Drive by Elizabethtown Community Park this summer, and you may see people doing the hula. Pavilion No. 5 will be the site of Camp Ladybug, an annual summer program held for people who have mental and/or physical challenges. This year's camp theme is "Hawaiian Hullabaloo!"

The camp, which is a project of GEARS, will be held from 9 a.m. to noon on Mondays through Fridays. Camp will begin on Monday, June 14, and will run through Friday, July 23. Camp will not be held on Monday, July 5.

"Camp Ladybug started in the summer of 1968," said Karen Eberly, senior program coordinator for GEARS. "A group of parents wanted to keep their special needs children active and engaged over the summer." The camp was originally run by the Kiwanis Club of Elizabethtown, but GEARS took it over in 2003.

Camp Ladybug features games, crafts and activities for anyone age 6 and older. "We have a very creative camp director," Eberly said of Beth Lynch, who also directed camp last summer. "She has really great ideas. ... She comes up with wonderful activities, and really, the possibilities of what we can do at camp are endless."

Eberly said the camp has proven so popular that there are campers and volunteers who return year after year. "We have some campers in their 40s who have come for years," she stated. "We have a lady in her 80s who has volunteered for years."

She noted that Camp Ladybug would not be possible without community sponsors who help fund the camp, which is free to Elizabethtown residents, and without volunteers who are dedicated to making the camp fun for everyone.

"We try to achieve one-to-one ratios of volunteers to campers, and we usually get that," Eberly remarked. "We have wonderful support from the community."

She said the camp not only offers something fun to do over the summer, but also gives campers the chance to try new things.

"You just have to take a look at our photos on Facebook to see all the things that camp provides," she stated. "It's amazing what we can accomplish with the campers. We're able to offer them the chance to experience activities they may never have tried before. It's really great to be able to introduce our campers to so much through this camp."

This year's camp will follow all CDC and Pennsylvania Department of Health guidelines, including mask wearing for campers, staff and volunteers, Eberly said. For more information on Camp Ladybug, visit http://www.getintogears.org, search for "GEARS" on Facebook or call 717-367-0355.