By Rosanna Trestman
As one can see by this issue’s lead story, grown-ups can expect a summer chock a block with summer entertainment in Norfolk. The Arts Wave! weekend, an impressive effort by any standards, comes on top of our annual program of student and professional concerts at the Music Shed, drawing classes and art exhibits hosted by the Yale School of Art, the book fair and church fair, and the weekly Farmers Market. The list is seemingly endless.
Fortunately for Norfolk children, the options are just as exciting and are strung out over the duration of the summer. First and foremost, the week-long art camp offered by the Yale School is a perennial favorite. Maybe because it is taught by the art students or because it falls on the first week of summer vacation, but there is vitality in the program not seen in most summer-long art camps. In short, the kids just love it.
The other enduring favorite is Miss Eileen’s (Fitzgibbons) Summer Reading Program sponsored by the Norfolk Library. Sound like a drag? Hardly. This year it kicked off with a party at Tobey Pond where a good-sized crowd moved to the rhythms of a steel drum band and shared in a pot luck supper. “Make a Splash” is this year’s theme for a summer full of fun programs and, hopefully, fun reading. On August 26, the celebration culminates in a Polynesian party.
Some summer pickings recur annually, but are still worth a reminder: Camp Jewel in Colebrook runs week-long day camper sessions. They offer a gamut of activities, including horseback riding, for an extra charge. It is a YMCA camp and is very reasonably priced. Since it is open only to Norfolk and Colebrook kids, car-pooling should be easy. Horseback riding lessons can also be taken with Norfolk’s Victoria Sleeper of Terra Cello Riding Camp.
There is plenty of hiking close to home such as in the Norfolk Land Trust Trails (maps are at the library), Great Mountain Forest trails and Campbell Falls. One can hike at Action Wildlife Foundation in Goshen, but its real draw is its menagerie of exotic animals from countries as distant as New Zealand, India and the arctic.
Farther afield are cultural venues with exhibits specifically for children such as the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield and the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass. The Hancock Shaker Village is particularly suited to young and old. A variety of crafts and demonstrations go on through the day, but their special fairs are especially fun.
It’s quite possible that one could go to a fair every weekend of summer. In Connecticut alone, one can attend the Major, District, 4-H, Agricultural and Local fairs. Then throw in the Big-E and don’t forget the Goshen Fair on Labor Day weekend.
Ever wonder what happens to ski trails in the summer? New to the summer scene are zip lines and X-Treme mountain bike trails. Catamount Ski Area recently opened an Aerial Adventure Park where zip lines and swinging bridges thread through a four-acre forest. There are several levels, including one for young children. “Freeride Catamount” offers mountain bike trails that include features such as ‘ladder drops,’ ‘table-top jumps,’ [you get the idea], for cyclists. This activity may not be suitable for all children.
After dark the family can head over to the Pleasant Valley Drive-In (one of the two remaining drive-ins in Connecticut). It screens two films a night, the first one geared to children. The problem is that they must wait for dark to run the reel, which is at 9 p.m. during the summer. It’s guaranteed that the little ones will be asleep by the time you get home, and that may not be a bad thing.
The list goes on. When you’ve run out of day trips and pick-your-owns and soccer camps and the Audubon Center… there’s always Tobey.