For the young street hockey fan who wants to learn new tricks and expand his skills, there are several summer camps in Vermont from which to choose. These camps vary in their skills levels and objectives, and they offer children of varied ages, abilities and gender different sets of learning experiences.
Day or Overnight Camps
Street hockey summer camps in Vermont are day camps or overnight. The day camp focuses exclusively on street hockey. The overnight camps have street hockey activities among their offerings. Riley Rink in Manchester offers a day camp, as of 2010, for beginners that lasts five weeks, on Mondays and Wednesdays. Skills lessons alternate between street hockey outdoors and ice hockey indoors. Overnight camps with street hockey available are Camp Billings and Lanakila, both in Fairlee.
Age and Gender
Camps cater to different age groups and genders. Lanakila is for boys, ages 8 to 14. Lanakila means "victory" in Hawaiian. The camp philosophy includes the goal of "becoming our best selves, and growing up to be good men." Camp Billings is a summer overnight camp for girls or boys ages 8 to 15, as of 2010. Younger children--boys or girls in kindergarten to fifth grade--participate in the Riley Rink summer camp program.
Location and History
Lanakila and Camp Billings are both on Lake Fairlee, in the Green Mountains of Vermont, one hour southeast of Montpelier, near the New Hampshire border and I-91. Camp Billings, on eight acres, opened in 1906 with a donation of land from the Billings family. The Aloha Foundation operates Lanakila, which is just one of a family of summer camps run by the foundation, each geared toward specific genders, age groups and interests. The Gulick family founded the camp in 1905. Riley Rink is an Olympic-size ice rink for public and private ice skating at Hunter Park in Manchester in the foothills of the Green Mountains.
Features
At Camp Billings, street hockey is one of dozens of sports for campers to enjoy. Others include tennis, basketball, dodgeball, court and beach volleyball, street hockey, lacrosse, football, soccer, bocce, croquet, Frisbee golf, ultimate Frisbee, archery, baseball and kickball. Lanakila also offers a variety of sports to its campers, but street hockey has some unique features. Campers of all ages and abilities play on the full-length, outdoor street hockey court. There are informal and formal programs, including pickup games and clinics, and each summer, there is a much-anticipated tournament called the Boffey Cup, captained by older campers.
Considerations
The overnight camps of Lanakila and Camp Billings offer their summer campers a wide range of activities. Campers participate in swimming, hiking, camping, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, crafts, arts, drama and organized games in addition to the street hockey facilities. At Lanakila, boys wear a simple uniform of white T-shirts and gray shorts or jeans. Lanakila emphasizes nonmotorized boating to encourage competence and self-esteem. Lanakila uses a philosophy of success counseling that focuses on self-evaluation and creative problem-solving, as opposed to blaming, shaming, excuse-making or inappropriate anger. Neither camp has a religious denomination.
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