Summer’s “brain drain” is a very real problem. Children who are not exposed to learning over the summer, whether in a camp or in a less-structured home setting, can start the new school year having lost a significant amount of what they spent the previous year learning. And the problem is more serious among lower-income kids.
Camp Riley at the Farmington Family YMCA helps plug that brain drain, and give kids a fun, supportive, safe environment in which to spend their summer as well. The program is funded by The Riley Foundation, as well as the Y and Farmington Youth Assistance and serves kids ages 5-12 for nine weeks over the summer. They take over a school building provided by the Farmington school system, where qualified teachers help them brush up on their reading, math, and writing skills.
Older kids also had life skills sessions with social worker Doreen Brant focusing on bullying, goal setting, and career aspirations. Reaching kids at this age, before they start middle school, is a critical time to help them think about their aspirations and their values so that they continue on the path to success. “They are great group of kids,” Doreen says. “They are very caring and accepting of others to begin with, and this gave them a little extra stuff to work with.” The anti-bullying sessions were especially effective, she said. Campers were working among themselves to defuse bullying situations, pointing out the behavior and stopping it.
Projects focused on serving others, as well; kids wrote letters to soliders serving in Afghanistan. They also had a “caring tree” where they could add leaves to the tree whenever someone did something positive.
Each year’s camp has a theme; this year’s focused on books and writing, and the kids journaled a different chapter every week. At the end of the session, the kids actually published and bound their own books. A grant from Dollar General paid for the supplies to do that and also provided each child with a backpack full of school supplies, as well as a journal so that they could continue their daily writing habit.
Parents like the program because it’s fun for their kids but keeps their skills sharp over the long summer months, and they know their kids are safe and having fun.
Each session ends with a jubilee. Kids perform a song and dance for their parents and show them what they have learned over the summer. This year, because of the book theme and because each child created their own book, the kids held a book signing as well.
Camp Riley provides a wonderful resource for the community, Doreen says. “The whole camp is a wonderful thing for these kids. A lot of them would just be home alone while the parents are working,” she says. “And the camp counselors really have an impact on the kids’ lives.”
