STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATE DALY

For hundreds of Blaine County students, school just let out again. Friday, July 24, was the last day of SummerBridge Education Camp for 275 rising first, second, third, fourth and fifth-graders from all over the county who have spent the last five weeks bolstering their literacy and math skills at Alturas Elementary School in Hailey.

Designed to be both fun and instructional, the program is run by the Blaine County School District and the Wood River Community YMCA, with support from the College of Idaho, Lee Pesky Learning Center, Far + Wise, Environmental Resource Center, Hunger Coalition, and Blaine County Education Foundation.

Classroom teachers recommend students who are one to two years behind in literacy and math skills in hopes they won’t experience further learning loss over the summer. they also hope the students will make gains with the help of a four-to-one educator-to-student ratio.

The schedule has students starting at 8:30 a.m. and staying as late as 5 p.m.

The teaching staff includes 18 Blaine County School District teachers and paraprofessionals and 46 teaching assistants, the majority of whom are Y employees and bilingual. New this year: 18 interns from the College of Idaho who are living at the Sun Valley Community School campus.

“We cover their tuition, room and board, they get college credit, and we pay for a faculty advisor to be there,” said Anna Nielsen, associate executive Director of Youth Development and Education at the Y.

Wood River Community YMCA Chief Executive Officer Jason Shearer noted that the internships and apprenticeships are the first jobs for many of the students. They get to help provide positive experiences for kids with significant opportunity gaps.

“These are kids who are living with food and housing insecurity and homelife challenges,” he added.

Shearer said there was a net change difference of 12 points in literacy and 27 in math for last summer’s SummerBridge students between spring and fall.

“In SummerBridge the classes are more fun; they don’t pressure me when we do math, we do games,” said Alex, a fourth-grader.

Throughout the summer students go on field trips every week. They also receive more than 100 hours of academic instruction. But at 2 p.m. it’s camp time complete with campfire stories and songs. Just like those away at a summer camp, they also make lanyards, friendship bracelets, dream catchers and other arts and crafts activities.

Shearer is enthusiastic about the extra layer of social emotional learning that’s woven into the curriculum, giving leaders a chance to discuss such topics as friendship, empathy, resilience and bullying with the students.

“All is focused on optimism or identifying what’s right,” he said.

Teaching materials range from reading the book, “Train Your Angry Dragon,” to creating an emoji or drawing a personal hero. Interestingly, no celebrities showed up in that exercise, but grandmas and God did.

Second grader Athrizi said that her favorite part of SummerBridge was the field trips.

“Especially Redfish Lake and the YMCA because of the waterslide,” she added.

In fact, hundreds more kids have been spending their summer vacation at the Y, participating on the Swordfish traveling swim team, and/or attending Nature Explorers Camp, Climbing Camp, Horse Thief (overnight camp) and Discovery Day Camp.

The Community Library Bookmobile adds to the learning experience, stopping by to recommend books about nature or climbers.

Financial assistance is available for all of the Y’s programs, thanks to the generosity of numerous donors.  On that note, tickets for the Y's annual major fundraiser are still available.  Hosted by Steve Holzman, Classic 2026 will include a live auction, drinks, dinner and dancing to the Jeff Crosby Band on Friday, July 31.