Almost half of the students in Delaware’s Indian River School District are enrolled in the free lunch program. This year the Indian River School District is not offering summer school in all of their elementary school including Frankford’s John Clayton Elementary School.
We believe some of these children will go without lunch this summer, and Unite Sussex believes that the children will also go without structured educational activities, and structured physical activities. Summer, we fear, has become the time when children are left unsupervised, under challenged and without proper sustenance. This is not acceptable to us and we have created a program that addresses these issues for the children in our community.
US CAMP will be the mechanism to distribute lunches to at risk children in our community who otherwise would go without. Plus, we will provide them with physical and intellectual challenges. Our first year of US CAMP, will be targeted to a minimum of 60 children living in the Frankford area of Sussex County.
US CAMP will rely heavily on volunteers. We expect to partner with the faith based community in an effort to match our need and program with the skill and desires of potential volunteers. Additionally, we will partner with the town of Frankford; we plan to partner with the Indian River School District, the Delaware Food Bank, plus other non-profit and government organizations to make our camps successful and productive.
US CAMP is FREE and as presently planned, will have four components: 1) the serving of a healthy lunch already prepared from the Food Bank; 2) organized physical activities; 3) a mentoring aspect; and 4) tutoring in math, science and reading related to “race to the top” program. We have strong indications that we can enroll 60+ children from the Indian River School District and operate US CAMP at the Frankford Park, as approved. All children will be enrolled in the local elementary school from grades 1 to 5. US CAMP will begin on June 20th, the first full week of summer vacation, and run until August 11th . It will include the following:
- Healthy snack and lunches to be served to each child attending the camp. This is a crucial portion of our program. Each child will be given a snack, and a healthy lunch, including fruit, vegetables, a starch, and protein.Tutoring in math, science and reading will take place for 45 minutes per day, in both group activities, and one on one assistance.
- Led by local physical education teachers, the children will spend 1 and a ½ hours playing in an organized group activity, outside, in the town parks of Frankford, as approved.
- Transportation for children will be provided to and from the camp as needed.
If you are interested in enrolling a student you can download the registration packet HERE.
If you would like to volunteer to help with US Camp, you can download the volunteer application HERE.
For more information on the US Camp or Unite Sussex please call us at 302.732.6550.
Serving together….
