For summer camp 2019 Click Here
Bridge School Summer Camp is open to all — both Bridge School students and non Bridge students!
Program Details
Bridge School Summer Camp is a holistic summer camp experience for rising 1st through rising 7th grader children. Register for one week, or register for all eight! Most weeks, there will be two choices for camp. Children in both camps will spend social time together during the day, such as recess, snack and lunch.
Choice 1: Bananas Camp
Bananas Camp is a well-rounded summer camp experience. At the heart of Bananas Camp is community, contentment, and choice. We work and play as a community, helping each other in hard times, and rejoicing in the good times. We strive to find contentment each day for every kid and staff, building on the foundations of community. Choices are limitless with how we spend our time: building forts; service back to the school; cooking snacks; launching rockets; big group games; watching the clouds pass; and doing it all over again. We always end up where we began–as a happy group ready for whatever comes next. Bananas Camp will be led by a combination of Dave, Julie and the weekly staff, depending on enrollment and interest.
Choice 2: Weekly Theme Camps
Most weeks, there will be a Theme Camp option. These camps gives students a specialized experience in a certain theme or topic. Working closely with an expert teacher, students will dive deeply into an artistic discipline, craft, hobby or sport. Children enrolled in Theme Camps, will have recess, snack and lunch with children enrolled in Bananas Camp.
Program Cost
Current Bridge School Students: $200 per week, per child for all camps
Non-Bridge School Students: $250 per week, per child for all camps
Program Times
All camps run from 9am-3pm
Aftercare is available until 5:00pm **Aftercare registration will occur once you have been enrolled in camp**
Program Dates and Options
- Bananas Camp (only option this week)
- Bananas Camp
- Carpentry Camp with Nick Cantrick: Hammers, nails, saws, and all things wooden. This camp will focus on the simple idea of taking chunks of wood, shaping them, cutting them, fastening them, and creating something new and wonderful. Projects will range from jigsaw puzzles to birdhouses to spoons to whatever we can imagine. The young carpenter will learn basic techniques and gain self confidence in the shop. Shop safety will always be a number one priority.
- Bananas Camp
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Farmer Herbalist with Julie Pacholik and Hillary Warren: Plants are magic. They heal, they sustain, they thrive, they surround us and they give. Each day we will be planting, growing, digging, and building. We will make salves, potions, and healing tonics. We will eat fresh food that delights the mouth, heals the body, and fills the belly. In the depths of winter its hard to imagine the bounty to come, but it will be there and it awaits these young farmers and herbalists.
- Carpentry Camp with Nick Cantrick: Because of the high demand of carpentry camp, we decided to open up another week of Carpentry with Nick. This camp is also on a waitlist
- Adventurer with Julie Pacholik and Claire Getz: There is so much world to see, there is so much Vermont to see. During this special camp there will be no Bananas Camp offered, only the Adventure Camp. Every day we will be driving all over Addison County to go on amazing adventures. Hikes up mountains, adventures into the forest, and relaxing moments by the water. Every adventurer will find their place in the Vermont wilderness.
- Bananas Camp
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Scientist with Jen Grilly: Physics, Chemistry, Biology… all these sciences are the tools that we use to describe the magic in the world. The goal of this camp is to have a blast while getting a hands-on scientific experience. We will build flying machines, mix together amazing chemicals, and dust off the microscopes and slides. It’s all in a days work for the young scientist.
- Bananas Camp
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Artist Dreamer with Joe Schine: The tools of the artist are: pens, paper, paints, and lots of colors. The dreamer uses the intangible: imagination, vision, creative power and lots of wildness. The artist dreamer mixes the two in order to create beauty and hope. Together we will push the edges of our creativity and challenge ideas of art. Who knows what the artist dreamer will create? Duct tape sculpture? Ceramic squarepants? Watercolor Jupiter? You’re guess is as good as mine.
- Bananas Camp
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Athlete with Dave Majzler and Nick Cantrick: Dust off those cleats and squeak up your sneakers–its time for some team sports! Basketball, ultimate frisbee, soccer, and floor hockey are just a few of the sports that we will play. Each day we will work on building skills, techniques and strategies for the athlete. More than anything, we will be focusing on working together, communication and the love of the game. Each day we will enter competition–not as enemies, but as friends– and we will end that way too. The real lesson the athlete will learn that winning is never more important than playing.
- Bananas Camp
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Otherworldly Realms with Dave Majzler: Every quest begins with a step into magic. We will become a team working together to play with the supernatural. Weather you want to become an orc, troll, fairy, elf, witch, or dark sorcerer there is a place for you at our table. Courage, imagination, openness, and teamwork are the skills we will be working with as we enter these otherworldly realms. Costumes encouraged.
