La Mesa Middle School Cooks Up Replacement to Sixth-Grade Camp

Instead on a campfire, the kids roasted marshmallows over a propane-fueled Brinkman barbecue. Instead of Hershey bars, they spread chocolate frosting over graham crackers.

Instead of Sixth-Grade Camp, students at La Mesa Middle School this week had Camp Wildcat.

Eliminated by the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District after decades, the five-day, four-night tradition in the Cuyamaca Mountains was revived as best they could on campus.

Everything but the “cold showers and goopy food,” said Beth Thomas, principal of La Mesa Middle, who helped lead camp songs in her blue Wildcat T-shirt.

No detail was overlooked at the June 2-8 camp, including that sticky-sweet tradition: s’mores.

Parent volunteer Patty Ziga on Wednesday helped prepare the metal skewers and spread frosting on the crackers (even though she says she doesn’t like chocolate herself).  She had some Hershey bars packed away for the sticklers. (The teacher feared the bars wouldn’t melt fast enough, so out came the frosting.)

Jake Angeles, a sixth-grade volunteer, helped Ziga by holding the crackers for the hot marshmallows.

Jake says he’s had lots of s’mores, since “I go camping a lot.”  Ziga didn’t have the concoction earlier in life, though.  She grew up in Mexico City, she says.

Teacher David Tilley, who specializes in language arts and history, asked for a quick show of hands Wednesday on who had never had s’mores before.  Of 29 children, seven said this was their first taste of the treat.

With school about to end, Tilley also was grateful for having a job.  At least two of the organizers of Camp Wildcat—Amy Dow and Samantha Webster—were being laid off. Stephanie Lindsey, laid off at Parkway Middle School, also helped.

Tilley had missed the layoff cut by one month’s seniority—even though he’d been a teacher in the district for 10 years, including four at La Mesa Middle, he said.

Elsewhere on campus Wednesday, children practiced Indian dances (see video) and went on nature hikes at Highwood Park above the school. Others went hunting for fauna—A through Z, including the adjacent xeriscape, low-water garden near the band room.

Principal Thomas said: “Camp Wildcat came about as a result of Sixth Grade Camp being cut this year. …  Tracy Flanagan and Lori Powell took on the enormous task of planning events, rotations of students, grouping of students, and purchasing materials for this complete extravaganza.”

Students also went on an all-day hiking trip to Louis Stelzer County Park in Lakeside.

“The two teachers heading this up took their own time to go to the training session at the park in order to become expert guides,” Thomas said. “We have had two assemblies where animal shows have been brought to the school. We have had the ‘frog lady’ come as one of the rotations. There has been a star lab presented to the students.”

Kathleen Brand, a parent volunteer, worked with Neal Shannon on a nature walk at Highwood Park.

The culminating event was a sixth-grade barbecue on Wednesday. 

Thomas also noted that the entire sixth-grade teaching team was in the midst of packing boxes to move their classrooms to the elementary schools—another fallout from district budget cuts that eliminated Sixth-Grade Camp.

 “This has been a major event, and we’re the only middle school whose team took this on,” Thomas said.  “We couldn't have done this without Webster, Flanagan, Powell, donations from parents, and a $1,500 donation from our PTSA.”

 Among other things, Camp Wildcat included:

• Eight presentation by Julie Schmidtmann of the San Diego Turtle and Tortoise Society, organized by Samantha Webster
• Star Lab designed and presented by Koreen Corbitt (Parkway Middle  teacher)
• School Plant Walk designed and presented by Neal Shannon and Kathleen Brand (parent volunteer)
• Ecology Web Quest designed by Tracy Flanagan and Cindy Vitas
• Seasons and Adventure Hunt designed and presented by Amy Dow
• Rock Cycle Sugar Cube Lab designed and presented by Samantha Webster
• Native American Dancing designed and presented by Tracy Flanagan
• Archery demo presented by Eileen Lavine and Stephanie LindseyNature/Tree Art designed and presented by Cindy Vitas
• Project Wildlife Presentation organized by Samantha Webster
• Wild Wonders Presentation organized by Tracy Flanagan
• S’mores organized by Samantha Webster and Tracy Flanagan
• Rock Story and Rock Skits organized by Samantha Webster
• Water Cycle Activity designed by Tracy Flanagan
• Stelzer Park All Day Adventure designed by Lori Powell and Richard Smith