SMYRNA – Every year around 400 kids get to spend five weeks of their summer camping, swimming and learning life lessons all with absolutely no cost to their parents.

The Sheriff’s Office embarks on perhaps one of the most proactive programs it participates in all year, the Sheriff’s Summer Camp, at the YMCA’s Camp Thompson in Smyrna every summer. The program opened up Monday for its 12th year offering a fun-filled camp experience to children ages 9 to 12. The program is free and a different group of children are sent each week for five weeks.

“For twelve years we have worked hard to develop a great youth program that is fun and where kids can learn about public safety. We’re going to run this for as long as we can. There is a lot of work put into this and it all makes it worthwhile when you go out there and see it,” said Sheriff Thomas Loughren.

The camp offers an array of activities such as swimming, boating, fishing, camp fires, cabin competitions, dancing and the incredibly popular pizza night on Wednesdays, courtesy of Pasquale’s Pizza.

The camp’s main goal is to promote a message of respect, caring and honesty along with several other community-oriented qualities. To help educate the campers, the Sheriff’s Office employs several of its officers to perform demonstrations on their wide range of specialties. The deputies show the kids what they do in everyday life – such talents displayed include those of the K-9 unit, ambulance, EMS and SCUBA teams. The renowned Officer Phil Safety Program, the Norwich Fire Department, Ross Park Zoo and even a magician, are only of few of the many other organizations that participate in the camp.

The food is managed by Jim Shimer, who has worked all 12 years of the Sheriff’s Camp as well as being on the staff at the correctional facility’s kitchen.

“I still meet them out on the street and they still call out to me, ‘Hey, Jim the cook!” said Shimer of the many campers he’s seen through the years.