Children charged across the floor of the Stephen Leacock Collegiate gymnasium and Ontario's education minister ran with them.
Kathleen Wynne was at the Agincourt-area school Tuesday, July 29, to see a summer camp supported by her ministry's Youth in Focus fund.
Besides the rare chance to dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller with a member of the provincial cabinet, the camp at Leacock is giving 300 children free activities and lunches for five crucial weeks.
Over at L'Amoreaux Collegiate, 250 more were enjoying their day and organizers said they would take 500 if they had the space.
"We have a waiting list where people constantly keep calling, but there's only so much room," said Hugh Keane of Boys 2 Men (B2M), a charity that with the Scarborough-based International Charity Association Network (ICAN) is running the camps in both schools.
Founded in North York's Jane-Finch area, B2M teaches leadership to youths. Focus on Youth this year has paid for 28 teenagers to work with children in the two schools and a total of 400 across the city.
The ministry created Focus on Youth to support summer programs last year, especially in Toronto's most challenged neighbourhoods. It was criticized then for being a last-minute effort and some providers were more successful than others in attracting youngsters.
But $4 million in annual funds has helped charities who often could not afford space in Toronto schools - where permit fees can be $100 an hour - to provide more children with programs at little or no cost.
Toronto's public and separate school boards "needed the money to pay the caretakers, to pay for the lights, to keep the doors open," Wynne said.
Though the province can't directly link the programs to a drop in crime, she said, "we know that if kids have a job and a place to be they're less likely to get into trouble."
Ward 20 (Scarborough-Agincourt) Toronto District School Board Trustee Soo Wong said she doesn't even want to think what many parents in the area did with their children before they could take advantage of a free camp.
"Very little," she guessed.
The city's parks, forestry and recreation department also operates a summer camp at Stephen Leacock but the city camps charge at least $54 a week - unless families can prove they live below the poverty line and apply for a subsidy.
Those who apply successfully at a community centre can send children to camp for four weeks if they do not register for another free summer program.
Wong said it would make more sense for the city and school board to run such programs together.
However, program fees charged in Steeles-L'Amoureaux and the city's other "priority neighbourhoods" should not be as high as they are in its wealthier areas, she argued.
"It's not like we're competing for services. There's needs there."