A few weeks ago, we told you about the construction of a volleyball court at the YMCA headquarters on Faber's Road. The construction was completed just in time for the beginning of its annual summer program, and today we visited the camp as the program comes to a close. Jomarie Lanza has this story.
Though it's the end of the YMCA Summer Program, these kids are still bubbling with energy, having spent the last 3 weeks learning how to play different sports and even trying their hand at coding. The camp's director explained what the coding curriculum looked like over the past week:
Clara Cuellar, Executive Director - YMCA
"What YMCA has done this year last year we started using Scratch for the summer program, but we have really been doing Scratch since 2020, and then we got an opportunity to send 5 of our youths to the coding program, the robotics program that Minister Musa has, and they were impressive, so we knew there and then that we had to offer it to the broad base of children who had done the Scratch here, the Scratch coding,"
"We got volunteers and we introduced the coding aspect, especially to those who have done Scratch. We have children from age 7 12. The 7 and 8-year-olds did the Scratch program where they develop their own games, they develop their own stories; the older kids started doing the robotics, so it was a huge improvement, a huge investment, and I thank all the donors that we have, and we have several."
30 kids signed up for the program and they were divided off into groups of 12, so they all got a chance to learn a new sport and a skill.
Clara Cuellar, Executive Director - YMCA
"All children are taught coding, all children are taught basketball, and all children are taught volleyball, so we train our volunteers. All volunteers, they just sign up and we decide. And one thing I have learned this year, we did have some volunteers who preferred to do coding because they have experience, and we already told them so that they be an example for our kids, they have also to do an hour of sports."
We also spoke with the kids about what they learned and what they enjoyed the most about the camp.
Meikah Williams, YMCA Summer Program
"My experience was fun, enjoyable, and I definitely learn a lot from it."
"My favorite was coding and volleyball, but coding was so fun. I learned how to make games, stories, and other activities that can learn from in the future."
"I enjoyed doing and playing basketball, doing volleyball, and coding."
Samuel Williams, YMCA Summer Program
Jasleen Brown, YMCA Summer Program
"My experience is funny, excited,"
Jomarie Lanza, Reporter
"What did you enjoy at the camp?"
Jasleen Brown
"Basketball and volleyball."
