Over 60 campers from Mattapoisett Recreation’s Seahorse Summer Explorers Camp took over the Mattapoisett Museum on Monday, August 3, as a kickoff to their “Mattapoisett Is Special” themed week. Armed with seek-and-find and scavenger hunt sheets, five groups of campers, ages 4 to 12, scoured the museum for three hours, examining artifacts and documents, guided by camp counselors and Museum Education Committee volunteers. Mattapoisett Museum Curator and Administrator Connor Gaudet welcomed each group and assisted campers with some of the harder-to-find items.
On Friday, August 7, the museum received an email from Camp Director Sara Zaiger. In it, she wrote, “As you know, the theme at Seahorse Camp this week was ‘Mattapoisett is Special.’ Our campers truly enjoyed visiting the museum on Monday. Thank you again. I hope you received all the great pictures I sent your way after our visits.
I have more exciting news. This week at camp, we raised money to donate to the Mattapoisett Museum. Many of our campers brought in $5 to donate, and for each $5, they were able to dunk a bucket of water on the head of the counselor (or director) of their choice. We raised $255 for the museum and will be delivering a check soon.”
On Friday, August 14, a group of campers, led by Zaiger and two camp counselors, returned to the Mattapoisett Museum to hand-deliver the donation. Gaudet expressed his and the museum’s appreciation that the campers had enjoyed exploring the museum and made this extraordinary gesture of their appreciation and support. As the campers departed for a pizza lunch, Gaudet said he hopes they come back and those campers going into the fifth grade at Old Hammondtown will get an in-class visit from the museum in the spring.