Camp provides wide range of valuable experiences for kids
Torri Finley performs with the fourth- and fifth-grade groups during the Lemoyne Community Center's Camp Challenge show. After a summerlong camp, the campers put on a show for their friends and family.
D?Asia Yarbrough and Jazmine Wright rush the stage at the beginning of their show for their friends and family. After the performance, the campers had a chance to spend their Lemoyne money (which they earned for good behavior) on different items like T-shirts, food, backpacks and baseball tickets.
DeSean Anderson plays the character Mufasa from the movie ?The Lion King? during the kindergarten-through-first-grade group performance.
WASHINGTON – Aboute 150 children burst into the LeMoyne Multicultural Community Center gym pumping their fists, dancing and yelling. These campers were excited and ready to show family and friends performances they practiced and planned for two months. Armed with hats, canes, posters and costumes, the four age groups took center stage, competing to win votes of their audience for first place.
Their performances Aug. 10 marked the end of a summer-long Camp Challenge at the community center. Six- to 17 year-old students attended the daily camp and participated in athletics, educational lectures and field trips, all for free.
“It was created to help level the playing field for those who could not afford to send their kids to camp,” center Director Joyce Ellis said.
The camp is funded through grants from the Highmark Foundation, Benedum Foundation and Grable Foundation. The grants allowed the campers to go to the Heinz History Center, Carnegie Museum and other places. Camp Challenge also brought in speakers to teach the students how to handle money, manage their health, learn conflict management skills and to start developing career interests.
“I have learned from growing up poor myself and from my mother that just because she didn’t have any money didn’t mean we shouldn’t gain an experience from the resources around us,” Ellis said.
Esperanza Patterson, 16, of Washington has been a part of Camp Challenge for four years and is now part of the leadership program at the center.
“It’s made me a different person, because coming up here when somebody would torment me I would easily snap on them, but going through Camp Challenge has made me calm down and be a better person,” Patterson said.