Summer

It’s hard to believe summer 2010 is almost over. I always get excited for the movie season and it’s always gone in a snap. In terms of film releases, this particular summer was interesting—and I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing. It seems as though there were several disappointments, both critically and in terms of box office sales. With schools getting back into routine business, I thought it might be fun to look back at the good, the mediocre and the ugly of summer 2010.

The Jessamine County YMCA is introducing specialty camps this summer, providing weeklong experiences to delve deeper into sports and science. Program director Caitlin Keck said she wanted to start the offerings after seeing the popularity of the organization's activities during the school year and the lack of programming in the summer. “We have our soccer leagues in the spring and the fall, and we have our basketball leagues -  they're all a certain time of the year, and in the summer, we don't have anything for them, really,” Keck said.

The Learning Garden Preschool on Edgewood Drive were the winners of the Jessamine County Public Library's Summer Reading Outreach program. Of all the childcare facilities that participated, they averaged the highest number of books read to their students during the summer. As their special prize, they received a visit from Chick-fil-A at Hamburg Place.  Following a short storytime by library staff, the Chick-fil-A Cow arrived bringing food, fun gifts and lots of hugs andhigh-fives.

It was a teamwork building exercise, racing against time and another team to see who could fill a barrel with the most water in one minute at the Bluegrass Christian Camp this week. The only problem, the barrel had 40 3/8-inch holes that team members must use their fingers, toes and body to plug, top photo. Zach Lunsford, 14, bottom left photo, discovered there were a lot more holes with water pouring out than he could plug. In a total test of trust, Traci Barnes, 17, fell backward into the arms of several campers during the “trust fall” at the camp, bottom right photo.

An idea five years in the making is finally making its first appearance tonight at the Constitution Square lawn. Every Friday at 9 p.m., for the entire summer, Lawn Chair Theater will be presented — an event the Heart of Danville’s executive director, Julie Wagner, is excited about. “It’s really cool to offer movies downtown,” said Wagner. The goal of the theater is to provide expanded free entertainment in a family-friendly environment. Not your average theater — to promote more community involvement, each event will have a theme to follow the movie.

Dear Editor, Marvelous - West T. Hill Community Theatre and Karen Logue bring to Danville another great production this summer. Into the Woods is delightfully funny. All in all, a wonderful summer event. The characters are superbly represented by some of our favorite Danville performers and a few new faces. Thank you for a surprisingly enjoyable, entertaining evening. No one should miss this treasure. Susan AndersonDanville

Hana Hull, 10, left, Madison Ballard, 8, and Grace Rector, 8, race while playing during the Winchester-Clark County Parks and Recreation Department Summer Day Camp at College Park. The four-week day camp ends today with the children going swimming at Community Pool.

The quiet of summer after commencement at Asbury University won't last long - the school is launching a program of eight residential camps for high-schoolers in early June. Asbury piloted the idea last year with a couple film camps. This year, it has added a broad sampling of other offerings and branded the program “ImpactU.” “We want to serve the community and then also give high-school students an opportunity to experience Asbury in a residential setting and get a little taste of different majors and focuses,” said Mark Troyer, Asbury's vice president for enrollment management.

It started out looking like a disaster waiting to happen, above, but Bobby Gipson got the dive together, right, and landed feet first into the water at the Eugene Gay Swim Complex Community Pool Sunday afternoon. The pool opened during daily regular hours for the summer after being open for a couple of weekends prior to the end of school. Swimming lessons for children 5 years of age and older begin today with the first session at 4 p.m. and the second at 5 p.m. James Mann/jmann@winchestersun.

It seemed the perfect ending for a fire prevention program as campers attending the Winchester-Clark County Parks and Recreation Department Summer Day Camp gathered in front of a firefighters' ventilating fan to cool down Wednesday morning, top photo. The fan, and fire prevention program, were furnished by Clark County Fire Department Lt. Ryan Miller, foreground, firefighter Luke Bush, background right, and Battalion Chief Billy Jones. Campers Christian Lopez, 6, left, and Jacob Adams, 7, moved in for a close look at Miller, who was dressed in his firefighting gear, left photo.

