By Lori BODNAR

Back to school has arrived, though some students have been at school for six weeks already attending Campalooza. At the summer camp, kids enjoyed fun summertime activities such as canvas painting, archery, water balloons, a Coke/Mentos soda geyser experiment, basketball, dodgeball, kickball, movie watching, lanyard making and creating friendship bracelets, playing with giant bubbles and forming new friendships.

Summer camps were supported by Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) summer learning and enrichment programs. GUSD partnered with the local YMCAs to bring exciting educational experiences to the day camps, which focused on learning through sports, arts and social-emotional activities.

Dunsmore Elementary hosted Campalooza. Other GUSD schools with YMCA Campalooza events included Lincoln, Balboa, Columbus, Edison and Valley View elementary schools.

Camper Alyssa Howe attended Dunsmore Campalooza.

“My favorite part of the camp was the water balloons,” Alyssa said. “One new activity I did was [making] handprints.”

On Thursday, Aug. 12 Dunsmore held pajama day, which the campers also enjoyed.

Quiara Jackson was one of the camp counselors.

“The students definitely enjoyed the day camp because they hadn’t seen their friends for over a year and the camp gave them a chance to socially engage with others and play with their friends,” she said.

GUSD schools and the YMCAs took precautions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 at the day camps. Each school had about 120 kids attending. The students were put into pods of 10 and each pod was assigned a counselor. Pods were divided by grades. The kids, counselors and YMCA staff all wore masks and had their temperature taken each day.

Vince Iuculano is CEO of YMCA of the Foothills.

“YMCA has coordinated with Dunsmore Elementary in the past for day camps, but this is the first time since the late ’90s,” Iuculano said. “We are trying to build the next generation of leaders. This day camp helps the kids be social and build leadership. It also helps instill the core philosophy of compassion, caring, self-worth and responsibility to develop them into effective leaders. The kids also have fun at the camp.”

George Saikali, Glendale YMCA CEO, added, “Our main focus of the YMCA enrichment activities is to build leadership and self-confidence.”

Students enjoyed Campalooza with the fun, engaging, educational activities and games planned at their schools by the YMCA. As summer draws to a close and the camps end, the students look forward to seeing their friends – including new ones ­– as they make their way back to school.