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Good news: Virtual summer camps offer fun, support during pandemic

6 min read

Time for some good news from the pandemic. This column and next week’s will showcase the wonderful young people facilitating our free virtual summer camps and offer gratitude for all who support this effort.

When COVID-19 forced us to close our Common Ground Teen Center March 16, we began twice daily Zoom meetings with young people. Starting at 3 and 7 p.m. March 17, we’ve connected with teens.

At one of those sessions in May, a young person expressed feelings of sadness. The summer camp he normally attended would not open because of the pandemic. Without pause, I said, “let’s create our own virtual summer camps.”

We did.

Our peer educators jumped on the idea and within a day we had the first camp plans.

We are in the seventh week of 10 free Virtual Summer Camps for 12- to 14-year-olds this summer. Nearly 190 young people are attending, or have attended. Our peer educators excitedly embraced the idea and wrote curricula with goals and objectives, created activities and chose the camps they wanted to facilitate. I did training sessions for all facilitators to not only reinforce their facilitation skills, but also instruct them in each camp’s educational agenda.

Each camp is facilitated by an adult and a peer educator between ages 15 and 18 – or two, depending on the type of camp. Junior peer educators, ages 12 to 14, also serve as facilitators.

We receive on-going support for our work with young people from the Washington Health System and Behavioral Health Developmental Services (BHDS), but I sought other funding sources because of the increase in facilitator hours for the camps. Staunton Farms Foundation awarded us a grant to make the camps a reality. Staunton Farm Foundation believes in investing in a future where behavioral health is understood, supported and accepted. One of the most powerful aspects of our virtual connections is the ability to access emotional health in our young participants and respond to their needs. We are deeply grateful for this opportunity.

Locally, Southwest Training, Inc. (SWTS) provided us with a grant to support their mission. SWTS provides young people with caring adult guidance and with developmental work-based learning experiences. Each of our Virtual Summer Camps include career guidance and adult speakers from professions connected to the camp theme. SWTS is part of our village and we are thankful.

Our community coordinator, Amy Podgurski Gough, started with more than 350 parent responses to the camps and organized them into a manageable number – such skills!

I’ll share each camp today and next week:

Camp 1 –

  • Art Camp: adult facilitator, Amy Podgurski Gough; peer educator facilitator, Willow Maffio; junior peer educator facilitator, Elizabeth Engle. Art Camp focuses on artistic expression and includes instruction on proportion, water colors, making friendship bracelets and drawing to music. Crochet expert Cheryl Hopper, the wonderful artist who “yarn bombed” downtown Washington, attended to teach crochet to our campers. A camper wrote in her evaluation, “I love to crochet now. I never thought I’d like it. I crochet when I’m bored. I crochet when I’m tense or worried about something. I really think I will enjoy crocheting all my life! Thank you!”

Camp 2 –

  • Anime Art Camp: We discovered anime art was extremely popular, so we added a camp just for anime artists. I am the adult facilitator, and Maffio returns as peer educator facilitator. Our Teen Center supervisor LaShauna Carruthers provides writing expertise. We added two amazingly talented anime artists as peer educator Bailey Wheeler and junior peer educator Juli Hatfield.

These young campers are creating two original graphic novels/comics to teach 10- to 12-year-olds and 13- to 15-year-olds. Both books will be called “Bricks on the Wall.” Each camper is creating their own chapter, complete with original anime characters, dialogue and cartoon cells. The themes for the 10- to 12-year-old book include friendships, adjusting to middle school, bullying, fitting in and being yourself. The book targeting 13- to 15-year-olds looks at the more serious themes of mental health, relationships, seeking help for depression, anxiety and self-doubt, avoiding drug and alcohol use and popularity. A parent wrote in our online survey: “My daughter is usually shy and doesn’t interact well with her peers. This camp really drew her out. She talks about camp all day and can’t wait to log on.”

Camp 3

  • – Computer Camp: adult facilitator, Landan Weakland and peer educator facilitator Patrick Bryant, who is a skilled programmer and teaches campers how to code. They leave able to create their own projects! After two weeks of Computer Camp, we are running a more advanced camp for young people who are ready to move beyond basic instruction. My husband, Rich, is a guest speaker about careers in information technology. A parent comment, “Last year I paid a lot of money for a computer camp that covered a lot less than this one. Thanks for the personal attention from the instructors.”

I’ll cover the remaining camps in next week’s column.

I would like to share our newest camp, Travel/Explorer Camp which runs from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Monday through Friday next week. The adult facilitator will be one of our peer educator alumni, Liz Glowark, who is a chemical engineer. Her zest for travel qualifies her as a wonderful travel speaker! She set a goal of visiting each continent before her 30th birthday and accomplished that dream. She will talk about Antarctica, South America and Asia. I will share teaching in Russia, the Netherlands and China. Interested parents of 12- to 14-year-olds should email me as soon as possible.

Have a question? Send it to Dr. Mary Jo Podgurski’s email podmj@healthyteens.com.

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