What do 14 donors, one Foundation, 33 kids, and 5 adults equal? An amazing week of fun team-building activities, and meeting kids from another city while experiencing the outdoors like never before!
On July 17th, over 30 PPS middle school students and five chaperones boarded buses to leave the city and ended up on a piece of wooded property outside of Lewistown, IL, some 60 minutes away. And despite being just one hour away, students experienced a whole new world. At first nervous, students slowly started getting into the swing of the activities. The City Kids Camp had everything to give students new experiences. The activities included fishing, swimming, giant GaGa pits, giant chess, trampolines, rock climbing, soccer, volleyball, obstacle courses, hiking, softball, basketball, and more! Students were able to roast hot dogs and make smores over a campfire while getting to meet students from Chicago.
Students had an incredible experience and were sad the camp was coming to an end. Students were kept active the full day so bus rides home were abnormally quiet.
A large, matching donation came in from the Gilmore Foundation to the Peoria Public Schools Foundation, and then fourteen other donations came in from private citizens and businesses sponsoring students to attend the camp. Peoria Public Schools rounded out the costs by covering transportation and chaperone salaries. It was a great collaborative effort that paid off in new experiences for PPS students!
