Steve & Kate's Camp - Chicago Bucktown
Burr Elementary, 1621 W Wabansia Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
About
Steve & Kate's Camp - Chicago Bucktown offers a wide range of hands-on activities, including coding with iPad apps, sewing with both hand-sewing and machine sewing, baking in a bakery where campers can customize creations with fillings, spices, and add-ons, and creative projects in a Tinker Lab with arts and crafts, custom maker packs, and 3D pens. Campers can also spend time in a Media Lab with film, robotics, virtual reality to explore 3D worlds, and interactive art apps, as well as use custom-built animation stages for stop-motion animation. Additional options include sports and recreation, water play with activities like water tag and inflatable slip n’ slides, tabletop games, building marble mazes and forts, lounging with sensory objects and a stocked bookshelf, and special events such as Find Chuckie, Friday Pie-Day, Disco Dome, Keychain Workshop, Water Play Games, Butterfly Garden, Slime Day, Go-Kart Cruise with helmets available, Junk to Art, Brain to Belly Yoga, Board Game-Mania, and Fossil Dig.
• Ages: 4–12 years old
• Schedule: Jun 8–Aug 7, 8:00am–6:00pm, closed July 3
Since 1980, Steve & Kate’s has held an optional whipped cream pie to the face tradition at the end of the week called Friday Pie-Day, and the camp also features long-standing games like Find Chuckie. The program states that, at Steve & Kate’s, campers choose which activities they do, whom they do it with, and for how long. The camp offers summer day camps and holiday camps for kids ages 4–12, with more than 90 locations overall.
Families can buy any number of days and send their child to camp on any day they choose, with drop-off and pick-up allowed at any time within camp hours. All-inclusive rates cover camp hours from 8:00am–6:00pm, snacks and lunch, and any activities that interest the child. Unused purchased Day Passes are automatically refunded in full after the camp season, and Summer Pass holders receive a refund of the difference if they do not use enough days to justify the cost. Registered families receive a virtual camp orientation before summer with information on what to bring and not bring, and for water play games, campers are asked to bring a labeled swimsuit, towel, and water shoes or sandals, while helmets are provided for Go-Kart Cruise or families may send a labeled helmet from home.
The camp’s leadership at this site includes a Director named Ashley. The mission statement explains that during summer, Steve & Kate’s gives kids freedom after a school year of rigid structure, and that campers are empowered to be independent, resilient, and responsible for their own decisions. Junk to Art includes hands-on guidance from Future Hearts, Minds, Dreamers’ professional Teacher Artists.
Testimonials about Steve & Kate’s Camp include comments from Andrew Stanton, Director of WALL-E, Finding Nemo, and Finding Dory, who says that children at the camp “blossom and discover a freedom of identity” and “find their thumbprint” there. Apple’s Hot News states that “If kids ruled the world, it might look something like Steve and Kate’s Camp.” Variety magazine notes that many children of people working at Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic attend, and The Washington Post describes the camp as a blend of traditional camp experiences with a “modern, tech-savvy touch.” The Chicago Tribune states that “Working parents’ worries dissipate as they contemplate Steve & Kate’s model.”
Last updated April 30, 2026.
• Ages: 4–12 years old
• Schedule: Jun 8–Aug 7, 8:00am–6:00pm, closed July 3
Since 1980, Steve & Kate’s has held an optional whipped cream pie to the face tradition at the end of the week called Friday Pie-Day, and the camp also features long-standing games like Find Chuckie. The program states that, at Steve & Kate’s, campers choose which activities they do, whom they do it with, and for how long. The camp offers summer day camps and holiday camps for kids ages 4–12, with more than 90 locations overall.
Families can buy any number of days and send their child to camp on any day they choose, with drop-off and pick-up allowed at any time within camp hours. All-inclusive rates cover camp hours from 8:00am–6:00pm, snacks and lunch, and any activities that interest the child. Unused purchased Day Passes are automatically refunded in full after the camp season, and Summer Pass holders receive a refund of the difference if they do not use enough days to justify the cost. Registered families receive a virtual camp orientation before summer with information on what to bring and not bring, and for water play games, campers are asked to bring a labeled swimsuit, towel, and water shoes or sandals, while helmets are provided for Go-Kart Cruise or families may send a labeled helmet from home.
The camp’s leadership at this site includes a Director named Ashley. The mission statement explains that during summer, Steve & Kate’s gives kids freedom after a school year of rigid structure, and that campers are empowered to be independent, resilient, and responsible for their own decisions. Junk to Art includes hands-on guidance from Future Hearts, Minds, Dreamers’ professional Teacher Artists.
Testimonials about Steve & Kate’s Camp include comments from Andrew Stanton, Director of WALL-E, Finding Nemo, and Finding Dory, who says that children at the camp “blossom and discover a freedom of identity” and “find their thumbprint” there. Apple’s Hot News states that “If kids ruled the world, it might look something like Steve and Kate’s Camp.” Variety magazine notes that many children of people working at Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic attend, and The Washington Post describes the camp as a blend of traditional camp experiences with a “modern, tech-savvy touch.” The Chicago Tribune states that “Working parents’ worries dissipate as they contemplate Steve & Kate’s model.”
Last updated April 30, 2026.