Christ the Redeemer camp takes day trip to Manasquan River
By Mary Ellen Day, Special Writer
Youngsters visited Treasure Island and heard tales from pirates at the "Son Treasure Island" summer camp July 7-11 for Christ the Redeemer held at the Sacred Heart campus.
The daily camp from 8:45 a.m.-3 p.m. attracted more than 80 campers and volunteers in week of fun and sun.
Mary Ellen Day, organizer of the camp, said they couldn’t have asked for better weather.
"This year’s the theme of our camp was Son Treasure Island and kids during the whole week were looking for clues with the treasure hunt," said Father Stan Slaby, pastor of Sacred Heart and Christ the Redeemer. "These clues they were provided with directly from the Bible. They learned that God’s Love was giving, kind, caring, forgiving and forever. They were on a treasure island and this whole campus was turned into a treasure island. They learned to find it through music, crafts, and in the playing together under the supervision of adults."
Each morning began with Mass in the church. The Rev. Slaby reflected on each day’s theme according to the program. Children from grades Pre K-5 were split into four age groups (starfish, parrots, turtles, seahorses and sharks) to fit the theme.
The groups spent their day with Religion, Art, Music, Sports and Activities and were treated to a trip to "Pirates on the Manasquan River" in Brick on Thursday. They boarded pirate ships, learned the pirate lingo, went to a treasure island where they pick gold off a pirate, defended their ship from the pirate, had a dance party and received a part of the treasure they helped get.
Food was plenty as campers received a morning snack, lunch and an afternoon snack. The kitchen crew of volunteers prepared special treats of octopus cupcakes, sea water (blue jello) with fish and ate hot, nutritious lunches each day.
Campers did a service project by donating food items for children to be given to the Christ the Redeemer Caritas Ministry. Each day they brought in something that children would like to have, like juice boxes, cookies and fruit snacks. On the last day of camp, Barbara Demchak, chair of the ministry, came to the church and the children presented her with the items they collected. Ms. Demchak was grateful for the generosity of the campers and thanked them for remembering the children who are less fortunate in their community.
The camp week ended with a closing Mass on Saturday night. After Mass, the groups all performed a few of the songs that they had learned during the week. All the campers gathered in the church auditorium for a slide show of photos recapping the week. Everyone had a few laughs.
Each camper received a prize and the highlight of the closing ceremony was a drawing for the bicycles. Michelle Miga, Brady Spangler, Sonia Niecikowski and Matthew Stefanczuk went home with brand new bicycles.
To see photos soon from the "Son Treasure Island" summer camp, visit www.ctrmanville.com. For information about next year’s camp, email [email protected] to get on the email list and information will be sent as soon as it is available.
Volunteers are already looking forward to next summer and planning to make summer camp exciting once again.
"To those adults who were involved in summer camp with Mary Ellen Day, I am very grateful because it was a great sacrifice and commitment for them to spend a full five days from 8:30-4 with the kids and even afterwards," said the Rev. Slaby . "Hopefully next year we will see a bigger group and a different theme."

