Children from Stettler attending the United Church/St. George’s Anglican Church’s vacation bible camp were headed to the “SKY” this year, as the theme, “Up, up, and away we go” took them on sky-themed adventures throughout the week.
Children aged from four to 11 were split into three different flight crews, each guided by teen attendants Jacob Hill, Elyse Gibson, Kayla Gibson and Robin Yaremcio, according to Barbara-Lynn Goodwin, coordinator of the VBS.
There were four flight stations for each crew to visit during the day.
The Flight School station, led by Brooke Torgerson, saw kids take part in “parachute skydiving,” blind man’s puzzle, “Owie, owie, out,” giant bubble blowing and rope skipping.
At another station, Sky Creations, Kersti Shoemaker helped flight crews make handcrafted stars, tropical birds, butterflies, and 3D clouds.
Children at Aviations Investigations, led by Charlotte Chase and Sue Stratulate, flight-tested fizzy rockets, hovercrafts, catapult paper airplanes, straw airplanes, balloon rockets and wooden planes.
Finally, at the last station, the Sonic Snack station, crews made snacks – layered parfaits, mini barbells and “troubled hearts.”
All five days of Sky Camp also included stories and music, led by Pam Blake and Goodwin respectively, and daily worship led by reverends Caroline Langford and Jan Richardson.
Each day had its own theme, and the activities at the stations and the snacks were centred around this theme, Goodwin explained.
Special guests included Howard Fenske and Ray O’Hara, who brought two remote control aircraft and shared their stories of remote control flying, and Bethany Cyr who artistically painted rainbows, birds, butterflies, and bugs on the campers faces.
“By week’s end the campers had constructed a model airplane and rocket ship from giant cardboard boxes and created a 15’ mural of the sky, complete with sun, moon, stars, rainbow, raindrops and snowflakes,” Goodwin said.
The items will be on display for the remainder of the summer at the Stettler United Church Hall.