Youngsters stay active throughout the summer

By Stuart Hedstrom

Staff Writer

GUILFORD — For much of summer vacation, SAD 4-area students in grades 1-6 have had the opportunity to keep busy and active playing a number of games, go on field trips and more through the Guilford Summer Rec program.

Guilford Summer Rec Director Joe Gallant, who was headed the program for the last decade, said the children come to the Piscataquis Community High School gym five days a week for eight weeks to take part in activities all morning long. “It starts the Monday after school goes out,” Gallant said on Aug. 5 during the next to last week of the 2015 program before the participants began to arrive for the morning.

 Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

IT’S ALL FUN AND GAMES — Taking a break from the first game of the day on Aug. 5 are Guilford Summer Rec participants, front from left, Kloe Kimball and Aiden Watt and, back, Brylee Ricker, Abbey Ricker, Jewyll True and Brookelynn Hunt. For eight weeks during the summer SAD 4 students entering grades 1-6 and others with connections to the district spend their mornings, five days a week, in the Piscataquis Community High School gym in Guilford taking part in activities designed to keep them up and moving. The children also go on field trips as part of the Guilford Summer Rec program.

“This is offered to all kids going into first through sixth grade,” he said, with many attending Piscataquis Community Elementary School and some having another connection to the district communities. Gallant said at the start of the summer about 40 children attended per day, but over the course of the eight weeks the total fluctuates with other activities such as family vacations and summer camps. “I average about eight kids per grade,” he said.

“We do a lot of dodgeball games, chasing, dodging, fleeing type games,” Gallant said. “One of the big games we play is called flag tag, with flag football flags.”

He explained a main goal of Guilford Summer Rec is to have the participants be up and moving, doing so for nearly all of the two hours and 45 minutes. “I think the kids involved in this program, by the end of the summer, are the most fit kits in the district,” Gallant said. “Whether it’s throwing skills or running skills, it’s fine tuned over the summer.”

“It’s neat to see them go through the process of participation through this,” he said. Gallant said some children start with no athletic experience while others have played sports before, but everyone has fun.

In addition to spending their days playing games, the participants also travel around the region on field trips. Gallant said four longer day trips are taken to Peaks Kenny State Park on Sebec Lake in Dover-Foxcroft. He said other excursions have been to the Newport Entertainment Center for bowling and mini golf and ice cream at Gifford’s in Skowhegan.

“Yesterday we had a movie day here in the gym,” Gallant said, with a large screen coming down from the gym ceiling. “We will have an ice cream sundae day next Tuesday and Thursday next week is our last day and a BBQ.”

“I have two hired assistants,” Gallant said about a pair of high-schoolers who both took part in the Guilford Summer Rec program throughout grade school. “Except for one child, my volunteers have all been through the program since first grade — it just works out good,” he said, adding that parent volunteers will help out on the field trips.

Shortly after 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 5 all of the attendees had arrived for the morning as Gallant took attendance. He reminded the children that their last trip to Peaks Kenny State Park would be the next day and asked them to where their bright orange Guilford Summer Rec T-shirts “so we can be seen.”

After telling the rec participants about the next day’s weather forecast, Gallant told them that they would not be the only ones at the park. He asked them to be considerate of other park visitors, such as by sharing the beach and the nearby playground.

Gallant reminded the kids about the ice cream sundae and BBQ scheduled for the following week before saying “blue line” as the several dozen participants lined up along the long end line of the basketball court. Gallant then went through and alternated between red and blue to divide the children into two teams for the flag tag game.

“Most games last 30 to 45 minutes or until they get tired,” Gallant said as the children were in the midst of the day’s first activity. The opening game was made up of a combination of tag and capture the flag with the kids trying to pull flags off of members of the other team and then deposit these cloths into a bucket back on their end of the court.

After a short break, the kids played what Gallant calls “pinball” or a variation on dodgeball. “I put up bowling pins on different ends of the floor,” he said. “It gives them two options of hitting somebody or hitting the pin.”

“The kids could play dodgeball all day,” Gallant said, as the participants can take a break from the action if they wanted to.

“Most days I let the kids pick the second or third game so they have some value in it,” Gallant said. The session concluded with the game he called “All Fish Cross My Sea.” “This is a running, tagging, dodging game,” he said.

Observer photos/Stuart Hedstrom

DODGING BALLS AND EACH OTHER — Guilford Summer Rec participants played both flag tag and pinball during the morning of Aug. 5 at PCHS in Guilford. The next day the children, most whom will be entering grades 1-6 at PCES in the fall, took the last of four trips to Peaks Kenny State Park on Sebec Lake in Dover-Foxcroft.