Record number at Camp session

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — For more than a quarter century area children ages 6-9 have the opportunity to attend the Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance’s Harmony Camp, which is being offered this summer in Dover-Foxcroft and in Dexter and Guilford next month

“We have 25 kids today, we had 26 show up on the first morning,” Angie Alfonso of the Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance said on July 16, the last of three days of the Harmony Camp session once again taking place at the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church. She said these figures are a new attendance record, with 18 children being registered and the camp normally capped at 20 but organizers did not want to turn anyone away.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

WHAT A GOOD FRIEND SHOULD HAVE — Working on their friendship being July 16 at the Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance Harmony Camp at the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church, are, clockwise from top, Anastasia Curtis, Karen Giligan of the alliance, James Estes, Jaxson Zimmerman, Tessa Warner and Lexi Wesley. For over a quarter century Harmony Camp has offered children ages 6-9  the opportunity to have fun while making new friends and learning how to treat other people.

“We are having parents come in and do our art gallery so they can look at their posters, photo frames, art bags and Crayola creations,” Alfonso said about some of the projects the campers have been busy working on.

After playing inside, the more than two dozen children enjoyed a healthy snack of apple slices and graham crackers with peanut butter fluff as Adriana Hopkins of the Bangor office of the Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance read aloud the picture book “Little Sweet Potato” by Amy Beth Bloom. Alfonso, Hopkins were joined by Karen Giligan of the alliance’s Bangor office as well as several teenage and adult volunteers at the Dover-Foxcroft Harmony Camp.

“What we are going to do now is create a friendship being,” Hopkins said as she began to unroll several long sheets of paper with the outline of a human figure. “I want everyone to think of one thing a good friend should have and then we are going to draw it on our friendship being,” she said.

Working in groups of five the camnpers came up with ideas such as being kind, represented by a heart drawing, smiling so the figure had a mouth of teeth and wearing a friendship bracelet as ideas for their friendship beings.

Sitting in a circle on the floor, Alfonso held what she called “a smiley” a tightly knit small ball she said a co-worker made. “It is really important that to the people we meet in our lives we speak to them really well, and that is called a compliment,” she said. “It is something nice you say to someone, and it’s really important when someone says something nice you say ‘thank you.’”

The campers then took turns tossing the smiley to someone across the circle and giving the recipient a compliment. The child with the smiley said thank you and then passed the smiley on.

In the late morning parents and other family members arrived to see the art show. Camp visitors were able to see the “All About Me Posters”, containing facts such as the children’s age, hometown, pets and what they would like to be when they grow up, personalized frames surrounding a picture of themselves and other works of art. Another item decorated was individual stress balls, which can be squeezed when the youngsters are feeling mad or sad.

The 2015 Dover-Foxcroft Harmony Camp concluded with an awards presentation as each boy and girl was presented with a certificate of completion, a T-shirt and what Alfonso called “a baby panda” or miniature stuffed animal of camp mascot Harmony Bear. Throughout the three days campers took turns holding a larger version of Harmony Bear, and Alfonso said he communicates kindness and caring not through words but through touch and hugs.

Alonso told the awards audience that each campers’ name tag had 10 beads, representing the 10 letters in the word friendship.

Photo courtesy of Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance

HARMONY CAMP 2015 –– Keaten Eakright, left, and Jaydin Klimetz work on an art project at the Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance’s Dover-Foxcroft session of Harmony Camp. The camp on July 14-16 at the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church had a record 26 attendees.

Photo courtesy of Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance

ALL SMILES –– Taking a break from their project are Anastasia Curtis, left, and Elise Inch during last week’s Harmony Camp. For over 25 years what today is the Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance has offered the camp for children ages 6-9 through several different sessions.