Luisa Brandt started her day with the same routine: belting out her favorite Taylor Swift songs in her mom’s car.
Luisa, 9, and her mom, Emily Brandt, jammed out while waiting for the doors of the Munroe-Meyer Institute to open to its summer campers.
When the doors opened promptly at 9:15 a.m., Luisa hopped out of the car, ready to spend the day at Camp Munroe.
She walked into the Munroe-Meyer Institute with her favorite Starbucks drink — a vanilla bean Frappuccino with no whip — in one hand and a purple purse carrying an orange-and-white plush kitten in the other.
The 9-year-old uttered a hurried goodbye to mom before finding her buddy for the day.
Luisa and her buddy, Finn Sully, a recreational technician at MMI, rolled a basketball back-and-forth in her group’s homeroom while they waited to go to their first “station” of the day — art.
Luisa polled her fellow campers and their buddies on their favorite — and sometimes second favorite — colors as they bolted across the rec therapy department to the art room.
The first activity on the docket for Luisa was a dot painting, in tune with the week’s Disney theme. Luisa opted for a picture of Cinderella’s castle. She chose a few paint colors and some paint markers and got to work adorning the background with a fireworks motif.
Once that was perfect, Luisa had time to choose a second picture. This one, which she colored with markers, depicted balloons lifting Carl’s house in the movie “Up.”
After the 45-minute art session, Luisa and her peers marched across the hall to the music room. They kicked off the session with a department-wide scavenger hunt for Disney characters.
Campers weren’t quite familiar with characters like Troy Bolton from “High School Musical.” But Mater from “Cars,” Winnie the Pooh and Mr. Potato Head from “Toy Story” were crowd favorites.
“There’s Maui!” Luisa shouted, pointing at the character from “Moana.” She put her checklist against the wall and scanned for his name before checking it off with a brown marker.
With her finished list in hand, Luisa jogged back to the music room. For the rest of the session, campers practiced their dance skills to popular Disney tunes.
Luisa requested a song from her favorite movie, “Moana.” But during the popular “Let It Go,” she really did let it go, belting out the lyrics and dancing along with Elsa on the TV screen.
See photos from Camp Munroe’s ‘Amazing Bubble Show’ entertainment session here.
Luisa’s group then headed to the kitchen for a cooking session. On the menu? “Cake pops!” Luisa shouted.
She and her friends washed their hands before mashing up cake, mixing in frosting and scooping the mixture onto a cookie sheet. Luisa opted to eat her vanilla cake pops without frosting, giving her a boost of energy before tackling Camp Munroe’s afternoon sessions.
But Luisa’s favorite part of camp would come at the end — swimming. The best part of the day is going down the slide, she said. Playing with squirt guns and rubber ducks are a highlight, too.
To wind down, Luisa and her fellow campers then sipped on water and ate a snack while watching a movie during an end-of-day rest and leisure session.
By the time her dad, Henning Brandt, picked her up for the day, Luisa was tuckered. At home, they unpacked her bag, which usually contains the day’s art project and a sheet detailing what campers have done all day.
Then Luisa recharges to do it all over again the next day.
“There’s anxiety and worry with any parent who sends their kids to camp,” Emily Brandt said. “You want to make sure it’s a safe place and has qualified staff. With MMI, we never have to think twice. It’s total trust in their staff, in their routine and in their structure. You can tell it’s a very well-oiled machine.
“We’re so grateful we live here in Omaha and that we have access to this. It’s one of a kind. It gives you a really good feeling about leaving your kiddo there.”