Summer is approaching and many children are looking forward to spending a week with officers of the Picayune Police Department, but more donations are needed to fully fund the department’s Summer Camp.

Community Policing Officer Capt. Theresa Milar said this year the camp accepted 107 children, who will attend the camp in two age groups on two separate weeks. So far Milar has received enough in the way of donations to sponsor 60 of those children.

While the camp is free to the children who attend, it is funded by donations of $50 per child, which come from local residents, business owners and corporations. Milar is asking anyone who is interested in sponsoring one or more of the remaining 47 children to call her at 601-798-6829.

Each year the camp offers local children a week full of fun and instructional activities. This year the trip to Global Wildlife will be substituted with a trip to the Children’s Museum in New Orleans, which offers a number of fun and interesting activities and exhibits, Milar said. Children in the camp also will take part in an art class instructed by a local artisan, go fishing in the Henleyfield area, go rock climbing in Slidell, La., and go bowling at the local bowling alley.

The camp is not all fun and games. Children will hear from representatives with Mississippi Power about electricity safety, get a bit of advice on how to deal with bullies and how to avoid drugs and alcohol from the department’s school resource officers, Milar said.

The culprit or culprits involved in the recent burglary of a storage unit used to store Summer Camp supplies, including fishing poles and other various summer camp supplies, are still being sought. Milar said that theft has left the camp short on fishing poles, and the camp is set to start next month.

Children ages 7 to 9 will attend the camp from June 13 to June 17 and children between the ages of 10 to 12 will attend camp from June 27 to July 1.