YMCA camp season in full swing

Marshall Allen

Camping season is booming at the Crescenta-Canada YMCA, as more

than 300 students and 55 leaders and counselors piled into buses

Monday morning, departing for a week of adventure at the YMCA’s Camp

Fox on Catalina Island.

At Camp Fox, the sixth- to ninth-grade students will swim and

kayak in the ocean, conquer rope courses and enjoy campfires at

night. Another group of students will depart for Camp Fox in August.

The camp is one of many day and week-long camps offered at the

Crescenta-Canada YMCA, where more than 4,000 children will attend

camp this summer, said Robin McCarthy, director of public relations

and communication for the Crescenta-Canada YMCA.

“The most important thing is for everybody to have a fun but safe

time,” McCarthy said.

The camps are also educational, promoting the “friendliness and

respect” that the YMCA is built on, McCarthy said.

Family Program Director Justin Banks, 25, is camp director for

Camp Arbolado in Big Bear. He and other staff will take about 120

third- through seventh-graders to the camp July 27.

“We’re in it to change kids’ lives, to get them out of their home

environment and be role models for them,” Banks said.

The counselors chosen to lead kids are chosen for their

compassion, patience and enthusiasm in dealing with children, Banks

said.

At the camp, kids participate in activities like archery, canoeing

and ropes courses, Banks said.

“My favorite part is when the kids don’t want to come home because

they’re having such a good time,” Banks said.

Self-confidence and social skills also grow at camp, where

children are challenged with new things while being affirmed by

adults, Banks said. The counselors will often affirm the importance

of personality traits they identify in individual students, he said.

“Anybody would walk away with a heightened self-confidence from

that,” Banks said.

For more information about Crescenta-Canada YMCA day- or week-long

camping programs, call 790-0123.