Paula White
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Jun 11/99) - It will be another fun-filled summer for kids around town with the return of the Town of Inuvik Summer Day Camp Program.

"I anticipate that we're going to be extremely busy," said Kirsti de Vries, who is co-ordinating the program for the second year. "I think it's going to be good."

While the program remains essentially the same as in past years, there are a few changes. de Vries said this year the program has a capacity for 48 children each week, who will be supervised by eight full-time staff members. She added it will run for eight weeks this year (until Aug. 20) as opposed to six last year.

"Last year there was a demand (from parents) to increase the program, make it longer," she said. "We were booked solid except for one camp and had wait lists for almost all the camps."

The program is set up so that each group of 12 children is supervised by two counsellors. The children, de Vries explained, will be divided up according to age -- the six-year-olds forming one group, seven and eight-year-olds forming another, and so on.

A different theme is featured each week, including sports, science, jamboree and Olympics. de Vries said the counsellors plan their own activities for the week, keeping the themes in mind. Some of the activities include arts and crafts, lip sync concerts and, of course, swimming.

"They go swimming at every camp," de Vries said.

The program is scheduled to open with a rock and roll theme on June 28. de Vries said the daily hours are roughly the same as school's, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

All the camps, with the exception of one, will be held at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex. de Vries said the arts camp will be held at Aurora College to make room for the Great Northern Arts Festival in July.

This is the fourth year for the summer day camps, and the program was a hit from the get-go.

"I think it's just been extraordinarily successful," said Mike Muller, chair of the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board for Inuvik. "In three years we have built a program that is so successful that other communities in the Northwest Territories are coming to us to learn how we did it."

Muller added that one way to measure the program's success is by how many kids and staff members return each year.

"You have a good program if your staff keeps coming back year after year," he said, noting there are four staff returning this summer.

"It's good we have returning staff because that brings consistency to the program," she said. "I think it'll be good for the kids to see some of the staff coming back."

An information and registration night will take place on Wednesday, June 16 at 7 p.m. at the recreation complex. de Vries said most of the staff will be hired by this time, so it is a good opportunity for parents to meet them. The information night will be followed by a full registration day, to be held at the Inuvik Centennial Library on June 17 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.