Posted on: Monday, January 20, 2003

YMCA affiliate to host camps

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

An affiliate of the YMCA hopes that a series of camps will help preteens make a successful transition from elementary to secondary school.

The Hawai'i region of the Y's Men International will hold a camp on each of the four major islands during spring break in March. Y's Men is a nonprofit organization that was created in the 1920s to assist the YMCA and perform service projects.

Regional director Phil Sammer said the Y's Men has been planning and raising money for these camps for more than a year. He said about 150 fifth- and sixth-graders will be invited to the camps free of charge.

Sammer said the Y's Men organization has asked schools on each island to select children who may have a tough time moving from elementary to secondary school. Parents who wish to send their child to a camp should contact a counselor or teacher at the child's school.

"Essentially any child who seems to need help in adjusting to making the change from a nurturing, small environment in the elementary classroom to the more wide-open, less-nurturing, multi-class environment of the secondary school will be eligible," he said.

The two-day camps will allow children to interact with their peers and build confidence and relationship skills. The camps will be run by YMCA staff, community volunteers, Y's Men members, and middle-school students who will serve as mentors and role models.

"We'll be basing a lot of the things that we do on the Hawaiian principles of working together, living together, taking care of the land, relationship to God and the spirits, and also nonviolent resolution to conflict," Sammer said.

The Y's Men recently held a fund-raiser to cover the cost of the camps, but Sammer said donations are welcomed.

For information, call Sammer at 923-1877.