Youths ‘on the go’ for summer fun

Story and photos by Christine June
USAG Kaiserslautern


Summer fun heats up Monday and stays sizzling for 11 weeks at U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern’s School Age Services and  Middle School and Teen Center on Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

These Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs boast weekly summer camps that showcase arts and crafts, field trips and workshops.

“Children and parents can choose which weeks they want to attend,” said Belynda Smith, the garrison’s FMWR Child, Youth and School Services chief.

Both camps will be supplemented by visiting Camp Adventure counselors.
Open to children entering second to sixth grade, the SAS camps’ activities and field trips were chosen by experts – the children.

“The whole concept behind CYSS is that it’s a children’s program, so they got to vote on what our camps would offer,” said Dee Dee Lana, the Landstuhl SAS director. “It was all up to them.”

Activities range from tie-dying T-shirts to putting on plays for parents. There will also be song and dessert fests.

“Summers are supposed to be special for children, and that’s exactly what we want these camps to be for them – special,” Ms. Lana said. “Everything is just for fun.”
But, she also said learning will be a part of the fun, whether the children realize it or not because “they will be having too much fun to notice.”

For those entering the seventh to 12th grades, the MSTC is all a buzz with two different types of programs to chose from: Teens on the Go and Ultimate Summer Program.

Teens on the Go is from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is reserved and theme-based care, Mrs. Smith said. The program also has field trips twice a week.

“This is the first summer where we are actually going to France,” Mrs. Smith said. The children will be going on the Metz City Tour on Thursday, taking two trips to the Snowhall Indoor Ski on July 2 and Aug. 6, and visiting the Peace Garden and Citadel/Fortress on Aug. 20.

An exciting aspect about the field trips is that they will be taking trains instead of buses, Mrs. Smith said.

“This way, they will also be learning about the train systems in Europe,” said Mrs. Smith, who added that she really wanted European culture to be an impartment part of the field trips.

Besides field trips, Teens on the Go offers four service areas: leisure, arts and recreation, sports and fitness, life skills, and mentoring, intervention and support services.

Activities catered to each service area will be provided daily as not only part of the Teens on the Go, but also part of the free Ultimate Summer Program, which runs from 1 to 6 p.m. daily.

To find out about all the trips and activities at SAS and MSTC, visit www.mwrgermany.com/KL/kaiserslautern.htm and select CYS Services.
Registration for all the CYSS programs must be done at the garrison’s central enrollment and registration, Bldg. 2898 on Pulaski Barracks. The office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For details, call 493-4516/4122 or 0631-3406-4516/4122.