Menaged was excited for a weekend trip to Queens in New York City to spend Easter with relatives and go shopping in Manhattan. Menaged said most of her close friends went on vacations with family, noting one went to Florida and another, who attends Greenbelt’s Eleanor Roosevelt High School, went on a school-sponsored trip to Greece.
With no trips in sight, the Maddox sisters, Parris, 13, and Zena, 14, of Glenarden found ways to keep themselves occupied closer to home. They saw ‘‘Horton Hears a Who,” ‘‘Jumper” and ‘‘College Road Trip” at the Magic Johnson Theatre in Largo’s Boulevard at the Capital Centre. The two also played basketball at the recreation center in the evenings.
‘‘We live around here so we just come to the recreation center most of the time,” Parris Maddox said. ‘‘That’s where most of our friends are.”
Children at the Greenbelt Recreation Center had a different type of spring break experience. Youth from 7 to 12 years old climbed on top of each other to form pyramids while others spun plastic plates on thin sticks and juggled red, blue and pink scarves during a weeklong Spring Break Circus Camp run through the Greenbelt Recreation Department. The camp ended with a circus show Friday where children displayed their new talents such as stilt walking and riding a unicycle—with the aid of two tables sandwiched together—for friends and family. For their participation, each child received a round red rubber clown nose as a token of appreciation.
Wielding a green balloon sword and breathing through his new red nose, Ian Morris, 12, of Greenbelt said he participated in the circus camp last spring and thought it was fun enough to try a second time.
‘‘My favorite thing is balloons because you can make anything and they make funny noises,” Morris said.
Nine-year-old twins Winter and Autumn Holmes of Greenbelt said the only event that made them nervous was the ‘‘Rolling Globe,” a large orange bouncing ball that one child balanced on while weaving a hula hoop in and out of her legs without rolling off.
Autumn Holmes enjoyed the ‘‘Rolla Bolla,” a balancing act where a performer stands on a wooden plank supported by a rolling cylinder, rolling back and forth to make sure the edges of the plank don’t fall to the floor.
‘‘It’s really fun and it’s easy to do once you get the hang of it,” Autumn Holmes said.
Morris’ mother, Deborah Bustin, said the ‘‘Rolla Bolla” was the scariest part of the show to watch, as instructor Greg May stacked the number of cylinders and planks and spotted children who tried balancing at higher altitudes.
‘‘They learned an amazing amount of stuff in one week,” Bustin said. ‘‘It was a good way to keep them active during spring break.”
May, a circus clown for Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in 1991 and 1994 through 1995, performed many of the stunts children tried such as unicycle riding, stilt walking and juggling. May said kids tend to pick up plate spinning the easiest but said children in Greenbelt took to stilt walking faster than children in any camp he’s coached.
May, who lives in Columbia, plans to run a summer camp through the city’s recreation department from late June to early August and hopes to add tightrope walking to the kids’ repertoire.
‘‘I spend 99 percent of my time performing and I enjoy this so much more,” May said. ‘‘I get a huge kick out of seeing a kid learn a brand new skill.”
E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.
