The Chestermere Regional Community Association will be holding two youth leadership camps this summer.
Running in July, goal of the camps is to provide leadership, communications, teamwork, problem solving and conflict management skills training to youth aged 12 to 15 in a fun environment.
“Most of the summer day camps only go to age 12 and so you’ve got this group of kids that are 12 to 15 that don’t have anything to do for the summer.
“They’re not going to be as into the games and…the usual camp type things so this is sort of a stepping stone for them,” said Recreation Program Coordinator Vicki Klinger of why they are holding the camps.
The camps will be run under the direction of a Mount Royal practicum student who is working at the CRCA for the summer.
“We wanted her to have a project she could…do, so this is what she came up with,” said Klinger.
The leadership camps will be capped at 12 attendees and will offer a blend of classroom style learning as well as physical activities.
The classroom activities will look to engage the community with guest speakers being invited to come in.
“She’s been calling community leaders to come out and mentor the kids as well on leadership and volunteerism in the community,” said Klinger.
She said that other activities could include teambuilding exercises with games that reinforce the leadership message.
“They may go in and work with our summer day camps as well,” said Klinger.
Over the course of the leadership camp, each youth will be asked to complete a small project to benefit the community.
“It’s for them to be creative with that,” said Klinger, “anything that would sort of benefit the community.”
With only a week to do it, Klinger said they’ll be pretty small projects but she hopes that they may gain some traction in the community.
“If you’ve got twelve people working on twelve projects there’s something that might get traction in the community and get picked up by say the city or by CRCA and be an ongoing project like snow angels,” she said.
If the camps are a success, Klinger said that the CRCA will look at making them a permanent part of the rec centres summer camp offerings.
Inline skating hosted by the CRCA
The CRCA has been hosting in line skating nights at the rec centre throughout June.
The new program offerings have come about after a popular rink closed in the City of Calgary.
“Lloyd’s shut down in Calgary,” said Klinger.
She has set up a stereo and speakers in the curling arena and is looking for lights to use to add to the ambience.
“I had the music all downloaded so we could have theme nights like 50s and 60s or disco 80s,” said Klinger.
If the skating, which is held Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays, proves popular, Klinger said they would carry it through the summer.
“I would say probably for the summer and into September as well,” she said.
