Ocean City Arts Center brings week-long camp to Woodbine Elementary School
WOODBINE — Because the kids at Woodbine Elementary School couldn’t get to art camp in Ocean City, art camp came to them last week.
The Ocean City Arts Center (OCAC) brought a one-week camp to the Woodbine school as part of its outreach effort to expose children to the arts.
Aaron Bogushefsky, an art teacher in the Ocean City School District who also teaches at the Arts Center, led the classes at Woodbine Elementary.
As much as he gave to the children, he got just as much in return.
“This is great, especially working with these kids I wouldn’t see normally because I work in Ocean City,” he said. “It’s been a great opportunity for me. They’ve been such a great group. They’re so eager to be here and everything we give them they’re excited to do it.
“It renews my excitement for teaching,” Bogushefsky said.
The OCAC, located on the second floor of the Ocean City Community Center, offers a wide array of classes in the visual and performing arts for children and adults throughout the year and hosts regular exhibits in its gallery. During the summer the center offers a popular series of children’s camps.
Chase Jackson, executive director of the Arts Center, believes it is important for the center to reach out.
“While we’re on the island, we also should be serving our extended community,” Jackson said while watching Bogushefsky show students how to paint small boxes as one of a series of projects during the week. “And this is a deserving community. It’s far away from a lot of things, so we’re bringing our programs to them since it is very hard for them to get to us.
“This is for one week this year and we hope to do it again next year and expand,” she said. “It’s really just like our summer camp at the Ocean City Arts Center. It’s just being done in a school in Woodbine.”
Jackson explained reaching out into neighboring communities shows the center isn’t insular and that the faculty, staff and board members care about what’s going on outside the center. She notes transportation in Cape May County can be difficult. “That’s why we’re here,” she said.
Jackson said the camp was fully funded through a grant from Sturdy Savings Bank.
“They’ve been very generous with this grant and it its covering all the expenses,” she said.
Bogushefsky, she added, “was the perfect match for us because he can handle a large group, he’s excellent at what he does and he’s also a product of Ocean City and an arts teacher in the school district, so it’s a perfect fit.”
Jackson noted the camp is being done in cooperation with the Woodbine school system, which serves a racially diverse population.
Jeanne Robin, who has worked with the Arts Center for more than seven years, was assisting Bogushefsky.
“She’s really an asset to our organization. For teachers she works with, she gets everything prepped and works with the students,” Jackson said.
“It keeps me young,” Robin said with a smile. “I’m 80 years old. I was a kindergarten and first grade teacher, but was an arts major in college. I couldn’t get a job as an arts teacher so I got a job as a kindergarten teacher and after seven years was promoted to first grade. For over 20 years was (teaching) first grade.” She taught in Berkeley Heights in Union County.
“I’m retired and enjoying it,” she added. “I’ve been retired for 24 years.”
Robin said she enjoys the teachers at the Arts Center, helping with large children’s classes. She also noted she and Bogushefsky wouldn’t have been able to do the summer camp in Woodbine without the help of the Woodbine teachers and aides who were in the class with them.
“We are loving this because we are already doing summer school, but this is bringing art in from a professional and it is really great for our kids,” Woodbine teacher Whitney Benedetto said. “They get to use supplies they never use, they get to do projects they’ve never done. It’s a lot of different things and they’re so engaged. It’s fantastic.”
Editor’s note: David Nahan serves on the board of the Ocean City Arts Center.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
