BENTONVILLE — It’s less than a month until spring break unleashes students from school for a week of freedom, and some parents may be wondering just how to corral the excess energy brought on by warm weather and spare time.
“There’s a lot of people that leave town, but there’s a lot of people that don’t,” said David Wright, director of the Parks and Recreation Department.
Wright’s department will offer a new program to help keep children occupied and enriched if they are staying in Bentonville over spring break. Camp Spring Break is a half-day camp from March 18-22 for 50 children ages 8 to 12. Camp backdrops include Memorial Park, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and sites around downtown Bentonville.
At A Glance
Spring Break Options For Children
• Camp Spring Break (ages 8-12): 8 a.m. to noon March 18-22. Cost: $60. Register online at bentonvillear.com through March 8.
• Camp Mountain Bike (ages 8-14): 1-4 p.m. March 23. Cost: $20. Register online at bentonvillear.com through March 8.
Source: City Of Bentonville
“When your kids come to our camp, they show up at 8 a.m. and we keep them moving for four hours,” Wright said.
The city saw a need for active, half-day camps and tested it last summer with Camp Memorial and Camp Downtown Bentonville. The programs were a success, said Josh Stacey, camp director.
“They were really a big hit,” Stacey said. “We expanded from just four weeks to triple that number.”
Several children who participated in last year’s camps have signed up for the new camps. The city program will join the Boys & Girls Club and Adventure Club to offer spring break solutions for parents and children, but with a different twist. Instead of an all-day camp in one place, the city hopes to provide shorter days with excursions.
“We wanted to offer some unique experiences in four-hour blocks,” Stacey said. “We knew we could offer something a little bit different that we think parents and kids will both like.”
Participants at Camp Spring Break will play sports such as soccer or kickball, visit Crystal Bridges and take tours of downtown, according to the city’s website.
The cost is $60, but parents who can’t afford the fee still have options, Stacey said. The city offers a few scholarships funded by local businesses.
While the camp is available to children from any city, scholarships are only offered to Bentonville campers.
In addition to Camp Spring Break, the city will offer a one-day mountain bike camp March 23. The three-hour camp is for children ages 8 to 14 and will be held at Park Springs Park.
This will be the second time the city has offered a mountain bike camp, though the camp in the fall was broken into shorter sessions over a week. The camp is for all levels of riders, from beginners to skilled mountain bikers, Stacey said.
Parks staff is planning to offer a half-dozen camps this summer. Camp Downtown Bentonville, Camp Memorial, Camp Mountain Bike and Camp Soccer will return, while Camp Adventure and Camp Construct were added to the lineup.
The department will offer a camp every week from June 10 through Aug. 9, Stacey said.
“If we learned anything from last year, we learned that there is a need for active camps for children,” Wright said. “Based on that need, we continue to grow.”