with the local police station, fire hall and ambulance station (as part of getting to know your community), to a trip to the Enchanted Forrest and SkyTrek Adventure Park. Sherlock also hopes to work with local groups and athletes who might be willing to share their knowledge and skill with the kids. And, when possible, the skills picked up one day may be parlayed into a different training opportunity the next. By doing this, Sherlock hopes to expose kids to things thy might not otherwise try themselves.
“There might be a Rachel Ray in there, there might be another hockey star in there, there might be a famous painter or poet or something like that,” says Sherlock. “I’m hoping with these camps, there will be things to pique their interest… something they wouldn’t normally try.”
Sherlock says one of her focuses is getting the kids interacting with seniors, with outings in mind that will “get the generations intermingling.”
Registration for swim lessons is expected to take place Monday, July 6 at the district hall. Sherlock says she has someone selected to provide instruction and hopes to have that person available during the registration date to talk to people and help them choose what levels to enrol in. The intent is to run swim lessons all summer, with each level spanning a two-week period. Sherlock noted lessons will be set up so people won’t have to take them in consecutive two-week periods.
Looking beyond the summer kids clubs and swim lessons, Sherlock says she plans to reach out to the local clubs, youth and seniors to see what interests are out there and work with them to build more programs.
“I’m just kind of getting my feet wet, but I’m open to any suggestions so they can contact me here, they can phone me, come see me, pop me an email, whichever they prefer, and I’m open to see how we can make things work in the community,” she says.
Sherlock can be reached at the district hall at 250-836-2477.