After a one-year absence, a popular summer program is set to make its return in the Northern Lehigh School District.

The district couldn’t hold the program geared to students entering grades 3-6 last year because of the pandemic.

STEAM Summer Camp 2021 will be held the weeks of June 21-24, and June 28-July 1, it was announced at Monday’s school board meeting.

Tim Weaber, STEAM Camp director, thanked the board “for the opportunity to share one of the many great things that are happening in the Northern Lehigh School District.”

Weaber said the goal is to interest students in the areas of science, technology, engineering, arts and math and career awareness in these fields of study.

“So we are making a lot of plans and getting a lot of progress and preparing for this coming summer,” Weaber said. “We’re excited.”

He said the staff is secured for the summer. Weaber and Jennifer Butz, STEAM camp coordinator, have been working hard in making preparations.

He said they have two staff members from the elementary level, one from the middle school and a retired high school teacher.

The camps will be held in person, “with contingency plans to be remote if conditions require the change.”

“Two years ago when we had our last camp, our attendance goal was 60 campers and it fills up really quickly, so our goal this year is to increase our camp attendance/enrollments to 70 campers,” he said.

Weaber said all of the funding is funneled through the Northern Lehigh Education Foundation. He thanked The Neffs National Bank, which continues to support the district through a $20,000 EITC grant for a fourth year in a row.

“Our budget does usually take in at least that amount of money, so we are working on gaining funding in other areas,” he said.

Through assistance from district food service director Sue Bahnick, all the snacks and drinks for camp this year will be provided free of charge through the federal and state USDA grants.

“Some of our funds also come from other corporate sponsors, and so we have set up a donations link where we share it with those corporations and they can go right on and make a commitment and a donation using that system,” he said. “Whenever someone donates, we give them credit through our website. We also try to include those donors on T-shirts that we have printed out for each camper so when they wear those T-shirts (throughout the community), people see that these other organizations are supporting us.”

Weaber said registration is going to be open at 3:30 p.m. on April 25 through a link at www.nlsd.org. Enrollment usually fills up in one or two days.

“We also have, as we did two years ago, invited officers from the Neffs bank to come and see what we’re doing so they can see and get excited about their financial commitment to us,” he said.

Weaber said people can also make a contribution on the district’s website and commit to sponsoring the district.

Board President Gary Fedorcha said the program affords students a great opportunity to learn and stay active.

“It’s a great program for our kids, and this year particularly, our kids need something,” Fedorcha said.

Superintendent Matthew J. Link said, “It always gets me excited knowing that STEAM camp is around the corner, and I’m happy that we’re going to be able to host it again this summer.”