Beaufort County Police Activities League’s summer program drew to a close Friday with a ceremony at Washington’s Festival Park.

“This has undoubtedly been the best camp we’ve ever had,” said BCPAL President Al Powell.

Thirteen children completed the program, and at Friday’s event, each was handed a plaque awarding them for outstanding attributes such as “most intelligent,” “most laid back” and “most energetic,” all of which brought smiles to their faces.

Powell described the last several weeks of adventures wrapped around steady exposure to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities. The first two weeks covered life skills, diet/nutrition and aviation-related topics, which included tours to the Washington-Warren Airport, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, U.S. Marine Corps Air Station-Cherry Point and U.S. Coast Guard Station Hobucken.

“The kids just had a ball with the Coast Guard,” Powell said.

At home, the children engaged in aviation projects: building a hot air balloon, model airplanes, experimenting in wing construction, testing in wind tunnels and piloting both real and simulator airplanes. While at Seymour Johnson, PAL students were allowed to tour F-15 fighter jets and watch them take off from the runway.

“That is something that very few adults get to see,” Powell said.

The third week of camp was a transition to boating and marine topics, Powell said.

Swimming lessons, snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking and boating were all introduced, and the children had to pass the in-river swimming test in order to progress to the next level of the camp: learning to sail with the Little Washington Sailing School.

“We had 100-percent pass rate on the swim test,” Powell said.

In its third year of collaboration with LWSS, the PAL camp is also funded by a three-year Burroughs Wellcome Fund grant totaling $161,000, as well as help from United Way and Grady White Boats. Other collaborations included Lee Chevrolet providing a 15-passenger van to transport the children in their travels and use of Washington Parks and Recreation classroom and swimming facilities, Powell said. The camp cost approximately $1,500 per student to conduct, but was free to its participants. Powell said the goal was to provide the PAL camp experience to a diverse range of students from across the socioeconomic board.

“We had 30-percent black, 30-percent white and 30-percent Hispanic (students),” Powell said. “It’s been our most diverse group so far.”