THUNDER BAY — The Thunder Bay Museum’s summer camps return for another year, drawing in roughly 12 to 14 children weekly.
These summer camps offer kids aged six to 12 years old the chance to participate in different themed camps over seven weeks, from July to August, delving into topics such as time travel, holidays and exploring nature.
Everly Medwick and her twin brother, Arthur, were participating in this week’s Media Week, featuring books, TV, music, movies and more. The two 9-year-olds said the summer camp was going “great” and their favourite part was the crafts.
“Right now, we’re doing the bead making for Minecraft because it’s video game day and that’s really fun,” said Everly.
“The coolest craft that we’ve probably done all year is probably beads,” added Arthur, who learned more about how to do arts and crafts, painting and making stuff.
The siblings also made Pokémon's iconic red and white Poké Balls in the morning.
While Arthur’s favourite themed week was Mix it Altogether Week, Everly’s favourite themed day was the video game day on Friday.
“Sometimes we bring in guest speakers, so we might have somebody who’s doing falconry, or we might have somebody come and do baking with the kids, or they might occasionally go outside to do some activities,” said Scott Bradley, the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society’s executive director.
“But a lot of art-based stuff, a lot of play-based stuff, so really they have a great time and they get to explore the museum and use history as a lens to do all their kind of learning and exploration.”
Bradley explained that their staff spend months planning everything.
“If we’ve got a theme, let’s say we’re exploring medieval history, they might do some stuff around making castles or they might look at you know how people lived back then,” said Bradley.
“So, they might explore medieval foods or look at ways of creating or using art to kind of explore all the different concepts. So really just thinking about history in a different way and exploring it with your body and through art and it leads to better understanding.”
Bradley said they’re also building lifelong museum members through these camps and inspiring families to explore more together.
“Not only do they have a great time, but their parents come back to us and say, ‘Hey, my child learned this thing about Thunder Bay,’” said Bradley.
“They learned about the (Thunder Bay Tourist) Pagoda, or they learned about Kakabeka Falls, or they learn about Anemki Wajiw and all these things about Thunder Bay history and culture as well that they’re bringing home to their families and sometimes their families are inspired to come back and do additional visits or come to programming.”
Bradley said they have another four weeks in front of them as of Friday and there are still spots available for kids.
Registration for the summer camps is open for one week, with a cost of $160 for members and $190 for non-members.
