Although during the school year the students and teachers are flooded with work and grading, the summer gives everyone time to relax and spend time with others away from the dread of homework in the back of your mind. Summer is usually seen as time to lay around and do nothing but contrary to that, the Harding students and faculty have been busy. From volunteering at youth camps to week-long canoeing trips, Harding students and faculty sure know how to have a good summer.

Rachel Newman, Carlos Flores and Kate Williams spent a week volunteering as youth leaders at the New Day Camp at Lake Texoma. New Day Camp is a week-long camp for children aged eight to 12 with at least one incarcerated parent. The kids don’t have to bring anything but clothes and the camp provides three meals a day, toiletries and a backpack as well as a range of activities from arts and crafts, group-building exercises to water activities on the lake itself. Flores enjoyed the environment and working with the kids.

“I liked seeing the kids open up,” Flores said.

AP Studio Art student and senior Janeth Rivera spent two weeks at The Oklahoma Art Institute at Quartz Mountain, an art camp in Southwest Oklahoma. Rivera focused on visual art, creating new media art such as printing, etching and transfer art with Lenore Thomas. Quartz Mountain hosts students from all over Oklahoma, teaching them different genres of art including singing, orchestra and visual art. Riviera credits the camp with broadening her horizons.

“I think having [Thomas] as my teacher changed my perspective on art. Not everything has to be realistic,” Rivera said.

It’s easy to forget that teachers have lives outside of school, but two Harding teachers challenged that stereotype by facing the barren wilderness of Canada.

Algebra II teacher Dr. Michael Lewchuk braved the Canadian wilderness this summer on a six-day canoeing trip in Atikaki Provicial Park in Manitoba, Canada.

Once the canoeing began, Lewchuk’s most memorable and “intense” day of the trip was when he and his group had to bypass 40-50 beaver dams in a single day. Every day his group would catch and cook their own fish, paddle through narrow streams and slog through mud. He described it as “desolate.”

“It was the hardest six days of my life,” Lewchuk said.

Jeff Wolford, head of the math department, exchanged vows with his fiance this summer. They were married at Rose Briar Place in Oklahoma City.

If you had a fun and memorable summer be sure to tell us about it on twitter @HCPmarionette or show us on Instagram @hcpmarionette