S’Klallam’s summer club seizes the days

Published 3:00 pm Saturday, July 22, 2006

PORT GAMBLE — Summer days at the Port Gamble S’Klallam House of Knowledge Complex have routinely offered an environment for children to constructively spend their time out of school.

This year, for the first time, the tribe’s educational summer club offered full days of fun.

In recent years, the Port Gamble S’Klallam summer club, which provides a camp-like environment to keep kids (ages 6-12) engaged over the course of the summer, had always been a half-day affair. This year, parents and teachers are discovering the benefits of full-day sessions.

“It makes it easier for families by giving kids a place to go,” said tribal career and education director Jill Metcalf, noting that prolonging the sessions had likely been a factor in the club’s increased enrollment for 2006. “Last year, we had about 60 students, this year we’ve got 84. So that is a pretty significant step up.”

As enticing as this year’s full-day format was for working parents, the club’s programs, events and curricula were lures for students.

Each day of the week, students explored different themes as Mondays focused on the environment, Tuesdays were for sports, Wednesdays studied health, Thursdays celebrated the S’Klallam culture, and Fridays were reserved for field trips, Metcalf said.

“Culture days are my favorite days,” said age 9-12 teacher Monica Butchart. “Especially learning the (S’Klallam) language. It will help the kids remember the language when they hear it later on, if they have heard it before.”

S’Klallam culture is distinctly interwoven into the summer club programs as kids practiced the tribal language with flash cards and culture day sing-alongs. Also deeply rooted in the S’Klallam summer club programs are elements of rudimentary education that students can pick up almost subconsciously.

One of the educational highlights of the program, Butchart said, came each day after lunchtime when the older and younger groups combined for buddy reading time.

“Reading and math are integrated into the program so much so that they don’t even (realize) that they are learning,” Metcalf said. “(Summer club) keeps (kids) active, giving them a place to socialize in a structured environment.”

This year’s structure included events like a field trip to Hurricane Ridge, numerous opportunities for athletic activities and a day learning to pull a canoe while lessons of kindness, respect and caring constantly resound, said Butchart, who has been an instructor for three years.

“(The program) got me on board when I was still in college, now after I graduated I’m back again,” Butchart said. “I enjoy the kids a lot, and I like coming back and kind of watching them grow up.”

One such student, 15-year-old Ramona Tom, was a student during Butchart’s first year with the summer club and is now a teacher’s aid as part of the S’Klallam summer work program for teens.

The work program provides a half day of paid labor for teens who are taking credit retrieval summer school courses for the remainder of the day. From office jobs to groundskeeping, the program teaches lessons in responsibility, while bolstering students’ pocketbooks, Metcalf said.

“I like hanging out with these kids … they’re fun,” Tom said Thursday as she watched the age 9-12 summer club group ready a cedar canoe for a test sail. “Sometimes I forget that I am even working out here on the beach in the sun.”