The Jim Thorpe Summer Recreation Program starts up again for the summer, marking the program's 20th year with a celebration onSunday.

The summer day camp at the Jim Thorpe Memorial Park provides a free lunch for students and runs Monday through Friday, ending on Aug. 2.Students must be grades 2-6 in the Jim Thorpe Area School District. Students can arrive as early as 8:30 a.m. and counselors leave at 4 p.m. There will be no camp on Monday and Tuesday.There are two sessions, one from 9 a.m.-noon and another from 12:30-3:30 p.m. Students participate in activities such as arts, crafts and sports. Last Friday was "water day," which included a slip and slide, water balloons and a homemade sprinkler.The staff at the camp is mostly college students. Brittany Scherer, who is in her third year working at the camp, is the director this summer. She said her favorite part is "Getting to know all of the kids. By the end of the summer the relationships are strong, and I like to see what's different in their lives, and next summer see how they changed."There will be about 100 different kids throughout the summer at the camp.Also included in the sessions was a "positive affirmation activity," Scherer said. Last summer, the camp had an "anti-bullying theme."The Jim Thorpe Rotary Club is the key sponsor, with help from Mary Horn, "chief cook and bottle-washer" who works in the Masonic Hall and helps to raise money for the eight-week free lunch program.On Friday, she provided bagels and cream cheese for all of the campers.Camp worker Randall Smith said, "We cannot do it without them."The program started through the St. John's Lutheran Church in Jim Thorpe. Jim Thorpe operates the park and also helps finance the program. Last summer, more than $3,000 was raised to provide for about 2,000 lunches.Smith said that he is "proud to be serving the Jim Thorpe community and hopes to continue in the future."