While many students are accustomed to seeing ads for football, basketball or volleyball camps as summer approaches, sports camps will not be the only option  this June. 

“Administration came to the teachers with the opportunity to put a camp on and we figured this was one of the classes that kids would want to come to over the summer,” culinary teacher Rebecca Karr said. 

Last week, the culinary teachers announced a free culinary camp that will take place from June 26-29 on campus over the summer for rising freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Among other departments, culinary camp is one of the new additions to the usual summer activities. 

“My favorite part of this job is the lab part and we only get to do that on Thursdays and Fridays, so this is just going to be four days of fun cooking and eating,” Karr said. 

Over the course of the camp, Karr plans to lead her students through a variety of culinary activities. Taking advantage of the extended time, Karr also hopes to assign lengthier culinary labs than she would during the school year. 

“I’m planning on doing a cake-decorating challenge on one of the days, maybe do some piping because a lot of them have never done that before,” Karr said. “I want to do a combination of sweet and savory dishes with a couple of different techniques.” 

While the camp has racked up interest among culinary students who plan to participate in the camp, others plan to attend as camp counselors. Culinary Club vice president Alexa Sommerfeld hopes to spend the summer helping the chefs gather ingredients, prep for the students and guide the campers in the kitchen. Students interested in participating or volunteering at the camp can scan the QR codes posted around campus to sign up or follow the link here. There is no charge to attend.

“I volunteer at almost every culinary event, so when he told me about this I signed up right away,” Sommerfeld said. “I’m excited and I’m pretty sure the other students who signed up for it are excited too.”

In an effort coordinated by assistant principal Reginald Miller, multiple other career-oriented and technical departments have been offered the opportunity to host a summer program as well. ASL teacher Grace Wilken-Yoder plans to host Camp Time to Sign over the course of three different sessions starting June 26. The camp is open to rising freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors, and it will provide free transportation and lunch to its attendees. 

“The students really want to do scavenger hunts, capture the flag, song signing and current events discussions,” Wilken-Yoder said. “We can do anything, but the point of the camp is that we would do it in American Sign Language.”