Campers at Mennonite Heritage Village

Summer camps have started and that includes the Mennonite Heritage Village week long day camp in Steinbach.

Education Program Co-ordinator Angela Neufeld along with Blayne Stobbe have been leading the camp this week for ten kids ages 5-8 and Neufeld says it's a terrific group. She notes whether the activities are indoors or outdoors, the Village becomes the kids playground for a week.

“What we've been doing is each day kind of has s theme to it,” explains Neufeld when asked about the details of the week. “Today (Wednesday) is the transportation day, so one of the highlights is we went on a firetruck ride on Steinbach's very first firetruck, which the kids adored. Yesterday (Tuesday) we were helping out with the windmill with a real miller who knows how to grind grain. We also do arts and crafts, fun snacks like dirt cake and today was a child's birthday so we celebrated that.”

Campers feeding the animals.
While this is Neufeld's second year leading the day camp, it's Stobbe's first time. Neufeld says he's loving it and although by the end of the day you're exhausted, it's a good kind of exhausted because the kids are so precious and you can't wait for more adventures the next day.

Neufeld says most of the kids had never been to the museum before so it's great to be able to share the museum with all different age groups and generations. She notes there is one child visiting from New York that came to camp this week, there are also kids from Niverville and Steinbach.

“Well on Friday, I don't want to spoil too many suprises,” Neufeld laughs. “But the parents will be coming for a special presentation at 3:00. So we'll go on a wagon ride with them, they get to see all the arts and crafts we've made with the kids. Just a nice way to end.”

She adds there may also be cupcake decorating for the parents.

The camp runs from 10:00 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon. July 14-18th was for ages 5-8 and August 11-15th will be for ages 9-12, with spots still available to register.