Registration
Once the online registration (link above) has been submitted, you will mail your deposit of $50 per week, per child. **Note that your registration is not complete until your deposit has been received and you have gotten an email confirmation of receipt.**
Mail all checks to:
Bridge School Summer Camp
1469 Exchange St.
Middlebury, VT 05753
Final payment and completed Medical and Permission forms are due on May 15, 2018, for all camps. Failure to make payment and submit your completed forms on or before May 15th may result in forfeiting your enrollment.
Cancellation Policy
Cancellations 30 days or more before the first day of a camp will receive a full refund less the non-refundable deposit. Cancellations from 7 days to 30 days prior to the start of a program will receive 50% program credit (non-transferable and valid for one year), 50% balance forfeited. Cancellations less than 7 days prior to a program will receive no credit and no refund.
Camp Staff
Dave Majzler, Camp Director
Dave teaches Spanish, Science and Arts at Bridge School and is the Afterschool Program Director. Dave was born and raised in beautiful and sunny Boulder, Colorado. He received his bachelor’s degree in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2007. After graduation, Dave began a path towards organic farming, working on small scale diversified vegetable and animal farms in Colorado and California. In 2011, he went back to school and received a certificate from the University of California, Santa Cruz in Ecology Horticulture and Sustainable Farm Management. It was there that Dave first fell in love with teaching by spending his free time working for at “Life Lab,” a non-profit farm and garden education program that brings elementary school children to the farm to get connected to the food system.
From California, Dave moved up to Williams, Oregon to become the Education Coordinator at a 63 acre non-profit farm, White Oak Farm and Education Center. For two years, he ran educational programming for children with a diverse age range, from 2-year-olds all the way up to 18-year-olds. The programming at White Oak Farm varied from summer camps to daily preschool to overnight field trips and a yearlong internship program.
In 2014, Vermont called Dave out east and he instantly fell in love with the community, the people, the weather, the culture and everything else that makes up Addison County. Before talking over lead duties at Bridge Bananas and as a Bridge School enrichment teacher, Dave worked as a paraprofessional at the Hannaford Career Center in the automotive, diesel and forestry classes, as well as a managing the farm at the north campus.
Julie Pacholik, Assistant Camp Director
Julie Pacholik was born and raised in Sacramento, California and spent much of her childhood packed into the family van en route to any number of California’s Parks and wilderness areas. From Death Valley to Yosemite, Point Rayes to the Giant Sequoias. When it was time to leave home, she felt called to the magic of the coastal redwoods and spent her college years studying Environmental Studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz. It was during this time she discovered backpacking and took multiple field courses in California and Alaska.
After receiving her BA she decided she needed to break out of the California bubble and has spent the subsequent years teaching outdoor education all across the country. Most recently, she worked at a non-profit, educational farm in Southern Oregon teaching forest ecology, sustainable agriculture, and cooking.
When not at Crow’s Path (the non profit she has been working at for the past 3 years) you can find her at Bridge School, frolicking barefooted in the garden, making herbal salve, or drinking Japanese green tea.
Hillary Warren, Weekly Staff & Specialist Teacher
Hired at Bridge School to help transition the after school program into a certified, well-loved, and respected program, she has been an absolute asset. She has a knack for taking care of kids’ health–both emotionally and physically. Before moving to Vermont, Hillary was an archaeologist in Europe and the deserts of the southwest, working closely with Native American tribes to protect our country’s cultural resources. Before joining the Bridge School team she worked as a farmer at Elmer Farm in East Middlebury.
Nick Cantrick, Weekly Staff & Specialist Teacher
A true jack of all trades, Nick has been a farmer, a welder, a carpenter, a white water raft guide, an elementary school teacher, an activist and a philosopher. His upbeat and charismatic energy is contagious, and kids respond immediately to it. What a joy to have him on staff.
Joe Schine, Weekly Staff & Specialist Teacher
A long time Middlebury resident, he is a valued member of both the Bridge community as well as Middlebury. He worked for years at Bridge School as an enrichment teacher and after school program director. He is a talented artist and an inspiration to be around.
Claire Getz, Weekly Staff & Specialist Teacher
Claire was a part of the Bridge School staff for 5 years, bringing her talents to the school. She was called to Maine to help her family’s business and has been missed by staff and students alike. Claire grew up in Middlebury, and still thinks of it as her home–thus, she has a unique knowledge of the land and hidden gems that few people know about!
Jen Grilly, Weekly Staff & Specialist Teacher
Jen is one of the three Home Center teachers at Bridge School. In her past she worked as a wilderness educator guide, leading kids on 50 day journeys into the Alaska Wild, and bike tours in Scotland. She then spent a few years as a middle school science teacher before coming to Bridge bringing a holistic, student centered, mentality to the school.