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By James Ensor
Hometown Weekly Reporter
One wouldn’t know that I-95 was right up the road at the secluded Jarvis Farm property in Walpole. Up a dirt road, next to a pond and surrounded by trees is the Walpole Woods summer camp, providing a badly-needed option for kids who want the camp experience without traveling far from home.
The camp, in its fifth week of the eight-week program, was filled with laughing kids and counselors on Friday August 4. On that particular afternoon, the campers were making “flubber,” a gooey substance made famous by the Disney film of the same name. Not all activities at Walpole Woods are as messy as Flubber manufacturing, though.
“We do a lot of hands-on science activities, a bunch of large group games, and since we unfortunately can’t swim in the pond right now, we have big inflatable water slides,” said Sara Hootstein, a senior counselor. “We do water balloon games to keep everyone cool. We do tie-dye once a week. On rainy days, we play minute-to-win-it games and board games. There are art cabins where campers can make jewelry, and every Tuesday and Thursday, we have archery.”
Walpole Woods plays host to 50-60 campers daily who range in age from rising first-graders to sixth-graders. The fun with friends also gets educational, with once-weekly science experiments a weekly lesson from Museum of Science, and two weeks in which Mad Science of Boston visits. Campers will surely continue to enjoy their time at Walpole Woods until the camp comes to a close for the summer on August 26.
