Summer camps and youth programs — Sebastian, Florida

Sebastian children spend summers at the Boys & Girls Club on Friendship Lane, the county pool on County Road 512, Barber Street ball fields and paid museum and nature camps.

Summer in Sebastian is split among a handful of public and nonprofit providers rather than one city camp. The City of Sebastian's Parks and Recreation Department runs special events, community center classes and the parks themselves; Indian River County operates the North County Aquatic Center on County Road 512; the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indian River County keep a club in Sebastian; and museums and nature centers around the Indian River Lagoon run fee-based week-long camps. The department's own page lists its services as recreational activities, parks maintenance and special event organization, with no city day camp among them, so families in the Sebastian Highlands and along Indian River Drive assemble a summer from the providers below.

A May 2026 Sebastian Daily roundup gives the clearest picture of the paid camps for that summer: a treasure-hunting week at the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum's Sebastian location, the Environmental Learning Center's Wild Lagoon camps on the lagoon, the Vero Beach Museum of Art's studio sessions and full-day programs at the Boys & Girls Clubs, including the Sebastian club. Swim lessons, youth sports at Barber Street and city events fill in the rest. Dates and prices below are the 2026 figures as published; each provider sets new ones every spring.

In summer 2026 the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum in Sebastian, the Environmental Learning Center and the Vero Beach Museum of Art ran paid week-long camps open to Sebastian children.

The camp closest to the riverfront is run by a museum. According to Sebastian Daily, the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum planned a Week to Remember summer camp at its Sebastian location on US 1, giving children ages 7 to 10 a chance to explore history and real-life treasure hunting with the museum's crew. The five-day program was scheduled for June 8-12, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day, with metal detecting instruction, conservation techniques, archaeology basics and a meeting with a professional treasure hunter. The cost was $250 per person for the week, covering snacks, drinks and materials; campers brought their own lunch. Lessons were to be led by people connected to Mel Fisher's recoveries, the salvage work behind the museum on US 1.

The Environmental Learning Center, a nonprofit devoted to environmental education in Indian River County, ran its Wild Lagoon Summer Camps for grades one through eight in nine weekly sessions from June 1 to Aug. 7, 2026, each running 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Activities listed for 2026 included canoeing, archery, pontoon boat trips with island picnics, plankton studies and squid dissections, plus field trips to Sebastian Inlet State Park, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge and the McLarty Treasure Museum. Weekly rates were set at $325, with a 10 percent discount for ELC members and scholarships for families in need.

For art, the same roundup listed the Vero Beach Museum of Art's Summer Staycation camp for ages 5 to 16 from June 1 through July 24, 2026, at $115 a week for members and $135 for non-members, with half-day morning and afternoon sessions. Classes meet at the museum at 3001 Riverside Park Drive in Vero Beach, so it is a county option rather than a Sebastian one.

The North County Aquatic Center in Sebastian offers a children's activity pool, Red Cross-based swim lessons and a free June swim event every summer.

The county pool is the anchor of a Sebastian summer for many families. Indian River County describes the North County Aquatic Center at 9450 County Road 512 as located in Sebastian off CR 512, approximately 2 miles east of I-95. It has a competition pool with 18 lanes at 25 yards, a diving well with one-meter and three-meter boards, and an activity pool with slides, bubbles, a water play structure and zero-depth entry. In 2026 the children's activity pool opened Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. between June 1 and August 9, then on weekends only into September. Daily admission for ages 3 to 12 is $5.00 plus tax, and children 2 and under swim free.

Lessons are the main youth program at the pool. The county's Aquatic Programs page says its Learn to Swim program follows the Red Cross curriculum, with group classes offered in the summer months at both the North County and Gifford aquatic centers. Class sizes range from 3 to 6 participants and the cost is $45.00 per session; private lessons run year-round at $80.00 for four half-hour lessons. Older teens can train as instructors through Water Safety Instructor and Basic Safety Instructor courses offered at both centers, with scholarships available.

The Sebastian pool also hosts one free event each June. Sebastian Daily reported that Indian River County would join the World's Largest Swimming Lesson on Thursday, June 25, 2026, with a free one-hour session for children ages 3 to 10 at the North County Aquatic Center from 1 to 2 p.m., after a morning session at the Gifford Aquatic Center in Vero Beach.

Last verified: October 10, 2026, on the Indian River County website.

The Sebastian Boys & Girls Club, the Barber Street youth leagues and the Sebastian Police Department cadet unit run all year.

The Boys & Girls Club is the main after-school and summer site inside the city. A January 2022 Sebastian Daily report described the Sebastian club, located behind the Sebastian Police Department and City Hall, as opening its doors in 2006, with an education and technology center, an art room, a teen room, an outdoor basketball court and a playground at 1415 Friendship Lane. The club had closed during the pandemic because of staffing problems and reopened that January with Vice Mayor Fred Jones cutting the ribbon. In 2026 the Sebastian Daily camp roundup said Boys & Girls Clubs of Indian River County serves youth ages 6 to 18 at three locations in Vero Beach, Sebastian and Fellsmere, with its summer program open 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays from June 1 through August 7, 2026.

Organized youth sports center on one city park. The City of Sebastian calls the Barber Street Sports Complex its premier athletic facility, with two Little League fields, an intermediate field, a senior baseball field, three multi-purpose fields, a skate park, two basketball courts and two batting cages. It is home to Sebastian River Area Little League and Sebastian Sharks Youth Football and Cheerleading, which puts most organized youth baseball and football in Sebastian on the Barber Street fields.

For older teenagers interested in public safety, the Sebastian Police Department runs a cadet unit. According to Sebastian Daily in April 2024, the Public Safety Cadet program was created in July 2022, replacing the former Explorer program, and its fifteen members at the time helped at the department's community events while receiving training in teamwork and leadership.

The City of Sebastian schedules family events such as Star Gaze, Summer Concerts in the Park and Kids Fest, plus Community Center classes.

The city's contribution is mostly parks and events. The Parks and Recreation Department maintains over 165 acres of park land and says Sebastian provides 23 parks and facilities, a list that includes Riverview Park on the waterfront, Hardee Park, Easy Street Park, the Skate Park, the Splash Pad, Stormwater Park and the Yacht Club. Its special events include Star Gaze, Summer Concerts in the Park and Kids Fest, coordinated from the department's office at City Hall, 1225 Main Street.

Classes are the other city channel. The Adult and Youth Classes page says the Sebastian Community Center offers a variety of classes, overseen by the city's Recreation Supervisor, who also teaches some of them; the department page lists Tai Chi, group fitness and gentle yoga among them, and the schedule changes by season, so the published Community Center schedule is the record of what is offered for children in a given summer.

Civic clubs add one-day events. On Oct. 30, 2021, the Exchange Club of Sebastian held its Junior Blue Water Open Kids Fishing Day at the Sebastian city docks at Riverview Park, where 44 youngsters fished from the docks, according to Sebastian Daily. The club pays for such events through its Blue Water Open charity offshore fishing tournament.

Summer food is part of the picture too. In June 2025 Vero News reported that the School District of Indian River County was serving free breakfasts and lunches at five schools, from Oslo Middle to Sebastian River Middle, plus community sites, open to anyone 18 and under with no registration or income requirement.