Skip to main content

Blog

July 22, 2025

August Mission Moment: Spark Summer Learning Through a Camper’s Eyes (Q&A Edition)

Each summer, the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools hosts Spark Summer Learning, a hands-on, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) based camp designed to keep LPS students learning, building, imagining — and laughing — all summer long. This year, we sat down with a few of our campers to hear what they had to say about their time at Spark. Their answers? Honest, creative, and a little bit hilarious.

 

What’s your favorite memory from this summer?

“Going to the luminarium. We got to take plant seeds home and played a tug of war game” - Jonas, 6th grade

“The pool and the movie theater because I got sprite” - Brooks, 2nd grade

“Going to the movie theatre, I liked the lego movie, but the movie theatre was haunted and I ate all my popcorn. And when we swam” - Rory, 1st grade

“Our field trip at LES, they lit a pickle on fire and it had sparks!” - Rose, 6th grade

 

What’s something new you learned at Spark Camp?

“It’s hard to make bridges out of popsicle sticks. I put pencils on my bridge and it smashed” - Surjan, 5th grade 


If you could invent a new activity for Spark Camp, what would it be?

“Origami or realistic sketching.” - Raelyn, 5th grade 

“I’d invent a field trip to Kansas City to see all the stadiums, maybe stop every half hour so I don’t have to spend all that time on a bus.” - Surjan, 5th grade 

“Everyone makes a fortune teller, and whoever gives their partner the best fortune first, wins.” - Kaden, 1st grade


What was your favorite activity, and why? 

“Bridge making out of popsicle sticks. I decorated with markers to make it look abandoned, and like it had broken pieces” - Raelyn, 5th grade

“Going to the pool and seeing the lego movie.” - Brooks, 2nd grade

“Making coasters out of wood!” - Rose, 6th grade

“Playing with my friends.” - Rory, 1st grade


Did you make any new friends at camp?

“They’re all my friends. I’ve spent 2 years at Spark, it’s been a lot of the same people and I get excited to see everyone in the summer!” - Rose, 6th grade

“Yes! And I made friends that go to other schools too.” - Brooks, 2nd grade

“I made lots of new friends, pretty much all new people, none from my school.” - Jonas, 6th grade  


What’s something nice you did for someone else at camp?

“The ball was rolling on a hill outside, and it was going down really fast and I stopped it and gave it to my friend. I can’t remember her name right now.” 

- Rory, 1st grade 


Can you tell me about a time you worked as a team at camp?

“We worked as a team to build legos, and made the best airplane!” - Brooks, 2nd grade

“We worked as partners to build a mini golf course, start a golf business, and compete with each other.” - Surjan, 5th grade

 

What makes Spark Camp different from school?

“I love school, but not homework. I love that at Spark I can learn but not have to do homework.” - Jonas, 6th grade


What will you miss most about Spark Camp?

“I’m going to miss talking with my friends, just hanging out. But I’m coming back as camp crew next year!” - Rose, 6th grade

“Playing with my friends.” - Rory, 1st grade 

“The precious, precious playground” - Kaden, 1st grade

The Numbers

  • Schools Served

    74

  • Focus & Specialty Programs Served

    15

  • Students Empowered

    42,282

  • Teachers & Staff Supported

    6,625

  • Funds Received This Year

    $4.30M

Our Partners

 

 
SEE ALL >>
© 2025 Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools
Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

  1. What Information Do We Collect? When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.
  2. Personal Information You Choose to Provide We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number and other personal information for such purposes as correspondence, placing an order, requesting an estimate, or participating in online surveys. If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.
  3. Website Use Information Similar to other websites, our site may utilize a standard technology called "cookies" (see explanation below, "What Are Cookies?") and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered through cookies and server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our website, and the sites visited just before and just after ours. This information is collected on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.
  4. How Do We Use the Information That You Provide to Us? Broadly speaking, we use personal information for purposes of administering our business activities, providing service and support and making available other products and services to our customers and prospective customers. Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. The lists used to send you product and service offers are developed and managed under our traditional standards designed to safeguard the security and privacy of all personal information provided by our users. You may at any time to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers.
  5. What Are Cookies? Cookies are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a website. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored by a user's web browser on the user's hard drive. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on one web page to simplify subsequent interactions with that website by the same user or to use the information to streamline the user's transactions on related web pages. This makes it easier for a user to move from web page to web page and to complete commercial transactions over the Internet. Cookies should make your online experience easier and more personalized.
  6. How Do We Use Information Collected From Cookies? We use website browser software tools such as cookies and web server logs to gather information about our website users' browsing activities, in order to constantly improve our website and better serve our users. This information assists us to design and arrange our web pages in the most user-friendly manner and to continually improve our website to better meet the needs of our users and prospective users. Cookies help us collect important business and technical statistics. The information in the cookies lets us trace the paths followed by users to our website as they move from one page to another. Web server logs allow us to count how many people visit our website and evaluate our website's visitor capacity. We do not use these technologies to capture your individual email address or any personally identifying information about you.
  7. Notice of New Services and Changes Occasionally, we may use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. As a user of our website, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers by clicking on a response box when you receive such an offer or by sending us an email request.
  8. How Do We Secure Information Transmissions? When you send confidential personal information to us on our website, a secure server software which we have licensed encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us. The information is scrambled en route and decoded once it reaches our website. Other email that you may send to us may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures will be in place prior to your transmitting the information. For that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security, credit card, or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.
  9. How Do We Protect Your Information? Information Security -- We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration or destruction. Evaluation of Information Protection Practices -- Periodically, our operations and business practices are reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information. Employee Access, Training and Expectations -- Our organization values, ethical standards, policies and practices are committed to the protection of user information. In general, our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
  10. How Can You Access and Correct Your Information? You may request access to all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our database by emailing us using the contact form provided to you within the site structure of our website.
  11. Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties? We may provide aggregate information about our customers, sales, website traffic patterns and related website information to our affiliates or reputable third parties, but this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy.
  12. What About Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information? We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.
  13. Permission to Use of Materials The right to download and store or output the materials in our website is granted for the user's personal use only, and materials may not be reproduced in any edited form. Any other reproduction, transmission, performance, display or editing of these materials by any means mechanical or electronic without our express written permission is strictly prohibited. Users wishing to obtain permission to reprint or reproduce any materials appearing on this site may contact us directly.
Terms & Conditions

Terms & Conditions

Donation Refund Policy

We are grateful for your donation and support of our organization. If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to our organization please contact us. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.

Automated Recurring Donation Cancellation

Ongoing support is important to enabling projects to continue their work, so we encourage donors to continue to contribute to projects over time. But if you must cancel your recurring donation, please notify us.

Gift Acceptance Policy

The Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools (“Foundation”) from time to time receives gifts from donors. Some of the gifts are designated for specific purposes by the donor. Other gifts have no restrictions. Gifts will be accepted by the Foundation if the gifts are consistent with the goals and objectives of the Foundation’s mission, subject to the terms and conditions outlined. Download the full Gift Policy here.

Powered By Firespring