Grandparents entertain the younger
set for a week of Sunshine Camp
Special to The Monitor
CEDAR CREEK LAKE–Once again, Payne Springs resident Ruby Laney with the help of some of her neighbors and several grandparents pulled off another year of Sunshine Camp.
This is the 11th year of Sunshine Camp. And as in the past, it was a week of fun, learning adventures and field trips to nearby sights.
Grandparents Scotty Aitken and Margie Laney, Maryanna Roosa, Susan Stone, Ruby and Jim Laney, and Mary Marx guided 15 children ranging in ages from 5 to 13 through an unforgettable week between June 14 and 18.
Sunshine Camp is the brainchild of Three Harbors resident and retired elementary teacher Ruby Laney, who loves science.

Courtesy Photo
After an afternoon of swimming, campers tested their wits with brain teasing games. The games were just one obstacle in a course of obstacles they had to complete before getting their dinner. Pictured are Sophia Lammedal, Landon Dixon, Maddie Maldonado, Cate Walker and Noah McFarland.

Some of the activities included conducting experiments with matter, turning simple kitchen ingredients into “atomic” green slime; backyard dirt and plaster into “dinosaur” fossils, tie-dyeing T-shirts and working their way through a very challenging obstacle course with a balance between physical and mental hurdles.
Other experiments worked with static electricity, demonstrated centrifugal force and worked with sand that would not get wet!
Every afternoons, campers donned life jackets and went tubing on the lake just off the dock.
Field trips took the members of Sunshine Camp to the recently opened John Bunker Sands Wetland Center, just outside Seagoville, where they collected microorganisms and got to examine them under a microscope in the lab.
While there, campers also used binoculars to do some bird watching. They even got acquainted with a corn snake.
Another field trip took the group to Grand Saline and the Morton Salt Mine Museum. None could resist tasting the museum walls which are made entirely of large salt crystals. The campers were very interested to learn where their table salt came from and some of the history of the place.
Just a few miles down the road, they visited the East Texas Gator Farm.
A very kid-friendly place with lots to see and do, the kids had a ball. They got to hold snakes, baby alligators, and possums and also got to see a variety of animals including a baby deer.
Closer to home, the group also enjoyed an afternoon of bowling at Lakeplex Lanes in Seven Points.
The children also ate at several local restaurants during the week and created a memory book of photos and writing about their experiences at “grandma’s house at Cedar Creek Lake.”
The children attending included Tanner Chorens, Landon Dixon Noah, Drew and Madisyn McFarland, Reagan and Stevie Stephens, Sophia Lammedal, Makenna and Collin Cribbs, Cate Walker, Jack Brock, Maddie Maldonado, Haley Nelson and Tate Pressley.
Each one will have no trouble telling their school classes about the fun they had over their summer vacation.


Courtesy Photo
The entire group of Sunshine campers line up in front of the Salt Mine Museum
made entirely of large salt crystals in Grand Saline.