by Larry Chowning
During the 11 weeks of the Middlesex Family YMCA Summer Camp, the staff at The Table in Deltaville donated time daily to prepare breakfast for YMCA campers. Lunches were prepared by the Middlesex County School Food Service.
Helen Elizabeth Ward, owner of The Table, said as a business owner she looks for things she can do to make the community better. “When I was growing up, I was in church youth groups and many times they fed me,” she said.
“We (at The Table) heard the YMCA had a need for a breakfast program and for the last 11 weeks we have been fixing breakfast and bringing it to the Y. We drop it off and volunteers at the Y serve the children. This is a bitter sweet day as it is our last day,” said Ward last week.
On the last day of camp children were served sausage, bacon, eggs, pancakes, fresh fruit, milk and cereal.
Rick Stearns, chair of the YMCA Board of Directors, was one of the volunteers serving breakfast. “This is a great program,” he said. “We want to thank Helen and Eric [Kothe] of The Table for their dedication to fixing these warm meals for the children.”
Buzz Lambert, director of the YMCA, said breakfast is one of the most important times of the day the campers have at the Y. “It kicks off their day positively to have a warm meal,” he said. “Campers behave better when they start their day with a good meal.”
Lambert said David Cryer and The Cryer Center donated all the eggs and milk; Sonny Allen of Hershey donated 30 cases of ice cream, and Joe Heyman of the Allen Group donated a refrigerator.
Lunches for campers were prepared by the school food service and served at Middlesex Elementary. This program came about because of a partnership between the YMCA, Middlesex Kiwanis, Middlesex Rotary, social services, school system and Middlesex County Board of Supervisors.
The Middlesex Kiwanis Club received an enrichment grant from the River Counties Community Foundation, which provided funding for transportation for campers whose parents worked and could not transport them to the Y for the camp. The grant funds also went toward the lunch program.
“We have had a tremendous amount of support this year from our community partners and it has made for a great experience for our YMCA summer campers,” said Lambert.
Lambert also thanked school officials Greg Harrow and Billie Eubank in coordinating transportation for children to and from the Y and for lunch.
