SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
As most of Sitka’s adults head to work Monday morning, 234 grade-school age kids will be gathered on the SJ campus learning music, dance, theater, ceramics and visual arts at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp elementary camp.
Half of those kids are from out of town and will have a parent or whole family in tow, adding to the crowd.
"We’ve got people from California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington,” said operations director Rhiannon Guevin. “And from Alaska, it’s from all over – Anchorage, Wasilla, Valdez, Skagway, Palmer, Gustavus, Douglas, Chugiak, Brevig Mission – just for elementary camp. It’s pretty crazy.”
It’s the first of four camps offered by SFAC this summer, with classes Monday through Friday mornings. Middle School Camp runs June 16-28, high school camp June 30-July 12, and musical theater camp July 14,-August 2.
Middle and high school camps end with final performances for the public. Musical theater camp this year will conclude with three performances of the Broadway show, “The SpongeBob Musical.”
The elementary camp was added more than 20 years ago after Sitkans Lisa Busch and Cheryl Vastola - both of whom had young kids - volunteered to organize it, if it could be added to the schedule. It’s grown beyond what was initially imagined, said SFAC director Roger Schmidt.
“It started because there was a real interest in serving more ages of kids, and there was a lot of interest in having a lot of young kids,” he said. “It was great to have volunteers because we were stretched thin.”
The elementary camp -- originally called Mini Camp -- has grown from about 40 kids to the current 234. Middle school and high school kids from Sitka serve as counselors for elementary camp, and this year there are 40 in those volunteer positions. The elementary camp is supervised by a young professional staff, mostly college students.
“They started as volunteer counselors when they were in junior high school,” Schmidt said. “The counselors’ job is to help the younger kids get to class, participate in class, and we have 16 of our teaching faculty -- who teach at middle school camp -- teach at elementary camp.”
The counselors at elementary camp play a vital role in not only helping run the camp but as role models and helping build relationships in the community.
“When a 13-year-old helps you get to class, and you’re eight, both ages benefit greatly,” Schmidt said. “That 13-year-old gets a chance to have agency. They get to know what it feels like to help a young kid, and the kid now has a really exciting new friend and relationship. I feel like that’s another really important community-building bond.”
Schmidt remembers a time when the relationship between younger and older kids wasn't as healthy.
“After I finished eighth grade, the high school kids wanted to beat me up, they chased me around - which is just so savage,” he said. “After you’ve worked with kids, you’re always going to be looking after them, and thinking about them and that’s the kind of world we want to build.”
Expanding the camp to the elementary level made sense and met a need at the time. It still does.
“We believe really strongly that every kid is born an artist, every kid is a storyteller, a dancer,” Schmidt said. “They move their bodies to express themselves, they draw, they find instruments to play on. They are born creative.”
As you get further in school, it can start going away, he said, “unless you create a space that says ‘imagination’.” he said.
“One of the big things about elementary camp is giving them space to continue being artists, hopefully in a way that they can see has real value and is part of being human,” Schmidt said. “Hopefully it will allow them to feel brave enough to keep being artists, to act in a creative and artistic way.”
One of the unexpected results of offering a high-quality elementary camp has been its growing popularity with people coming from other places. Some 118 of the more than 234 elementary campers are from out of town, and since they are elementary age, their families come with them.
Schmidt is pleased to see the town benefit economically from the growth of elementary camp, in addition to offering an activity to the town's young artists. While the kids are at camp for the morning, parents can attend their regular jobs remotely, go on outdoor adventures or visit with Sitka friends. In the afternoon, the families can get together for an activity or go to a local restaurant.
The camp does not market its elementary camp as it does the high school, middle school and musical theater camp.
“It’s been just word of mouth," Schmidt said. "People like the experience their kids are having, and they keep coming back, and they keep telling their friends.”
One parent, who has kids at elementary and middle school camps, is looking forward to her annual week in Sitka. “Since we’ve been coming, more and more people from Anchorage seem to be also coming," she said. "Not only people from Anchorage, but friends from Unalaska and Juneau.”
