Summer Day Camp
Greetings to all of the wonderful Sense of Wonder Day Camp Parents, Campers and Friends, new and old. We miss you all so much and we hope that you are all happy and healthy.
We are planning 5 weeks of summer camp in 2023: July 10 – August 11th.
To Apply:
COUNSELORS & JUNIOR COUNSELORS:
Counselor Online Application
Counselor Print Application PDF
LEADERS IN TRAINING:
Leader In Training Online Application
Leader In Training Print Application PDF
The Sense of Wonder Summer Day Camp
The purpose of our program is to nurture the discovery and appreciation of our beautiful world ~ environmental and cultural diversity ~ to become closer to it and learn how to love and care for it. To appreciate the very small wonders as well as the enormous ones and to realize how one person can make a difference. We blend all the ideas together in our daily creative activities of art, music, nature, community and cultural awareness.
2023 Schedule:
July 10-14
July 17-21
July 24-28
July 31-Aug 4
Aug 7-11
Our Camp Staff 2023:
Pam Benjamin:
Director & Instructor
Artist, art teacher, dancer, sailor, mother, environmentalist, humanitarian, mentor
Five Adult Instructors: TBA
Leaders in Training: TBA
Summer Camp 2023 Information:
- Sign up for one or more weekly sessions.
- July 10th to August 11th.
- Ages 7–12.
- Monday–Friday; 9–1 pm.
- $330 per week.
- 50% deposit required once we have confirmed your enrollment.
- Cancellations should be made at least one week before your child’s first day of camp. After the one week date a refund will be made only if the space can be filled by another camper.
Summer Camp 2023 Application:
Financial Aid and Scholarships are available.
The Sense of Wonder Day Camp Schedule 2023
Our 33rd Anniversary Year
Explanation: Dear Parents and Friends, We will be drawing, painting, making sculptures and mixed media and whatever other art medium interests the campers each week in addition to all the weekly themes and projects mentioned in this Program Schedule. If a camper requests something special, we are always willing to consider it and make it possible. Please let us hear about what your children love to create.
July 10: Masks, Sculpture, Collage, Dance Improvisation, Sustainability and Locally Grown:
We are very excited to have the highly talented Bobby Brown and Joan Green back again for some awesome workshops. Bobby and Joan are beautiful creative artists and Joan is also a dancer. They are coming to Camp this week and will bring car loads of fun materials for making masks, sculptures, collages and just about anything. Joan will also be available with some inspiring music to create spontaneous choreography. Here is their website: https://www.greenbrownart.com All the workshops are by choice.
A wonderful representative from Island Grown Initiative (IGI) will join us this week to do a fun workshop and talk about Permaculture and Sustainability. We will learn what plants repel unwanted pests in the garden and will plant some flora that will attract important lifegiving creatures to our garden. Here is the IGI website: https://www.igimv.org. We will have visits from the very knowledgeable and talented Kaila Binney and her gentle, friendly animals from the Allen Farm and other local farms.
Tsetsi Stoyanov, the very talented sculptor and ceramic artist from Bulgaria, will join us to do a Ceramic workshop and show us some of his amazing creations.
We will focus on art projects, ceramics, drawing, painting and gardening related to nature, sustainability, creativity, and cultural awareness.
Parents Relatives and Friends, Please join us on Friday at noon, a Vineyard Farmer will bring samples of their locally grown produce, herbs, and other hand made products. We will also have an art show, performance and speakers.
July 17: Ocean Life and Creatures, Wilderness awareness, Caribbean Dance and Culture:
Omari Contaste’, The award winning dancer and choreographer will be back again by popular demand from the “Forces of Nature” Dance Troupe. Omari will join us this week to show us some Caribbean dance moves and help direct and write a play related to our weekly theme. Omari is a force of nature himself. He is very creative and talented in many areas: dance, (Caribbean and Ballet) Choreography and Performance, Theater and Art.
Mission Blue and the Nixon Family.
Members of the wonderful Nixon Family will join us this week to talk about their work to help restore and save the ocean and why we need to act now. Here is the trailer to their film: “Mission Blue” with Dr. Sylvia Earle.
Sylvia says: “I wish you would use all means at your disposal—films, expeditions, the web, new submarines, campaigns—to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, Hope Spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.”
The Nixon’s will show part of their special film “Sea of Hope” about young people saving the ocean and afterwards do a Q and A.
Barry Clifford, the well-known diver and marine archeologist will join us this week and bring in some of his amazing marine archeological slavery artifacts and pirate artifacts from the “Whydah”, a Slave Ship and also the only recorded pirate ship discovered in the world.