FRANKFORT - This summer, thanks to the Lincoln County Public Library's Fueling the Mind program, children will enrich their bodies while preventing summer learning loss. The Fueling the Mind initiative expands the Summer Reading program through collaboration with the Kentucky Department of Education's Summer Food Service Program, public libraries and many community partners. The goal of Fueling the Mind is to provide free meals during the 2013 summer break along with literacy programming to keep at-risk, school-age children, ages 18 and younger, nourished, reading and learning all summer.

Hi everyone! As someone who was born and raised in Stanford, I'm very excited to be the summer intern for the Interior Journal. After graduating from Lincoln County High School in 2009, I went on to Eastern Kentucky University, where I'm now a senior majoring in English. I will be graduating this December. After I graduate, I hope to write for a magazine or newspaper until I get my own book published. The novel I'm working on now is a fictional story directed at young adults.

Traffic is moving a bit slower on the Mountain Parkway and likely will for the remainder of the summer. One lane in each direction will be kept open during the construction of a bridge, but the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Department of Highways announced the closures will keep traffic slowed around the 10- and 11-mile markers on the Parkway. The construction is part of the Mountain Parkway and Kiddville Road Interchange Project. The lane closures took effect May 8 and are expected to remain in place for approximately four months, according to a press release from the cabinet.

One of my favorite outdoor activities is working in my own vegetable garden. I was very fortunate to grow up as the son of a vegetable farmer. As part of that experience I was heavily involved in my family's gardening operation. I still have many memories of family moments with my mom, dad and sister. That experience taught me that gardening is a great family activity. Of course the garden was a bit larger than the traditional small backyard garden but, I have often thought about what others were missing out on. Many people today do not know where their food comes from, or what it takes to produce the food that they purchase.

The Jessamine County YMCA is introducing specialty camps this summer, providing weeklong experiences to delve deeper into sports and science. Program director Caitlin Keck said she wanted to start the offerings after seeing the popularity of the organization's activities during the school year and the lack of programming in the summer. “We have our soccer leagues in the spring and the fall, and we have our basketball leagues -  they're all a certain time of the year, and in the summer, we don't have anything for them, really,” Keck said.

One of our most popular activities, 4-H summer camp, is enrolling now.  July 8-11, we will be taking about 100 local youth to Boyle County 4-H summer camp at the J.M. Feltner 4-H Camp near London, along with other 4-H'ers from Lincoln and Powell counties. The deadline is  June 14, but we've already filled about 25 percent of our beds. Our theme this year is “4-H University” and activities, costume and decoration contests will feature campus highlights such as Greek life, Game Day, a Toga Party, Rush and even Formal.

Boyle County High School principal Will Begley knows coming off a NIT loss rather than a national championship might not create quite the same buzz for the John Calipari Satellite Camp at Boyle June 10, but he also knows Kentucky basketball fans. “I don't know what kind of crowd to expect, but Kentucky is Kentucky and fans love their hoops and love coach Calipari,” said Begley. Due to gym capacities there will be a limited number of spots available for the nine camps across the state, including the one at Boyle.

The quiet of summer after commencement at Asbury University won't last long - the school is launching a program of eight residential camps for high-schoolers in early June. Asbury piloted the idea last year with a couple film camps. This year, it has added a broad sampling of other offerings and branded the program “ImpactU.” “We want to serve the community and then also give high-school students an opportunity to experience Asbury in a residential setting and get a little taste of different majors and focuses,” said Mark Troyer, Asbury's vice president for enrollment management.

Families in Jessamine County will soon have a new option when it comes to care for their elderly loved ones. Bridgepointe at Ashwood Groves, set to open this summer, will offer assisted living apartments and day-care services. About two dozen people attended a luncheon held on Monday to give information to those interested. Bridgewood, which will be operated by Christian Care, will offer pastoral care as part of all its services, according to a presentation given at the luncheon.

Construction on the long-awaited Cheddar's Casual Café near Walmart will begin in the next few months, Danville officials announced Wednesday. Representatives of Greer Companies, a Lexington-based firm with eight Cheddar's locations in Kentucky, have been trying to get the new restaurant off the ground for years. Complex planning and zoning issues have stalled the process. Jody Lassiter, president and chief executive officer of the Danville-Boyle County Economic Development Partnership, gave the news at Wednesday's EDP meeting.