LeMoyne summer camp overflowing with kids
On a typical morning at a popular summer day camp program in East Washington, children line up outside the front door a half-hour before it opens.
The Camp Challenge program at LeMoyne Multicultural Center has more than double the enrollment it had when it began four years ago, forcing the director to turn away children, many of whom live in low-income families.
“There are two weeks left to the camp and we still have parents calling,” said Joyce Ellis, the center’s executive director.
While the camp draws children because of its good reputation, it is stressed to the limits because Washington’s summer playground recreation program was canceled this year.
“There is no other place in town offering a camp,” Ellis said Monday.
Washington Mayor Brenda Davis said nonprofit organizations that ran the city’s playground program became victims to cuts in the state budget, which used to fund the recreational activities.
“We have the playgrounds. We have the children. We just need someone to run the programs,” Davis said.
Davis said Ellis does “a fantastic job up there” and the center might be the answer to the city’s lack of such a program.
“It that’s the shift we need to go for the city of Washington, I am going to get more proactive,” Davis said.
Some children and their parents missed the deadline to apply for the free LeMoyne camp, which provides a healthy lunch and activities designed to teach children life skills and manners, Ellis said.
“We know we have a substantial number of children who need a good meal,” Davis said.
This year more than 200 children are enrolled, and 185 of them normally attend on a daily basis, she said.
“We have homeless kids,” Ellis said. “We have kids from the shelter. We have transients. All I want to do is give them a level playing field.”