A six-week youth enrichment program for children up to 15 years of age opened Monday and will continue through Aug. 7 at the London Township Civic Center, 11983 Tuttle-Hill Rd., Milan, Mich.

The free program runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Further information about enrolling children and other aspects of the program is available by calling Bobby Cross, director, at (734) 244-3032 or Supervisor Barbara J. Henley at (734) 417-8175.

Camp Fire USA will hold a summer day camp from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays June 22 through July 24 at Cantrick Learning Center, 1008 Riverview Ave., Monroe, Mich.

This camp is for children ages 6 to 12. Activities include arts and crafts, self-reliance, cultural awareness, team building, story telling and field trips.

There is a $30 registration fee but no weekly fees. There are still some spaces available.

For information, call Jodi Truel at (734) 240-2840; or register on site.

Monroe Community Ambulance is holding two free Camp 9-1-1 day camps for 8 to 12 year olds.

A camp will be from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday at Frenchtown Senior Center, 2786 Vivian Rd. , Monroe, Mich. A second camp will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. July 29 and July 30 at Monroe Community Ambulance, Bedford Station, 7075 Lewis Ave., Temperance, Mich.

Activities include touring an ambulance, learning CPR, and visiting a local emergency room. MCA paramedics and EMTs will serve as camp counselors, teaching campers about safety at home and at play and how to perform lifesaving skills on injured victims.

Both camps are free. For a registration form or for more information, call Jason Trojan at (734) 477-6781 or email at camp911@hva.org. Registration forms are available at www.hva.org.

Monroe Community Ambulance is a nonprofit, nationally accredited ambulance service providing emergency medical services to Monroe County residents outside the city of Monroe.

The YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit has announced that it will provide a free week of overnight camp this summer for up to 150 eligible children ages 9 to 16 in southeast Michigan.

The Kids to Camp program is specifically for children who are in families where at least one parent is currently receiving unemployment benefits, or where at least one parent is a member of the military and currently deployed. Families do not need to be YMCA members to apply.

Applications from eligible children are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

The available camp sessions are:

• June 28 – July 4.
• July 12 – July 18.
• July 26 – August 1.
• August 16 – 22.

For additional information, call YMCA Camping Services at (248) 887-4533 or go to the Y’s Summer Camp page.

Thanks to Julie from Julie’s List for the heads up!

Camp Fire USA has scholarships available to pay most of the expenses for southeast Michigan youths to spend a week at Camp Wathana in Holly, Mich. This opportunity is for low-income youth ages 8 to 15 during the July 5-10 resident camp session.

The camp fee for that week is normally $340, but the parents of eligible youth, or their sponsoring agency, will pay a $50 application fee and all other fees are waived.

Camp activities include swimming, archery, fishing, wildlife study and dramatic arts.

For information or registration, contact Lyle Melkerson at (800) 860-5840 or lmelkerson@campfiresem.org.

Information and applications for the resident camp program also are at www.campfiresem.org.

This is a free summer camp program for military children, particularly those whose parents are, or will be, deployed. The goal is to learn about how to cope with a deployment and make new friends who are also in military families. The Operation Purple components will be discussed while the youths are enjoying typical summer camp activities.

The camp sessions are:

• June 14-20 for girls and boys ages 8 to 12.
• July 25-31 or Aug. 1-7 for girls and boys ages 12 to 15.

Applications must be filed on line. You can sign up for e-mail notices at www.operationpurple.org.

Those who have children at home know that school and child care eat up a significant amount of money. If you those expenses in your household budget, you will have to subtract funds from what you are spending elsewhere.

This category includes babysitting and day care expenses, private school tuition, ACT / SAT test score fees, pay-to-participate sports fees, summer camp fees … any expense relating to children that isn’t already included in other categories of the family budget.

What can you do?

• Limit child care hours by arranging for parents to work different shifts. If both parents are working the same full-time shift, you have no choice but to line up full-time day care for those hours. When and where you can make that choice, have one parent work part-time, at a home-based business, or on a different work schedule so that the child care expenses for the little ones are only part time. It’s also long been a “mommy track” plan for women to seek out jobs whose duties could be done while the children were at school.
• Keep track of your day care bills. New rules went into effect in October that allow all documented day care expenses to be included in the eligibility formula for Michigan Bridge Card (food stamps) benefits. Previously, there were limits as to how much money in day care bills would be considered. Result: more working poor families are expected to qualify for food stamps.
• Send the kids to visit relatives during summer or school breaks. If the grade-school boy will be visiting grandma’s house for a week, that’s a week you didn’t have to pay for summer camp or day care.
• Set priorities on after-school activities. My daughter’s favorite activity while she was in junior high and high school was Girl Scouts. So we focused our time and effort on anything she wanted to do in the Girl Scout program. In comparison, we did not put the money or effort into sending her with the Monroe High School vocal department on its out-of-state performance trips.
• File for free or reduced-price school lunches if you qualify. According to the charts that Monroe Public Schools posted this fall, a family of four can qualify for reduced-price lunches if they have an annual household income of $39,220 or less. And if you have Michigan Bridge Card (food stamps), your kids automatically qualify for free lunches. Whatever money you don’t have to pay for school lunches is money you can use for other  expenses.
• Seek out grants and financial assistance for private school, sports, dance, music and summer camp expenses. You can get that information from the principal, camp director, program administrator, booster club officers, or troop leader. Funds are limited based on available sponsors, and families are often required to participate in or support fundraising projects to get that assistance. But this might not mean money directly out of your pocket – in some cases, all that is required is staffing a concession stand at a sports game or volunteering for kitchen duty at the fundraiser dinner.

The Salvation Army of Monroe County will hold its summer camp Mondays through Thursdays, July 14 through Aug. 12, at 1018 E. Second St., Monroe.

Details are posted at the MonroeTalks calendar.

He linked to one of my posts about camp physicals, which is great; and I’ve also linked previously to the Frugal Duchess report he lists about camp scholarships.

I’ve used the tax break he mentions to help pay for two weeks of summer camp at Monroe Family YMCA when my daughter was too young to stay home by herself all day. And last summer, my daughter earned some money working as a Girl Scout summer camp counselor.

If you’re still looking for opportunities for your kids for summer 2008, go to the MonroeTalks calendar and do a search for children’s events to find Vacation Bible Schools and other local summer camp programs (the default search is for one week, adjust the date settings as needed). Vacation Bible Schools also are listed in the Friday print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News.

And on page 3A of today’s MEN there’s a posting about Camp 911. It’s a FREE program offered in Temperance and in Frenchtown Township for children ages 8-12.

The camp physical is $59, payable by cash, personal check or credit card. Insurance co-pay is not accepted for this service. Children should bring their summer camp forms to their checkup.

All students who get a camp physical will get a free “camp starter kit” that includes a drawstring bag holding sunscreen, hand santizing spray, lip balm, first aid kit, water bottle and disposable camera.