Pine Island kids have summer fun with Lee County Parks and Rec program
In light of the damages done by Hurricane Ian, the summer program provided by the Lee County Parks and Recreation on Pine Island has been moved from Matlacha Park to Pine Island Elementary. According to Grayce Smith, who works with the kids in the program, this has worked fine for the summer campers.
“We’ve been renting out the school’s cafeteria space. We get to use the playground, we get to go to the pool two times a week. Tuesdays and Thursdays are our pool days and because it’s so close from the pool to the school, we walk the kids to the pool and then walk back. That kind of takes up our whole day, but as counselors we get a week before to pre-plan, so we’ve been planning lots and lots of things to do,” Smith said.
A plan has already been made for a field trip and lunch at Lakes Park, she said.
She explained as she understands it, the county gets a budget as well as fundraising and also collecting contributions from some of the Pine Island organizations that contribute towards anything that might be needed.
“This is my second year. It’s been a blast. It’s just a really fun time,” Smith said.
They get new kids every week, she said. Because every week is different, they sign up new kids each week. They are only allowed approximately 30 kids so it fills up pretty fast, she said.
Kids at this camp are accepted from first grade to sixth grade.
For additional information about the Lee County Parks and Recreation Department’s year-round programs, please visit https://www.leegov.com/parks/programs/summer.
To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com, please email