OCEAN CITY — A couple of dozen little scallywags formed a crew under Capt. Jen Phander at the Bayside Center at the end of July.
During Pirates of the East, one of the facility’s eight weeklong camps, quartermasters Jeff Larmer and Jackie Ganter assisted in teaching the scurvy dogs about the pirate code and the lives of real pirates — such as Blackbeard, Anne Bonny and Sam Bellamy.
The salty seafarers created pirate names, made hats and bandanas, cooked and ate hard tack, created a treasure chest and searched for buried booty. A special treat saw the crew scramble over the gunwales and aboard the Sea Dragon to set sail for a voyage on Great Egg Harbor Bay.
Phander said she teaches the campers about real pirates, “not Disney pirates,” discussing how ruthless they were.
“If a crewmate stole another crewmate’s stuff, they would chop his hand off so they couldn’t steal,” said Evee Grundler, 10, of Ocean City, who tries to attend all of the camps.
Larmer, 29, of West Chester, Pa., is a teacher in the Philadelphia School District, whose family has had a house in the city for a couple of generations.
Ganter, 20, is a 2020 graduate of Ocean City High School who is studying biology and geography at Rowan University.
“I love the kids and watching them learn new things and enjoy the crafts. They bring a smile to my face; they’re so funny,” Ganter said.
Harry Fisher, 10, of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., said if he had to eat the hard tack for a month, he would be all right with that — “as long as it doesn’t have maggots in it.”
Phander, who retired from the Ocean City School District in 2018, said she has designed the camps with help from Larmer and Ganter.
“Each week we learn different things,” she said, noting her favorite is Beachin It, in which campers learn about the fragile coastal ecosystem.
“I really think it’s important to teach about our local environment,” Phander said. “Kids, whether summer residents or year-round residents, it’s important to teach the importance of the beach ecosystem, marshes, the barrier island concept. I think if you hit the kids when they are little, maybe when they’re a CEO they will remember and they won’t build a mansion on the marsh.”
Bayside Center camps last from late June to early August. From getting up close and personal with birds and bugs to pirates and poison, the adventures are as wide-ranging as they are entertaining.
Other camps teach about erosion, meteorology, sea creatures and the science of slime and goo, and involve trips to the beach, go-cart rides and miniature golf.
Others enjoying the camp included Isaiah Harrington, 7, and Capri Harrington, 9, who came from across the bay in Wilmington, Del.
Swashbucklers Charlie Vallieres, 7, of Pennsylvania, was parlaying with Travis Hall, 9, of Philadelphia, and Carter Chorin, 7, of Ocean City.
Elise Venturi, 10, of Ocean City, Milly Piatt, 9, of Philadelphia, and Rowen Cress, 8, of Upper Township, liked making the hats and bandanas.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff