Medfield Recreation Has Most Successful Year to Date

A young boy walks into the Medfield Recreation office, with a minor scrape on his knee. He’s not crying, just quiet. The Program Coordinator, Kevin Ryder, looks at the boy, smiled and congratulated him.

“That is awesome, good job!” he said. A counselor tended to the boy’s scraped knee before the camper perked up before going back out to play. Other counselors praised him for the scrape. That’s the positive environment Ryder wishes to create for the program and the children who participate. Even a playground battle scar is something to feel victorious about.

“Kids are going to get something out of it,” Ryder said. “I always say if the kids leave the camp sweating and smiling, we’ve done our job. They have fun and they don’t even know they’ve been running around all day.”

Ryder has been the program coordinator for six years. He said this year has been the most successful with the largest amount of children registered. He said he has always been a big advocate or taking photos, so when he saw many photos of the kids in the camp inside, he wanted to bring them outside.

“Outside is where kids should be,” Ryder said. “It’s not classroom time here, it’s more like gym time. It’s time to have fun.”

Ryder said the camp is also affordable, with two options for parents to choose from. One, the Summer Discovery Camp is for children four to eight-years-old. The Adventure and Teen Extreme Camp is for eight to 14-year-olds. A typical day includes a swim at Hinckley Pond, various sports, and a wide variety of games. Parents can decide whether they want their camper to be there for a half-day or a full-day.

The half-day program engages kids in activities from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. from Monday to Friday. This option costs $125 per week. The full day option is camp from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The campers range in ages from four to eight years old. This option costs parents $199 a week.

Each week has a different theme to keep the campers active and happy. Starting Aug. 5, the camp’s very last week, is water week, where children have their bathing suits on and play in water for the day.

After the final week of this particular camp, the Medfield Recreation department will help facilitate a John Smith Soccer camp, a science and a drama camp.

Ryder said he loves his job because of the smiles he sees on the near 200 campers every day. 

“Parents will tell me the kids will ask them on Saturday if it’s time to go to camp, and I think a big part of that is our staff. Everyone is connected to the kids. I have a great staff,” he said.

Ryder said although everyone is active, the camps aren’t catered just to the athletically inclined. “We have all sorts of games where anyone can win. We don’t just tailor to the best athletes. It helps them open up, it helps with self-esteem.”

Sign-ups for the camp is on a week to week basis and those interested in registering for the last week of the camp or for the science, drama or soccer camp, can go to medfieldrec.com for more information.