Barry Clifford is an American underwater archaeological explorer, best known for discovering the remains of Samuel Bellamy’s wrecked pirate ship Whydah [pronounced wih-duh], the only fully verified and authenticated pirate shipwreck of the Golden Age of Piracy ever discovered in the world – as such, artifacts from the wreck provide historians with unique insights into the material, political and social culture of early 18th-century piracy. See his work here.
Creative Projects: We will explore and discover nature in the ocean collecting objects and beach treasures to create a collage, mosaic or sculpture. We will do some fun exercises and games to help us get closer to nature. The campers will get to fabricate Ocean Creatures out of all kinds of mediums: clay, papier-mache’, plaster gauze, cardboard, paper, pencils, paint and more, They will also be able to write a song or do a play if they choose.
Please come to our end of week Art Show, Speakers and Performances. Parents, Relatives, Friends, and Community are all welcome on Friday at noon.
July 24: Dan Butterworth Puppetry:
Back by popular demand, Dan Butterworth the world famous, award winning Master Puppeteer, will be joining us again this summer. The campers will be able to create many different kinds of puppets this week, from two-dimensional shadow and sock puppets, to head, mouth and arm manipulated puppets. Dan will bring in an abundance of different fabrics, felt materials, yarn, buttons, beads and all kinds of exciting decorations, paint and glue for the children to fabricate a puppet from their own imaginations. They are encouraged to construct their own original, unique design, not something from an animated feature, cartoon or video game. They will also (if they choose) get to write their own puppet shows and fabricate their own props and scenery. We will continue to work in our organic garden and explore the ocean and its creatures during our beach and swim time.
“Butterworth’s puppetry has taken him from performing locally at fairs and schools to an international career, leading large scale educational workshops, appearing in operas and classical music festivals, film, and television. He picks varied projects, often which involve collaboration, such as constructing a puppet theater around an adult tricycle, helping to create an Inuit show in Nunavut, Canada, and designing sets for the St. Petersburg, Florida production of Strauss’ comic opera “Die Fledermaus”
His work, breathing intellectual life into this elegant, sometimes underrated art form, has not gone without notice. He has been supported by the National Foundation for the Arts since 1979, and in 2005 he was honored with the Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts, for which he humbly allowed his puppets to take the bow. The grand sets, articulated special effects, and puppet staging surround the exquisitely moving marionettes and shadow puppets as they draw all into the world of Dan Butterworth. Dan has also produced hundreds of pen and ink drawings, some of which are precursors to his imaginative marionettes.”
On Friday at noon we will have a Puppetry Extravaganza of unique and original puppet shows created and written by the campers and counselors. All the parents, relatives, friends and the community are invited. Dan Butterworth will also do a short demonstration and performance of his extraordinary hand-carved wooden and Shadow Puppets. Please Join us on Friday at noon for this amazing event and end of week party.
July 31: Creative Music Making, Stop Motion Animation, Creative Filmmaking, Cultural Diversity;
The outstanding singer Keith Fluitt will be joining us this week! Everyone Loves Keith. ❤️
Keith Anthony Fluitt, a New York City born and raised singer, has worked with many great artists of our time including Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson. Keith also sings lead vocals.
Keith went to the Alvin Ailey Dance School, graduated from talent unlimited program at Julia Richmond High School (graduating with: Lisa Lisa, Gene Anthony Ray from Fame, Brenda K. Starr, and a host of others). Keith has performed with many great stars including but not limited to: Patti LaBelle, Martha Wash, Will Downing, Ashford & Simpson, Lala Brooks, Quincy Jones, and Michael Jackson.
| National Tour Performances
· Martha Washington · Nona Hendrxy · Freddie Jackson · Roberta Flack · Lillo Thomas · And others
Media Appearances · Diana Ross (Oprah Winfrey) · Martha Wash, (David Letterman) · Ashford & Simpson (Show Time at the Apollo and The Rosie O’Donnell Show) · Mick Jagger and Arcade Fire (Saturday Night Live) · Olivia Newton-John (Rosie O’Donnell Show) · Martin Short (David Letterman) · Harry Belafonte (PBS, An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends) · Sang Original Theme Songs of NBC’s “Extra Television” and “The Today’s Show”
Recordings/Discography · “High Hopes” Bruce Springsteen, 2014 · “Mutatis Mutandis” Nona Hendryz, 2013 · “Silver” Will Downing, 2013 · “Keep on Going” Ketih Fluitt, 2013 · “Smooth Jazz Play Motown’s Greatest Love Songs” David Mann, 2009 · “Back to Now” Labelle, 2008 · “After Tonight” Will Downing, 2007 · “Christmas Love and You” Will Downing, 2004 · “Give It Up” Kevin Aviance, 2003 Co-writer · “Invisible” Michael Jackson, 2001 · “I Met an Angel on Christmas Day” Celine Dion, 1999 Co-writer · ““Naked Without You” Taylor Dayne, 1998 · “An evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends” Harry Belafonte, 1997 · “All Because Of You” Maurice & Da Posse, 1989
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Listen to Keith being interviewed for a radio show right here.
