ROCHELLE — With only a few more weeks to go, local youngsters are wrapping up a summer of fun spent at day camp.
The group is enrolled in the Rochelle Community Park District’s Summer Day Camp program that runs for 10 weeks starting in June, providing a summer full of activities.
Last week the Summer Day Camp took a field trip to the Rochelle Fire Department to check out the station and fire trucks. On Tuesday they will be going to the Rochelle Police Department.

“We’ve had over 30 kids come to camp so far this summer,” said park district program coordinator Jillian Wise. “This is our highest year, it’s been pretty cool.”
Assistant coordinator Yensy Garcia explained along with the field trips, crafts, outdoor activities, the campers have had visits a local veterinarian, cooking tips from the University of Illinois Extension, and swim at Spring Lake Pool, weather permitting.
“We have a program through the food bank, and on Tuesdays and Fridays the campers are provided with recipes and food for the kids to make,” Garcia said.
Each week is a different theme for the campers, from Olympic related, to space, and the great outdoors. The camp is scheduled Mondays through Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Summer day camp may very well be a place where kids start out as strangers and become fast friends, which lasts for years.
“The kids have a cool experience, and when they get to the middle school level, or in little league…in a completely unrelated setting, they have a friend automatically,” Wise said. “They might live in different neighborhoods or be different ages. That’s one of my favorite things about summer camp is seeing those friendships form.”