It’s a warm, humid summer morning, and campers are being dropped off at Christian Brothers High School for Memphis Youth Athletics’ Summer Program. They say goodbye to their parents, excited for what will be an incredible day of camp, and walk into the welcoming confines of Heffernan Hall.
The day starts like any day should, with a balanced, healthy breakfast, that will be shared with friends and counselors. Today, the campers are having waffles, apples, and orange juice for breakfast, a meal that has been planned out and prepared by our nutrition interns, just like every meal at camp is.
After breakfast, the track portion of our program starts. The camp moves down to the turf fields at CBHS and campers go through a 20 minute warmup routine together. Then, they rotate between three track oriented stations, each focused on an event grouping.
Today, in our running station, they are learning the difference between a 2-point, 3-point, and 4-point start and playing a game that moves quickly between them before landing on one of the starts and having a short race. At the throwing station, they are experimenting with different ways of throwing a tennis ball to demonstrate why a shot put is thrown how it is. Finally, at the jumps station, they are playing animal tag to mimic the repetitive jumps needed in triple jump.
After track, the campers get to refuel and rehydrate themselves with granola bars and gatorade during our first snack time of the day. With how active they have already been, it is important that they stay fueled and energized!
Next up is our nutrition lesson, where our nutrition interns teach about a balanced plate and the different food groups today, along with what a good meal looks like.
This serves as a great transition into lunch, where we have a build your own taco bar, where campers get in line and tell counselors what items they want on their taco among different options. They also get chips, salsa, and water to have with this.
Now that lunch is over, the campers go to their two academic rotations. Today, we are seeing who can build the tallest tower with just 20 sticks of spaghetti and 20 small marshmallows at one station, while at the other, students from University of Memphis Engineering have donated their time for this day and brought robots with the kids to play with.
The campers will get their second and final snack of the day, before going into counselor hour, the favorite part of the day for many campers. The counselors have built a grand obstacle course in the wrestling gym for the campers to have a relay through.
After that hour of fun, the day winds down with Mempops and hanging out, as parents come and pick up their kids, who are totally exhausted, but have had the time of their lives! And they get to do it all again tomorrow!
WHAT HAPPENS AT CAMP
- Breakfast, lunch, and two snacks, prepared by our nutrition interns, focused on teaching campers healthy eating habits
- Two hours a day devoted to developing and trying out different events in track in a fun, engaging way
- A nutrition lesson where campers learn about food and how to prepare different snacks for themselves
- Two academic rotations with a STEM emphasis
- One field trip a week to local Memphis institutes
- Multiple Speakers per week that come to talk with the campers
INFO
- Sign up here for the MYA City Summer Program for one session or the whole camp
- Session 1: June 16-June 27
- Session 2: July 7-July 18
- $300 per session, $500 for the whole program