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“It’s Great to Create!”

That was the theme of a weeklong art camp that replaced the usual Vacation Bible School at in Coopersville, Mich.

The church tripled its usual VBS attendance of 40 when 120 children from age 7 through 14 came to create art and meet in small groups.

Jill Meyer directed the art camp and said the church wanted to“give kids an opportunity to express themselves through the arts with their creative ability, connecting that to God's creation and his creativeness.”

Bottle cap art class at Lamont’s art camp

Gloria Westveld

Each day included small group time, large group singing, skits with a biblical theme, and several rotations of hour-long art classes that each student could choose prior to the week.

Emilee Prins, 15, was one of the small group leaders. She said it “was neat to see how they worked together.”

Each camper preregistered for their preferred classes, taking up to 15 of the 30 art classes offered. Classes included marker art, building Lego™ towns and robots, studying poetry of Shel Silverstein, Shrinky Dinks™, decoupage, cooking, drama, woodworking and more.

“Kids love the arts and crafts,” said Meyer. “Our first applicants were eight eighth-grade boys.”

At the end of the camp week, 500 people attended a free picnic offered by the church where art camp projects were displayed and a drama was produced by the campers.

“We’re encouraged, we’re reaching out,” said Meyer.