Applications for boys and girls between 10 and 13 years old to attend week-long summer camp at Camp Barnes are now available at Delaware State Police troops statewide. Delaware State Police officials have been running the free recreational camp locally since 1991 at the nearly 60-year-old camp.
The six-week camp is open to 360 kids statewide and spots are expected to fill fast. Children from low-income homes will receive first priority, according to Cpl. Brendan Warner, who runs the camp, but anyone is welcome to apply, he said.
“The kids that come down here have a blast,” Warner said. “It gives them an opportunity to come to a beautiful location on the water, interact with kids from all walks of life from all three counties and to make friendships that last forever.”
Warner stressed this week, though, that the camp is not run like a boot camp and not open to children with serious behavioral problems.
On alternating weeks starting the week of July 2, boys and girls will stay overnight at Camp Barnes from Monday to Friday, leaving Friday afternoon. Only Delaware residents ages 10 to 13 are eligible to apply. Recreational activities children will participate in during the week-long camp include swimming in an Olympic-sized pool, kayaking in Miller’s Creek, performing-arts and craft activities, walking on paths through the woods and performing in a talent show.
They will also get the chance to witness demonstrations by the state police’s K-9 dog unit and participate in a “scaled-down version of the Olympics” with games such as the softball throw and the “dizzy bat” where participants place their heads on the end of a baseball bat, spin around several times until sufficiently dizzy and race, stumbling, to a finish line. Warner said the camp is a fun and safe — a state police officer is on site 24 hours a day — summer destination for Delaware kids.
“I have kids that are now counselors that were campers when I worked there,” Warner said. “It leaves a lasting impression to interact with kids from all over the state.”
The non-profit camp is run to capacity annually on funding from a golf tournament, a stock-car race and some private donations, but is not itself a fundraiser for the state police, which does not benefit monetarily from it, Warner said. Camp Barnes is also leased to the Wilmington Parks and Recreation Department, which holds weekend camps there, and is used to host an annual Special Olympics sports camp.