Camp Cathedral’s Anthony Ernst is convinced there is a reason many of its 80-plus summer camps sell out quickly.
“Our camps are in high demand, and we sell out a number of them,” said Ernst, the director of summer programs. “One of the reasons the enrichment camps are in high demand is that people know the quality of our camps. They love the idea that their child is not stuffed into a room with 30 or 40 other kids. They are in a camp with 12 to 15 kids in it. There is plenty of counselor supervision and interaction with their children. The kids have a great time and get to know their counselors well. The kids get to know the smaller group of kids they attend the camp with, and I think that’s one of the major benefits of Camp Cathedral is we are small on purpose.”
Camps are broken down by age groups from kindergarten through eighth grade.
Although many camps have sold out, Ernst said there are still several middle school camps remaining, including competitive speech camp, Minecraft, show choir, creative and drama.
Ernst said two new middle school camps, fifth through eighth grade, with room are the media, podcast and broadcasting camp and exploring the world of dance camp.
Another popular camp with openings is aviation and flight engineering.
“They go out and learn at the Mt. Comfort Airport,” Ernst said. “They get to get inside a plane. They don’t fly but they learn what goes on with a flight and the maintenance of flight and engineering of flight. They build rockets and models. They take a tour of a jet. It’s sponsored by the Civil Air Patrol.
A cross country distance camp and a hurdlers camp for middle school students have replaced the track and field camp, Ernst said.
There is a new exploring the world of dance camp.
“Last year, we added a couple new sessions of our science camp,” Ernst said. “We added an early child introduction to science camp. We offered an additional arts camp.”
Ernst said the safari camp for little kids always seems to sell out along with filmmakers camp for middle school students.
“The robotics and Minecraft camps are always popular,” Ernst said.
Another popular camp is American Girl for kindergarten through third grade.
“The girls bring their doll along and they design accessories throughout the week,” Ernst said. “Each day has a theme based on one of the historical American Girl dolls. They interact with our counselors and they create these accessories, clothing and other crafted items.”
A new camp added last year was pirates, ninjas and wizards for younger ages.
“It’s a new adventure every day and using imagination,” Ernst said. “Kids get to be creative and do crafts, everything from a physical fitness obstacle course to making magic potions to creating a disguise.”
Ernst said Cathedral High School has a strong reputation in sports and Camp Cathedral offers sessions in every IHSAA sport.
For the complete schedule, visit gocathedral.com/on-campus/campcathedral.
