Orange Grove Middle School's summer camp features cooking, dancing and plays with a survival twist.
By ELISABETH DYER
Published June 27, 2003
After a year of hard work, school is the last place most kids want to be during summer.
But at Orange Grove Middle School, summer campers have worked up an appetite for fun.
After just one day off from school, about 28 students from across Hillsborough County trekked back to the magnet school for the arts on N 16th Street, just north of Ybor City.
They came for a four-week summer camp packed with field trips, dancing, cooking and a play written and performed by the students.
Camp started June 2 and ends today. Teacher Joe Mandracchia, known around school as Mr. Mann, organized the program to offer students practical, but fun, training. Without it, many kids would sleep until the afternoon and open a can of soup for lunch, he said.
As part of camp, students cooked breakfasts of waffles or pancakes and lunches of lasagna, tacos, hot dogs and grilled cheese. On a recent Tuesday, two teams deep-fried turkeys.
Seventh-graders Brandon Horace and Anthony Menendez cooked the first one. Eighth-graders Anna Bonoan and Melanie Bosco tackled the second, cautiously lowering the turkey into the hot oil.
"We rock!" Anna said as the bird sank without a splatter. "Oh, yeah."
After lunch, the group worked on an igloo play prop, built from a wire frame with crumpled paper stuffed into holes. Sam Burke and Will Clark spearheaded the play, Survivor 29, Survival of the Dimwitted, as a spoof on the television reality series.
In the production, five pairs of contestants vied for $50-million. In the first of five challenges, the contestants tried to outlast their opponents by keeping one hand on the igloo.
For many of the students, the play wasn't their first try at writing plays. Some wrote spoofs on fairy tales during their school year.
While they practiced, drama teacher Laurie Philpot reminded them to keep moving. "You don't want to have a dead stage."
Ashley Alicea, 11, said she learned to "expect the unexpected." If someone says something not in the script, you just go with the flow.
The camp marked the third for Orange Grove and Mandracchia. He has taught at Hillsborough County middle schools for 26 years and at Orange Grove since it opened five years ago. The five instructors enjoy the camp, he said, because it gives them a chance to get to know the students without the pressures of schoolwork.
The staff packed the four-week camp with trips to MOSI, Lowry Park, GameWorks, bowling and the movies. They also went to the Turkey Creek Riding Club, east of Brandon, to learn about horses and go on a hayride.
In honor of the last day of camp, they planned to make chicken pasta and see the new movie Hulk.
Although the district cut most summer school budgets this year, Mandracchia funded the camp through a state program for after-school care.
"One way or another, we were going to have it," Mandracchia said. "The kids really enjoy it."
