By Staff
Promotes fellowship, healthy habits
By DAN PARSONS
Special to the Daily News
AURORA — Close your eyes and think of a plate full of grits, oatmeal, mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs. That’s what children at Aurora-based Camp Sixpence were asked to visualize during a Friday morning food-oriented activity. Then they were asked to envision eating it.
Though one participant said he would rather envision a plate of pork chops and pancakes, most agreed that the latter plate would be more pleasing on the breakfast table.
Camp Sixpence is a daytime summer program which “provides educational and recreational opportunities for children in grades six through 12, volunteer Leslie Mills. Harrell, a family and consumer sciences teacher at Southside High School, was on hand to teach Mills’ campers how to make food fun.
New things are exactly what Mills is trying to give her campers a taste for. On Friday, the menu consisted of the edible spiders and mini pizzas made with English muffins. The activity also doubled as lunch.
Poala Claudio, 13, started in the program Tuesday, but “had wanted to come for a while” because she heard from friends that it was fun.
The daily devotion this year is helmed by Ashley Lloyd, a graduate student from Duke Divinity School. Lloyd, originally from Austin, Texas, was placed in the program by the university and is “learning a lot about how to run a nonprofit.”
The camp, now in its third year, is held daily from 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. The summer program is available to members of the Footprints Teen Center in Aurora. It averages between 15 and 20 children per day, according to Mills. It incorporates free play, structured outdoor activities, academics and crafts.