RUMFORD — Midway though the the first year of the YMCA Day Camp, organizers say the children have been staying busy learning life lessons and have a ton of fun.

Camp Director Melissa Porter said the six-week July and August camp has been a success for the 30-plus campers ages 8-11 who have been gathering at Mountain Valley High School.

“This is more than a camp as we also teach life lessons,” Porter said. “The biggest thing, obviously, is to have fun. But also to be responsible, respectful and safe with each other. And not all these kids go to school together. They’re all meeting new friends.”

Porter said everybody at the school has been so helpful. “There’s a lot of kids here because they’re doing all the summer school out of these buildings,” she said.

“There’s a food program here, so they’re getting breakfast and lunch every day through the school, which is amazing,” she added.

Porter said Regional School Unit 10 is helping with transportation, including weekly field trips.

“We do outdoor life, so every morning we go on the Inland Woods + Trails’ trails,” Porter said. “We’ll give them different tasks, like today, for arts and crafts they made a journal, and they used things they collected, like flowers. They do an arts and crafts most every day. They’re learning different sports. Every afternoon, we try to do a different sport.”

She added that they also have a slip and slide, “because it’s been very warm, so that’s been a lifesaver. They’ve been using that every afternoon.”

Porter’s son, Cohen Carrier, who just turned 12, shared his experience with the camp.

“I liked that we’ve had so much fun activities, and we get to be outside,” he said. “I’ve met a lot of people I’ve never met before and we’ve become good friends.”

All of the counselors are Mountain Valley graduates, Porter said. They are Alyvia Theriault and Lily Bedard, who are going to school for early childhood; Michael Chase, who wants to be pediatric nurse; and Layce Boucher and Kloee Pelletier.

On one recent afternoon, the campers were playing a game of gaga ball, led by counselor Chase. Gaga ball is a variant of dodgeball that is played in a gaga “pit.” The game combines dodging, striking, running and jumping, with the objective of being the last person standing. Players hit the ball at each other with their hands, and are eliminated if the ball strikes them on or below the knee.

“I used to work at a daycare. This is so much different than that,” Chase said. “A lot of what we do is based on what the kids are interested in, so they love this.”

Chase said a lot of what they teach is about social awareness and accountability. A disagreement during gaga ball one day turned into a lesson about honesty and conflict resolution skills.

“Kids will come up and say, ‘This kid did this to me and this happened…’ and I tell them ‘I want you to think about … what can you do to solve this problem because I wasn’t there and I can’t handle the problem for you,’” Chase said.

Chase pointed out a brother and a sister who are new to the area. At first, they were always together at the camp, and now they have made different friends and have started hanging out with them.

“It’s really good to see that because with the two-year age difference they have, they’re not going to be able to be with each other all the time (at school),” Chase said. ‘And a lot of these kids really wouldn’t mix together at school because they just don’t fall in the same social circles because they already had these pre-established friends.

“Here, they kinda have to be able to interact with them, play games with them and be kind, and be friends,” he added. “This is a big part of seeing success in the whole program.”

This summer program is provided through support and collaboration with The Conservation Fund along with the town of Rumford, Mountain Valley High School, Friends of River Valley, Inland Woods & Trails, the Oxford Federal Credit Union, Orion Property Professionals, ND Paper and YMCA of Auburn-Lewiston.

As a result, Porter said anyone who applied to the camp was able to get 100% funded if needed.

On the second camp week, the field trip was to the YMCA of Auburn-Lewiston, which started two weeks before the one in Rumford.

“So they got to do stuff that they never done before. They got to do archery. They got to do low ropes. They got to go in the pool there,” Porter said. “So we had a great time doing that. That’s going to be our field trip for the last week.”

Porter said the camp is modeled after the Auburn-Lewiston camp, so as part of her training she got to go with their director to do trainings with them. From this, she learned how to train her staff.

“It’s been great. I’ve had a great experience with the Y. And Abby (Fuller), who runs their camp, is amazing. She’s taught me a lot, for sure,” she said.