Children from Wantagh and Seaford who attend Levittown schools were treated to an “enriching” summer of 2022.

After enduring two summers without any enrichment programs in 2020 and 2021, Levittown district officials felt it was necessary for the programs to make a strong comeback this year, according to Todd Winch, superintendent of Levittown schools.

“We hadn’t done anything in two summers, and then in March, when things all of a sudden returned to normalcy, we knew we had to make this one special,” said Winch, who recently took over for retiring superintendent Tonie McDonald after having served as assistant superintendent for instruction in Levittown.

Winch added that the district has had a high demand for summer enrichment in recent years, but this year Levittown received additional funding through grants to make the summer enrichment program even more successful.

Levittown used a grant from the American Rescue Plan to slash the cost of enrollment for those in the program.

“We were able to subsidize the cost of our usual programs by about 50 percent,” Winch said.

The programs include Camp Invention, a two-week-long, half-day program for elementary school students, with the focus on science, technology, engineering and math. In addition, Levittown partnered with Scope Education Services, the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or BOCES, and Caumsett State Park for some of the enrichment programs.

“We, of course, have the traditional summer programs as well,” Winch said. “The usual kickball, reading programs, all that. But we wanted to provide a plethora of things for them to choose from.”

Some of these programs took students on adventures all around the island.

The marine biology program, for example, was conducted at Caumsett in conjunction with BOCES, allowing students to explore the North Shore coastline, examining the diverse flora and fauna inhabiting both the water and the land.

They learned how to fish, and explored a salt marsh to learn about Long Island’s glacial history.

The students also canoed upstream to a freshwater pond and learned about its unique ecosystem, culminating with a trip to the Long Island aquarium.

“The kids got to get into waders and see everything there is to see in the marshes,” Winch added.

Another intriguing program the students took part in was called “Adventures in Local History,” as they visited the Smithtown Historical Society, the Holocaust Museum and Tolerance Center in Glen Cove, Walt Whitman’s birthplace, and Old Bethpage Restoration. They participated in several historical activities, including talking to Holocaust survivor Anita Weisbord, who escaped on Nicholas Winton’s “kindertransport” in 1938.

Other programs consisted of music, driver’s education, engineering, and even comic book design.

About 1,300 students from Levittown, Wantagh and Seaford attended the summer enrichment program, making it the most successful program to date, district officials said.

“We’ve never offered this many opportunities in one summer, so I’d definitely call it a success,” Winch said. “Obviously, this grant isn’t going to last forever, but we want to keep (it) at this level.”

The superintendent praised all the teachers involved in the program, adding that they have overcome obstacles caused by two years of the pandemic to come back stronger for the students.

“Our number one priority is the academic, social and emotional needs of our kids,” Winch said. “And even with the burdens of the past two and a half years, we have teachers and administrators coming in to do great things for them.

“Thanks to our summer enrichment, we have the expectation that this is truly going to be a fantastic school year,” Winch added. “It has set the stage for a real return to greatness.”