Last summer, one of the things Mira Carpe brought home from Antioch College’s Roots and Wings day camp was a recipe. The campers had made what she called “monster ball things,” rolled together from M&M’s, peanut butter, honey, oats and chocolate chips.

“You just roll them up into a ball and then put them in the freezer,” she said. “And then you get to eat them.”

Carpe said cooking was one of the parts of camp that surprised her; she already liked the idea of learning to cook, but “liked it a lot more” than she thought she would.

This summer, Carpe will return to Roots and Wings for five weekdays filled with yoga, crafts, games, farm time, campus walks — and another helping of snacks made in the Antioch kitchens.

Roots and Wings day camp will be held Monday–Friday, July 6–10, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. The day camp, now in its second year and recommended for rising second through sixth graders, aims to bring young campers into its educational hubs — including the Wellness Center, farm, kitchens and the Coretta Scott King Center — for varied activities that touch on movement, arts, cuisine, agriculture and social awareness, within a connective web of cross-camp collaboration.

Wellness Center Director Kathy Kern Ross, who leads the camp, said Roots and Wings began as its own kind of collaboration among Antioch’s hubs as a way to connect more deeply with the village: “The College wanted to outreach to the youth in the community,” Ross said.

Ross has experience with event management and youth camps, and previously worked as a waterfront director at YMCA Camp High Rock in the Berkshire Mountains, where she helped oversee watersports and arts and crafts activities for hundreds of campers each week. At Antioch, though the registration numbers are smaller, the days are still filled with activity, she said.

“We’ve tried to have some structure that we repeat for the campers each day, so that they have a schedule they can get used to,” Ross said.

Each day begins with yoga, led by philosophy professor Lara Mitias, who Ross said often builds each session around a story or theme. After a morning snack, the day opens up, with rotating activities; this year, it might be a Black history walking tour led by history professor Kevin McGruder, or campers might get a visit from Miami Township Fire-Rescue and learn about fire safety.

Next comes lunch, which campers bring from home, and then recreational time — ping-pong, gym play, pickleball, board games — before heading into afternoon activities. Depending on the day, those might include heading to the Coretta Scott King Center to work with faculty member and center Director Queen Zabriskie on social development activities, interactive games, crafts and collaborative work.

Or students might visit the Antioch kitchen, led by Dawn Richter, to meet staff and learn new recipes. Last year, in addition to the “monster balls” Carpe remembered, campers also made pickles, strawberry jam, and yogurt bark — and if campers didn’t finish their treats on-site, they could carry them home at the end of the day.

“They loved that part,” Ross said.

The camp also includes time at the Antioch Farm, led by Farm Manager Bruce Linebaugh. Ross said campers enjoyed visiting the farm’s chickens, watering plants, making crafts with seeds and tasting fresh carrots and tomatoes.

Moving between spaces is part of the experience, too; Ross said staff try to turn walks across campus into nature walks, where they might notice deer, squirrels, plants and other wildlife. And one of those trips across campus yielded a lesson in American Sign Language, or ASL, from Antioch College President Jane Fernandes — a detail Mira Carpe’s mom, Kelly Carpe, remembered with some surprise.

“She came home one day and said, ‘Oh, I was learning sign language — we learned it from some lady named Jane,’” Kelly Carpe said with a laugh.

And nearly a year later, Mira Carpe said, she still remembers part of the ASL alphabet.

Roots and Wings also features a performing arts component, which brings another piece of Ross’s background into the camp: “I’m actually a professional clown,” she said.

Last year, under Ross’s professional clown eye, campers tried juggling scarves and bean bags, miming and interactive games. This year, Ross said, she may add balloon twisting and spinning plates to the curriculum.

The camp is staffed in part by Wellness Center lifeguards, who act as counselors. Ross said the arrangement gives campers attentive support and gives the lifeguards a chance to work with children in a different capacity. This year, Roots and Wings is also adding a counselor-in-training role after one camper aged out of the program but wanted to return.

Kelly Carpe said the camp appealed to her first on a practical level; last year, she was working full time, and as a single parent, she was looking for somewhere enriching where young Mira could spend part of her summer. Roots and Wings stood out, she said, because it was nearby and offered a range of activities in an atypical setting.

“When you’re a working parent and have limited options, it’s nice to know there’s an option at Antioch,” she said. “And after the camp was over, I felt like, because there weren’t so many kids there, she got a lot of attention and learned a lot. She came home with a lot of crafts that she wanted to show me, and she was just always in a good mood when she got home.”

This year, Kelly Carpe said she’s teaching and has the summer off — but Mira still wanted to return.

“She’s still going back because she liked it a lot,” she said. “I think it’s a really good way for Antioch to do more outreach to the community.”

Ross said what she ultimately hopes all campers will take home after the week of Roots and Wings is, of course, memories of the fun they had participating in movement, art, cooking, history and outdoor time.

But the larger goal, she said, is helping children develop “life skills” within a community setting. In that way, she said, the camp offers youth a kind of early introduction to the values of a liberal arts education: hands-on learning, collaboration, social awareness and moving between different kinds of inquiry over the course of a single day.

“You need those team-building, social life skills, no matter what you do later in life,” Ross said.

Registration for Roots and Wings is requested by Tuesday, July 1; scholarships are available. For more information, or to register, go to http://www.antiochcollege.edu/event/roots-wings-youth-camp-2