Editorial by O’Bee O’Bryant
The intro song for the popular Disney Channel© show, Phineas and Ferb©, says “there are 104 days of summer vacation, and school comes along just to end it.” The Summer Day Camp program at the YMCA took the notion of summertime fun to a new level, with camps like orienteering, science, outdoor living, sports, kids in the kitchen, music, horseback, and more. But there is more to camp than just having fun.
Camping became a cornerstone of YMCA programming in 1885 when the YMCA started Camp Dudley, America’s first known summer camp program, at Orange Lake, N.Y. The longest continually operating camp, its aim is to provide children with a positive developmental experience.
This tradition holds true 128 years later. Our camps are also places where kids become a community as they engage in physical, social and educational activates that teach how to be more independent and how to contribute to a group.
So while the sounds of giggling and laughter filled the air all over Clarksville something even more subtle was taking place. Learning became fun through experience. By engaging them physically, socially and mentally summer camps helped prepare them for the new school year.