By Jennifer Kohlhepp, Managing Editor
Editor’s note: This is the first article in a two-part series about the 20th anniversary of the Cranbury Arts Council’s Art and Technology Camp.
CRANBURY — At first Severine Stier had no choice. She was a little kid when her parents sent her to camp.
Severine was 6 years old when she started attending Cranbury Arts Council Art and Technology Camp. She took sessions in fashion, art and woodworking.
“As I started doing camp, I started making so many new friends, and not just from Cranbury, but from all over the area,” she said. “Then, camp became like a family.”
She also discovered her passion when she started taking theater.
“Now I sing and I act and that’s how I started,” Severine, who is now 19, said.
Thirteen years later she is still part of the camp family as a student assistant at the camp this summer.
Cyndy Coppotelli, who has been on the Cranbury Arts Council Board for more than five years and has worked at the camp as long as she has served on the council, said “A lot of the student assistants in the camp are former campers.”
The students help the camp instructors. All camp programs this summer, except for one, which is directed by a professional costume designer, are taught by Cranbury School teachers who are thrilled to share their talents and interests with children outside of the confines of the classroom and the school year.
Cranbury School third grade teacher Suzanne Bach said, “They are really having a blast” as the campers in her “Super Science!” session learned about cooking while making solar ovens out of pizza boxes, tin foil and saran wrap. They were preparing the boxes for heating hotdogs and s’mores out in the sun.
“It’s great doing hands-on activities we don’t get to do during the school year and it’s great that I’m getting to learn with them,” Ms. Bach said.
Her goals for the one-week camp were to teach children in grades 2-4 about chemical reactions, have them enjoy science and to try new supervised experiments. Campers also made rainforest dioramas and oceans-in-a-jar with her help.
Camper Louise Carroll said “Super Science!” has been really fun.
“I learned all about the ocean and the jungle and the rainforest this summer,” she said.
“Our basic goals are to provide opportunities for kids to try something new and to get a chance to get involved in something they can’t do during the school year or to delve a little deeper and learn the various different aspects of something they love in school,” Ms. Coppotelli said.
Campers accomplish a lot, whether they take a one-week session or two-week session of camp. Cranbury School art teacher Stacey Crannage taught “Pastel Paradise,” a one-week session as well as “Clay Masks,” a two-week session. In one week she taught campers how both oil and chalk pastels work and had them create a portfolio of beautiful works of art in both to show off. In the “Clay Masks” session, it took two days to build the masks and four days for them to dry. In the meantime, she had campers make plaster masks and paper mache masks.
“We built masks in every possible medium,” she said.
Down the hall, campers in grades 1-3 were having a “Party in the USA” with Cranbury School fourth grade teacher Christine DeJesus. She was teaching children about different customs and traditions in the country through reading, research, dance and crafts. On Thursday, the campers were learning about Alaska and making igloos out of packing peanuts.
“Every day we travel to a different state in the US and learn a little bit about the land and the food and the activities there,” Ms. DeJesus said. “For example, on Monday we went to New York and we made a craft related to the Statue of Liberty. Yesterday we went to Hawaii and we learned how to hula dance and we made grass skirts and leis. I hope they learn a little bit more every day about our beautiful country.”
To capture everything that is going on at the Cranbury Arts Council Camp this summer, Cranbury School basic skills teacher Debbie Rosen had her “Hot off the Press!” campers conducting interviews, taking photographs and creating artwork to produce the very first Cranbury Arts Council Press newspaper.
The major headline was “I love camp!”
With 330 registrations for the four weeks of camp this year, it’s true, said Ms. Coppotelli, area kids love the camp.
“This number includes children who attended the camp on scholarship,” she said. “We’re pleased to grant scholarships each year to families who are unable to pay for camp, and this year, we were able to give out over $3,500 in scholarships.”
Campers come from all over the region for favorites like sewing, knitting and theater, which this year put on “Cinderella Kids,” as well as new sessions such as podcasting. “Drawing” had a waiting list this summer, she said.
The camp is nonprofit.
“Our goal is to break even,” Ms. Coppotelli said.
For 20 years the camp has not only been successful it has evolved.“We’ve grown a lot since the beginning,” Ms. Coppotelli said. “We started with a half dozen offerings and now we have about three dozen.”
She added that the council wouldn’t be able to do it with its great partnership with Cranbury School, where the camp is held every summer.
Severine said she hopes to return as an assistant next summer. For her, camp is all about the seeing the kids having a good time now.
“The little kids,” she said, “they all love it!”
