With the end of school fast approaching, towns are readying summer recreation programs. In Eastham and Truro, hopeful families are already putting their names on waiting lists.
Besides being fun, the programs strive to meet some of the local need for child care. The activities, and the extent to which they fill that gap, vary from town to town.
“This year, we paired up with Truro,” said Wellfleet’s assistant rec director, Charity Robinson. The departments first joined forces last summer, and this year they’re ramping up the offerings. “They had a need, we had a need,” Robinson said.
Wellfleet offers programs only to residents, but this arrangement allows Truro children to take swimming lessons in Wellfleet at Gull Pond. At the end of August, with Wellfleet’s program ending two weeks before school begins, Wellfleet kids can participate in Truro’s longer season of programming.
“We’ve been trying to make swim lessons happen for some time,” said Truro recreation and beach dept. deputy director Austin Smith.
Truro also offers pre- and post-season child care on either end of its summer recreation program, open to Truro residents and kindergarten through sixth-grade students at Truro Central School. It will run from June 17, the last day of school in Truro, to June 29, just before the start of summer rec. The post-season program starts on Aug. 19 and runs until Aug. 30.
Having a small number of year-round staff has made that possible, said Smith. “It’s a game changer for the amount of child care that you can provide. It’s been really cool to see.”
Wellfleet offers summer rec camp from July 1 to Aug. 16. There are two daily sessions, from 9 a.m. to noon and noon to 3 p.m. The afternoon programming is an add-on to the core morning sessions, according to Robinson — meaning that kids can attend all day or morning only.
Campers play a variety of sports like tennis, pickleball, and archery, and there are dance, yoga, and nature classes. “We do weekly field trips or special fun days,” Robinson said, including a trip to a Harwich Junior Theater performance and a shellfish grant tour offered by the Wellfleet Oyster Alliance.
In the mornings, Wellfleet rec will also run its usual swimming lessons at Gull Pond. Signups for the classes are separate from those for rec camp.
In Eastham, the recreation program is open to kids 5 through 12, with the age range broadened to 4 to 14 for certain activities.
The Nauset Schools end on June 21, and Eastham summer recreation begins on July 1, leaving families with a 10-day gap. The program runs until Aug. 9, and school typically starts up again in early September.
Activities vary by the week in Eastham, but include swim lessons, girls’ basketball, and pickleball clinics. There’s also a Father’s Day Fishing Derby.
“We have a waitlist for the summer program at this time,” assistant director of Eastham recreation and beaches Jacob Congel said in an email.
The town has all the instructors it needs, except when it comes to swimming, Congel wrote.
In Wellfleet, the majority of the 21 summer rec staff members are college students, Robinson said. “Staffing was not a challenge,” she wrote in an email. “A large majority of our staff this year is returning from last year and we were easily able to fill in the few openings with great candidates.”
Provincetown’s summer recreation offerings span nine weeks from June 25 — five days after school lets out — to Aug. 23.
“Far Out Fun Fest,” as Provincetown’s program is called, is for kids age four and up. Campers are grouped by age, with waiting lists created as programs fill.
The department “seeks to make its services available to all people, regardless of their ability to pay,” according to information online. Families can contact the recreation dept. office for information about financial assistance.
Days stretch from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Fridays — beach days — which end at 2:30 p.m.
Plans include field trips throughout the summer, and the program hosts visitors including magicians, National Seashore rangers, first responders, and an ice cream truck.
A day at summer rec lasts the longest in Truro. Running from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., summer youth programming is open to kids 5 to 13. It starts on July 1 and runs through Aug. 16. Fridays are “water days,” according to the program’s calendar, and most Mondays involve time in the school’s garden. Wednesdays are for field trips around the Cape, including kayaking with Cape Escape and candlepin bowling in Orleans.
Thursdays are theme days: in July, there will be superhero day, camping day (with s’mores), and “winter break in July.” August will include multicultural day (participants will “travel around the world”) and pajama day (with movies).
Unlike in Wellfleet, Truro recreation is open to residents and nonresidents. But where residents and Truro Central School students pay $50 for the summer, nonresidents pay $1,150 per child, or weekly, said Smith.
In Truro, the number of kids registered for rec camp is currently in the fifties. The town is adding hopeful participants to a waitlist as it finalizes its staff roster and ensures it has enough counselors to stay through the summer.
“All the departments on the Outer Cape are facing the same challenges,” Smith said, referring to the dwindling number of young people available to work in summer recreation. “You have to work together,” he added. “How do we make these limited resources work for us?”
