LOXLEY, Ala. — Look out. One group of kids is frosting cupcakes in honor of someone’s birthday. Another group of youngsters is making braided headbands. A little later all 25 will go outside and romp over a state-of-the-art playground with their counselors watching over them.

If it sounds like a summer camp, you are right.

But the location might surprise you. Try the Loxley Civic Center.

The Civic Center is holding its annual summer camp now through June 26. Campers can range in age from 5 to 14 years of age. The registration fee is $100 but Civic Center Director Joey Knight says it will be prorated for late-coming campers. The camp also charges $10 per week to cover food. He stressed that the camp was not designed to take the place of day cares or other arrangements parents might make during the summer break, but was simply “an alternative” for families.

“We can take additional kids,” said Knight, adding that the summer camp has been part of the Civic Center’s offerings for the past five years.

“This is an additional program to give parents another option,” said Knight.

In fact, Knight explained that “one of the reasons” the building exists is to give seniors and the youth of the community a place to congregate.

“That was the donors’ (of the Civic Center) intent,” said Knight. “This is part of our mission.”

“The Loxley program is fun,” Knight says. “We’re designed to be safe, but we are geared toward the fun aspect.”

The camp has five regular counselors, according to Knight, and a supervisor.

“We have a few rules, mostly for safety,” explained Knight. “There are seven youngsters to a counselor.”

He added that the counselors come from area schools and are teachers, teacher’s aides and the camp, “Tries to hire people with some link to education.”

Knight, himself a retired band director has been known to give youngsters an instrumental music lesson or two.

Campers take field trips to a movie theater and the older youngsters head off to a nature trail. Children at least 12 years old can take a “baby-sitter certification course” that teaches youngsters CPR, first aid, what to do in an emergency and how to incorporate crafts into a sitting session. The cost of the optional class is $50.

Debbie Huffer of Loxley is normally a paraprofessional at Loxley Elementary. During the summer she turns into a counselor at the camp, and clearly enjoys it. She was whipping up a batch of frosting for those cupcakes as she talked. The youngsters had baked the goodies under her careful supervision and would be frosting them later that morning.

“This is excellent for us,” said Huffer. This is her third year with the program. “It keeps us working with kids.”

Of course, the kids like it, too.

“This is neat,” exulted Christopher Thomas of Robertsdale. He was braiding scarlet and gold threads together to create his own headband.