This summer, the Community Park District of La Grange Park is offering expanded summer camp programming, including a new full day recreational camp for children in grades K-5. While the park district has run successful summer programming since 1971, this is the first time a full day option will be available for the families of La Grange Park.

For more than 30 years the Community Park District has offered partial-day programs like Afternoon Antics and Camp Explorers, which attract around 300 participants each season. After conducting several surveys and considering that La Grange Park is home to more than 3,500 people under the age of 17, the park district determined that it was time to expand summer camp options for its residents.

“Being a brand-new camp, we understand that some parents might be hesitant to sign their child for a full summer. My goal is to create a program where kids come home and ask their parents to sign them up again,” says Community Park District’s recreation manager, Ashley Jusk. Jusk has managed the Community Park District’s Ready Teddy Preschool for the past four years and is no stranger to creating effective and engaging youth programming.

In order to offer the widest range of activities possible, the new day camp program’s home base will be located in Hanesworth Park and the Community Recreation Center, 1501 Barnsdale Road. “The location gives us access to athletic fields, indoor and outdoor washrooms, a playground, greenspace, and allows us to run fun activities inside and outside simultaneously,” says Jusk. To keep things exciting all summer long, the program will feature creative weekly themes and field trips. The theme and field trip schedule will be available on the park district’s website in late March. The full day schedule for children grades K-5 is 9am-4pm, Monday through Friday and costs $185 for residents or $195 for nonresidents per week. Half day sessions run 9am-12pm and cost $95 for residents and $105 for nonresidents per week.

To ensure the program is accessible for working families, the Community Park District will also offer Before & After Care hours from 7:30am-9am each morning and from 4-6pm in the afternoons. Weekly Before Care fees are $17 for residents, and weekly After Care fees are $22 for residents. Nonresident fees apply.

Younger children ages 3-5 can experience the excitement of making new friends in the Community Park District’s new Summer Fun Camp. This program runs Monday-Friday from 9am-12pm and participants are eligible for Before Care as well as an optional add-on lunch program. Little campers will enjoy weekly themes that inspire indoor and outdoor age-appropriate songs, free play, crafts, sensory activities, stories and more.

Families can register for the Summer Day Camp and Summer Fun Camp on a week by week basis or take advantage of a full summer registration discount.

In addition to these exciting new programs, the Community Park District will continue to offer its incredibly popular Afternoon Antics program. Antics is a unique camp option that offers a nostalgic taste of how summers used to be. Children ages 6-12 will meet up in their neighborhood park (either Stone-Monroe or Robinhood) to enjoy afternoons full of free outdoor play, games, semi-structured crafts, and special events. This camp is exclusively outdoors and may be cancelled for inclement weather.

*The Community Park District’s new electronic Summer Camp Community Guide is available now at www.communityparkdistrict.org/programs/summer-camp. Resident registration for summer camps will open on Thursday, March 5. Nonresident registration will begin Thursday, March 12. *