Say “summer school” and kids are likely to say: Yuck! Say “summer camp” and kids say: Yay!
But summer camp isn’t what it used to be. With the standard swimming, sports and field trips, many camps teach kids the skills they’ll need to survive in life. Just don’t tell them!
We spent some time with two camps in St. Petersburg, Fla., in June 2006, finding out what they do to help kids in a way that is hardly yuck.
Click here to read the other story in our package, “Education unplugged.”
Shabazz Rogers strides into a classroom, his waist-length dreadlocks swinging in his wake. Before he’s even through the door, the 15 children snap to attention. Side conversations stop, headphones slip off ears, all four chair legs land on the floor.
“Okay, you all have five seconds to pick up two pieces of trash off the floor,” Rogers says. Before the words are out of his mouth, 15 small bodies have hit the ground in search of garbage.
Rogers doesn’t rule by fear at the Campbell Park Neighborhood Family Center Summer Camp. These kids cooperate because he runs the camp by kind suggestion, eliciting frequent giggles. Campers caught tilting their chairs back on two legs do not receive safety lectures. Instead they are instructed to sit properly because, “Mr. Shabazz doesn’t feel like filling out paperwork, he already has enough!”
In a low income area of St. Petersburg, Fla., where the power of education often can get lost, a small group of co-workers is finding a way to run an enrichment camp on a tight budget. And a small group of kids is responding with a resounding fervor, showing that learning knows no socioeconomic boundaries.
During a rainy Monday lunch break in June, campers shout over one another to boast about what they learned in their first week.
“I learned about science at MOSI,” bursts out Miracle Blackshear, 10, chattering about a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Fla.
“Water recycling,” Derrick Turner, 9, calls, jumping up and down.
“Ancient history,” yells 12-year-old Diondre McKinnon.
Diondre and two other boys rush to a cabinet on the wall, flinging it open to reveal a large sheet of paper covered with a drawing of a pyramid chronicling seven periods of history. They beam with pride as they recite the last week’s history lesson. They are quick to credit Rogers with their new knowledge, and view him not only as a teacher, but as a mentor.
“When we are older, someone can look up to us like we look up to him,” says Chris Coston, 10.
Rogers, 42, says he’s simply trying to give these kids a chance.
“The way I deal with the kids,” he says, “is how I was dealt with. I teach by passing on what was brought to me.”
He moved to St. Petersburg from Brooklyn, N.Y., 11 years ago, and worked for the local Boys & Girls Club. He joined the camp this summer, serving as one of two counselors. During the rest of the year, he now works as a tutor and outreach specialist for the Campbell Park Neighborhood Family Center.
In its second year, the center’s summer camp sets itself apart from traditional recreational camps through its focus on youth development. Education is central to daily activities. This year 24 children from 9 to 14 years old are enrolled in the program. It runs for nine weeks, from June 5 to Aug. 4.
Delquanda Turner, coordinator at the center, says she would love to extend the age range at the camp and admit more kids, but doesn’t have the funding to pay for more than two counselors – Rogers and RaShanda Mobley. The center is funded by a number of grants, Turner says. Each camper pays $125 tuition for the nine-week program.
“We want to keep this affordable to parents because this is a low-income area,” she says. “We could charge more to help our personal budget but then we wouldn’t have the kids here.”
Turner is trying to get business owners in the community to invite campers to their businesses to give them a sense of possibility.
“The field trips are important because these kids are unique,” she explains. “They haven’t seen much or done anything.”
This summer, the campers’ first field trip was to work as volunteers at the St. Vincent De Paul soup kitchen, at 401 15th St. N. They cleaned trash outside the soup kitchen, helped unload supplies and served 130 homeless people lunch. Most days the soup kitchen works like a cafeteria. But on this day, the children waited on the needy men and women.
Many of the campers come from families that aren’t much better off, though anyone is welcome. Rogers says the campers’ families make at most, $29,000 a year. Many make far less. Economics play a large part in the camp’s racial makeup; all the campers are African-American.
“No other races have tried to come here,” Rogers says. “But all are welcome.”
He says the single-race atmosphere can hurt the kids.
“They just see the same people they always see unless it’s a special event,” he says, “It doesn’t get them ready for the world. So we address that.”
The center also focuses upon building community and tolerance. Swearing is not allowed, nor is teasing or “shut up,” although that rule needs some extra enforcing.
During a team-building exercise Monday, one of the campers reached out to another who had withdrawn after being blamed by some of the kids for losing a game. And when one boy was elected captain of a team dance competition, a teacher urged him to invite the boy who lost the election to serve as his co-captain.
Michelle Mann, an outreach specialist at the center, sends her child to the camp. Mann says the presence of a community police office on site creates a positive image for campers.
“Seeing the police give back to the community enhances their respect for authority,” she says, “and it creates a safe environment.”
Quintina Mays just moved to the Fruitland Heights neighborhood, about a mile and a half from the center, after living in Campbell Park for 30 years. She continues to work at the center as the office manager and to send her two sons, Nick, 12, and Demetrick, 9, to the camp.
“If you leave them in the street, they are gonna be lost,” Mays says. “I keep my kids in activities, They are always in something. If not, they aren’t out of my eyesight.”
Two regular visitors to the center are Precious Barr and Deserria Bingham, of Family Resources, a nonprofit agency focusing on youth development and strengthening family relationships. On a recent Monday, the women start a round of telephone with the campers, the game where a secret statement is whispered from ear to ear.
The children are determined, cupping their hands and whispering into the ear of the person next to them.
The children are divided into two teams for a competition. Team 2 is frantic that RaShad Coston will forget the statement. But he is all confident smiles, assuring his team members his memory is stellar.
“I got it, trust me, trust me,” he urges.
And his teammates do. RaShad begins to whisper the sentence to himself over and over again. After what seems like an eternity to RaShad, it’s his turn to share the sentence.
Beaming, he says, “Our mission for the summer is to learn strength and power.”
His teammates shriek in celebration, dissolving into a circle of flailing arms and hand slapping.
Interested in more? Click here to see the related design project “Two camps, two missions.”
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