Summer Fun, As Usual

It always has been. Most likely, it always will be.

 

And why not?

 

There’re myriad offerings for students JK through rising Seniors — from sports camps to academic enrichment classes to off-campus educational adventures throughout Central Virginia.

 

Energy abounds, as well, and it starts at the top with Summer Quest director Neil Etheridge and his staff, and permeates through the adults who direct the programs and the students who assist them.

 

So, yeah. Summer Quest is a blast, and the numbers bear that premise out. There’re upwards of 200 camps during this year’s 11-week session. The latest tabulation, subject to increases, of course, shows 1,404 registered campers and 4,479 camp registrations. 

 

Forty percent of the camp leaders are Collegiate teachers. Sixty percent are partners from outside. There’s a pool of 70 students, mostly from Collegiate and many who were once campers themselves, who serve as counselors.

 

“What we’re seeing is that families are using us for more than just one special camp,” Etheridge said. “They’re signing up for weeks and weeks of camps and staying with us from the early mornings until the late afternoons. That’s been the normal trend for a number of years.”

 

Why?

 

“It’s the people working directly with the kids,” he said. “It’s always been the great teachers and partners that we bring to campus. We have quite a depth of people that have been working for Summer Quest for many summers now, and they’re great about sharing their time and talents with the kids. That makes a difference. Kids go to camp, have a great experience, and go home happy.”

 

What offerings are popular this summer? Pretty much everything.

 

“We’re still doing our outside fishing camps,” Etheridge said. “The educational camps like Hooked on Books and Mighty Math are doing really well.  Sports camps always do really well. Robby Turner’s camps (Discover the James and Discover Richmond) are always super popular, but there’s really nothing that’s not popular.

 

“Our all-sports camps fill up quickly. Farley Macdonald’s flag football camp is very popular. Basketball camp with Coach (Nick) Leonardelli and Coach (Kevin) Coffey had almost 100 students. And if there’s a new idea, like the Harry Potter camps, people are signing up. We have a Teddy Bear Tea Time camp, which is new with new teachers, and it’s totally full.”

 

There’s more. Much more.

 

“There’s a French (immersion) camp and Spanish (immersion) camp, which are totally full,” Etheridge continued. “The Middle School mastery camp is full every week. Our financial literacy camp and our science camps have done really well.”

 

And on and on and on.  

 

“It’s been a standard summer,” Etheridge said. “Everybody seems happy. And the (Summer Quest administrative) team (Natalie Price, Claire Hayden, Kristine Thornton as well as Christine Branin, the director of auxiliary services) has done a marvelous job.”

 

Then there’s carpool, the efficient management of which is no small feat considering the volume of vehicles that descend on the campus for arrival and dismissal.

 

For the first time this summer, there are just two dedicated carpool locations: Centennial Hall, designated as Gold, and Lansing Lane on the east side of the athletic center, designated as Blue.

 

To facilitate dropoff and dismissal, the staff is out in force.

 

At dismissal time when everyone departs at once, campers wait in one of the two venues.

 

“Parents have a QR code,” Etheridge explained. “When they arrive, they show it to us, we scan it, and their kid’s name pops up on the (display) board. We call the kid’s name, and they walk out to their car.”

 

So far, so good, Etheridge said, for the new system makes the transition in and out of camp safer, quicker, and more fluid.

 

“Parents absolutely love it,” he said. “We’ve gotten great feedback. They described as being like Chick-fil-A, which warmed my heart because that’s the friendly, efficient feel we want.”

 

And it’s all part of the bigger picture as well.

 

“We’re just really excited,” Etheridge said. “Summer Quest is becoming what we thought it would be. We feel really good about the camps we’re offering, the people who are teaching at our camps, the student experience, making things easy on the parents, and making it feel like what any Collegiate program should feel like.”

~Weldon Bradshaw