Arts Council summer camp a success

The Ellis Kids Camp did so well last week the Philadelphia-Neshoba County Arts Council is already planning to host the camp again next summer, according to Arts Council President Kinsey Goldman.

“We thought it went great considering this was our first time doing the camp in a very long time,” Goldman said. 

The Ellis Kids Camp ran from Tuesday, June 13 through Friday, June 16. Goldman said kids who participated in the camp learned how to dance, learned choreography, and did an art project where they painted stars with their names on a canvas similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

The camp ended with a grand finale of all the kids singing and dancing to different songs they learned throughout the week.

“We had over 70 kids at the camp and around 20 adults helping us,” Goldman said. 

The kids learned several different songs such as “Be Our Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast. 

On Friday they did a final performance. 

The younger kids sang “Hard Knock Life” from “Annie,” the middle group sang “Any Dream Will Do” from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat,” and the oldest group sang “Red Ryder Carbine Action BB Gun” from “A Christmas Story.” 

Goldman said this is the first camp they’ve done at the Ellis in at least 15 years, and the council is looking forward to continuing the camp next year. 

“We also introduced a lot of new kids to theatre, since the overwhelming majority of kids in the camp were first-timers.”

Morgan Jay, one of the camp directors, said she and her daughter had a great time.  

“It blew up more than we were expecting and we had over 70 kids,” Jay said. “They learned the ins and outs of the theatre, stage directions, and cues, and the final performance was a Broadway-style of music.” 

Jay’s daughter, Bailey Jay, said her favorite part of the camp was performing and dancing along to “Hard Knock Life.”

“I really like to perform and I enjoyed the choreography and the dances,” Jay said.

PNC Arts Council Member Tim Moore said his daughter, Hannah also thoroughly enjoyed the camp.