GALLERY: Broad Horizons Camp Ends With Performances at Hathaway Brown

The final day of Braod Horizons camp at began with a thunderous "boom-chicka-boom."

That's what camp shepherd Morgen Grossman implored nearly 300 girls and boys to exclaim Thursday as the camp hosted a sendoff party for its largest group in 30 years of existence.

"I felt that I could be myself," Morgen, a sophomore at Montessori School, said. "It's going to camp and having it be exciting. The classes are different and the teachers want you to have fun. It's not like, 'sit down, we're going to do this, and you're going to enjoy this.'"

Morgen's mother, Siva Grossman, directed the six-week camp for children, ages 3 to 14. The camp culminated in a series of lip-sync performances with kids perfecting dance routines to their favorite songs.

Other than practicing reenactments of songs by the likes of Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen, the kids weren't exposed to much technology during camp. Grossman said she designed the activities that way.

"Broad Horizons is about children having fun, learning to make friends, be social, use their imagination and be children," Grossman said. "The kids just get to be kids, and that's a dying thing in my opinion. They don't get to use their imagination anymore because they're plugged in all the time."

Camp activities included yoga, art, crafts, outdoor games and swimming and tennis lessons.

Pepper Pike resident Susan Ullman said she appreciated the social experience her fourth-grade daughter Jaclyn received at Broad Horizons.

"They're all different ages — they get to appreciate the older kids and the older kids appreciate the little kids," Ullman said. "I like that they get up and have confidence. When I was little, I would never get up there.

"They start building confidence so young to get up on stage."

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