The Roanoke Rapids Graded School District sponsored a summer camp for  “English as a Second Language” (ESL) students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. Students were offered the opportunity to participate in a summer camp enrichment program held at Belmont Elementary School.

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Students from Manning Elementary, Belmont Elementary and Chaloner Middle School enjoyed activities based around an art and sports related theme. They completed many art projects, learned about the vocabulary and rules of several different sports and listened to the presentations of guest speakers from the community, including Kevin Kupietz, the fire service and EMS coordinator at Halifax Community College, Assistant Chief Stacy Coggins and other representatives from the Roanoke Rapids Fire Department, a representative from the Roanoke Valley Rescue Squad and Dick McCormick, Small Business Center director at Halifax Community College, who spoke to the students about hiking.

The guest speakers provided entertaining and exciting learning experiences for the campers. McCormick spoke to the students about hiking, shared the gear that hikers use, pictures of his own hiking experiences and reviewed vocabulary of these items. Kupietz, the fire service and EMS coordinator at Halifax Community College, brought a training mannequin and shared first aid methods with the students. The students were able to practice these methods on the mannequin and have their own heart rate taken with a monitor. A representative of the Roanoke Valley Rescue Squad brought an ambulance for the students to see and shared the materials in the ambulance with them. The representatives of the Roanoke Rapids Fire Department demonstrated different types of gear fire fighters wear, gave fire safety tips to the students and allowed students to see different parts of the fire engine.

Using the summer camp themes of art and sports, students completed many literacy based activities to strengthen their reading and communication skills. During the two week program, the students played basketball, soccer, kickball and hiking. Students had a great time, learned more about American culture and learned a great amount of vocabulary. They also made wooden models, completed their own papier-máché project, and worked with paint, beads and other art materials. The students were taught during the summer camp by Cheri Johnson and Sandra McCormick, ESL tutors in the Roanoke Rapids Graded School District, and Heather Wynne, ESL coordinator.