If you’re a parent and haven’t started planning for summer yet, you may be starting to feel behind.
Planning for summer can be stressful for parents. What camps are close to my home? What days are they offered? What ages are they for? These are all questions that can run through a parent’s mind.
Local partners are gathering next weekend for a unique summer camp fair to make the planning process easy and painless for families. The 2nd Annual North County Camp Fair takes place Saturday, March 7. It is free to the public and is a collaborative effort, organized by the Ferguson-Florissant School District and the free summer planning resource Blueprint4SummerSTL.
Last year there were over 1,500 students and families who attended the camp fair, and organizers say they expect an even bigger turnout for 2020. The camp fair will provide opportunities for parents to have one-on-one conversations with camp representatives from some of the best summer programs and activities in the St. Louis area. Summer learning organizations are offering camps related to art, sports, music, nature, STEM and more for children of all ages.
Maxine Clark, founder of Blueprint4SummerSTL, said she’s proud to continue to partner with the Ferguson-Florissant School District for this summer camp fair in North County.
“Blueprint4Summer offers a free way to digitally search and find the perfect summer camp, but it doesn’t replace the value of speaking with a camp provider face to face to find out if the offering is a great fit,” said Clark. “Prior to this partnership, there were only a few large camp fairs in the region, and none of them were close to the City of St. Louis and North County. Fifty-eight percent of Blueprint4Summer users come from these areas, so we know that families are searching for summer programs close to home.”
Blueprint4Summer is a free website to help families in the St. Louis region search for best-fit summer programming. It was launched in 2015 to alleviate the stress and frustration families, especially in under-resourced areas, felt as they tried to piece together summer plans for their kids as well as to tackle the achievement gap that exists between low-income students and their middle- and upper-class peers following summer vacation.
Research shows that summer learning loss during elementary school accounts for approximately two-thirds of the achievement gap in reading by ninth grade, according to a study by Johns Hopkins University. Blueprint4Summer’s goal is to reduce this disparity by providing lower-income students the same access to educational summer camps and the opportunity to attend them via scholarships.
“What happens during the summer directly affects outcomes here in our district,” said Dr. Joyce Pugh-Walker, the director of federal programs for the Ferguson-Florissant School District. “Our vision is to support all students flourishing and becoming lifelong contributors to the success of the societies in which they work and live, therefore encouraging them to participate in meaningful summer programs is part of that process. We are proud to partner with Blueprint4Summer and are excited to host families from any district across the region for this free event.”
Coordinators are planning to have 60 camps in attendance at the fair representing a wide range of activities, many of which have a focus on STEAM learning (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics), such as the St. Louis Zoo, Summer @ SLU, and Girls Inc.
“There are camps for children of any age, including high schoolers,” said Zasmine Johnson, assistant programs manager for Blueprint4Summer. “Many local programs also offer scholarship opportunities, so it’s important to learn all of your options and register for camps early. The camps attending this Summer Camp Fair are also listed on Blueprint4Summer, so if you can’t attend the free event, parents should make sure to search for summer opportunities on our website.”
All families are welcome at the Summer Camp Fair this Saturday, March 7, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the McCluer North High School gymnasium. For more information about the camp fair, visit https://www.fergflor.org/campfair.
Parents and guardians looking for more information on summer programming in St. Louis can search for opportunities on Blueprint4Summer by visiting the website at http://blueprint4.com/stl.