Read more about Keith right here.
http://www.keithanthonyfluitt.com
Our Dear Friend and very special guest Livingston Taylor will be coming in to talk and sing some songs to the Campers about his life and how he became a singer songwriter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
We also have Lisa Pimentel, the wonderful and super fun singer, songwriter (and can play many instruments) joining us this week. She is the Head of the Music Department at the Oakwood School in North Hollywood, California.
Steve Lohman the Highly talented, award-winning artist, wire and metal sculptor, and Penelope McLean, the creative artist and culinary wizard will join us to do a Stop Motion Animation workshop. Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames is played back. Any kind of object can thus be manipulated, puppets, clay and Sculpey figures, paper, fabrics and drawings. The campers will also be live actors in the films. The campers will get to sculpt the figures and write their own films.
We will also be doing art projects from different countries, drawing, painting, clay and Sculpture.
Parents, Relatives and Friends, Please join us on Friday at noon for our art show, performance, speaker and end of week party.
August 7: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Music, Singing, Dancing, Human and Civil Rights:
Wallace Bullock, the highly talented and acclaimed Actor, Author, Professor and beloved island resident, will come in this week to talk about and act out the speeches, poetry and writings of well-known African American Luminaries . pathwaysmv.org/wallace-bullock-reads-from-his-one-man-play/
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Theresa Thomason: Back by popular demand! A very special guest Artist will visit us this week, Theresa Thomason, the world famous singer, who has performed with Paul Winter at his annual Solstice performance at the Church of Saint John the Divine and other venues for many years. Check out her astounding accomplishments here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_Thomason
Her sister Brenda Cline will be here too. Brenda is a multitalented, artist, singer, pianist, drummer and more. She taught Art for many years in the Tortola, BWI public schools and is a very accomplished artist herself.
The outstanding choreographer, dancer, musician, drummer and singer, Godfrey Muwulya from Uganda Godfrey Muwulya, Master Teacher and performing Artist, began training as a dancer and musician in his native country of Uganda at the age of 5. He was featured in the New York Times and on Martha’s Vineyard through the Yard. He has collaborated with the NYU January study abroad program, and has performed at NYU at the Loewe Theater, Skirball Center, and Radio City Music Hall. He has taught in numerous K-12 schools in NYC in collaboration with NYU Dance Education alumni and also Elementary Schools around Massachusetts and Martha’s Vineyard.
Tobey La Roche: We are very Blessed to have our beloved former camp counselor and multitalented Singer Songwriter and Musician join us this week. Tobey is the Co-Founder & Head of Production: Allyance Productions at CouchMusic.Live and Percussionist at Hearts & Bones: Celebrating The Music of Paul Simon.
The campers will get to do art projects from diverse cultures including painting, ceramics and the potter’s wheel.
Parents Relatives and Friends, On Friday at noon we will have an art show, performance, speaker and end of Summer party. We hope that you all will join us.
Sense of Wonder Creations Live 2010 CD
Our Sense of Wonder Creations Live 2010 CD is available now at the CD Baby music website. Amazing socially and environmentally conscious songs written and sung by our summer campers and counselors. All the income will be donated to humanitarian and environmental organizations.
Download individual songs or buy the CD Sense of Wonder Creations Live 2010
Summer Camp Photo Gallery!
All photos by Lynn Christoffers
The Power of One
One song can spark a moment
One flower can wake the dream
One tree can start a forest
One bird can herald spring
One smile begins a friendship
One handclasp lifts a soul
One star can guide a ship at sea
One word can frame the goal
One vote can change a nation
One sunbeam lights a room
One candle wipes out darkness
One laugh will conquer gloom
One step must start each journey
One word must start each prayer
One hope will raise our spirits
One touch can show you care
One voice can speak with wisdom
One heart can know what’s true
One life can make the difference
You see, it’s up to you!!
Ashish Ram
(Author Unknown)
I am only one, but still I am one.
I cannot do everything, but still I can do something;
and because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do something I can do.
We don’t need more money,
we don’t need greater success or fame,
We don’t need the perfect body or even the perfect mate.
Right now, at this very moment, we have a mind,
which is all the basic equipment we need to help the world
Be a better place.