For the fifth consecutive year, Saint Augustine’s College’s has opened its doors and campus to the YMCA and various local youngsters during its summer camp. “Saint Augustine’s College is the perfect fit for our camp,” said Dexter Hebert, senior director of Community Outreach at the YMCA. “Not only are we serving the community but we’re giving kids a chance to be on a college campus. St. Aug is our home.”
The YMCA’s summer camp is a fairly inexpensive camp despite the various amenities offered to campers. “We host community fundraisers, receive donations for locals and St. Aug doesn’t charge for hosting the camp, which has allowed us to subsidize the camp’s costs.”
“We are not just a typical summer camp. We are intentional in all the activities and character building we do in this camp. We believe in skill development of our kids and understand the academic challenges our kids face, so we have tried to incorporate an academic component to help them in every area of their lives.” During the camp, participants are taught to play various sports such as lacrosse, but also the campers have reading hour, participate in math activities and a weekly devotional with local ministers.
In addition to offering a wide variety of activities both academic and physical for the campers, the YMCA being on campus has also afforded many St. Aug students employment opportunities. “A number of our counselors are Saint Augustine’s College students and we’ve gone on to hire many of them post college,” said Hebert. Each counselor is required to undergo an interview process and 30 hours of staff training.
Furthermore, the YMCA and St. Aug hosted Healthy Communities Day, Thursday, July 12, in MLK Conference Center, an annual event focused on providing health screenings for the campers. For more information on the YMCA’s Summer Camp, click here.
