National Youth Sports Program is a large summer camp that runs 5 weeks long in Cleveland, Ohio. It is comprised of both sports and educational classes. 400 children, ages 10-16, attend annually. This year we had Lorain and Australian guests. Over the past 5 weeks I have had quite the adventure. I coached football and taught nutrition in the enrichment classes. I have learned so much during this camp.
The campers showed me the ropes. They taught me that respect comes from everyone in everyplace. We basically preach to these young individuals that we deserve respect when trying to coach, teach, or instruct them. They turned it around and stated that many people are not respecting them because they are considered the younger and less experienced. I remember one camper who was asked not to be eating in front of the whole class out of respect for the others. His response was, "Miss Sam, we get up, eat breakfast around 6:30 AM, go to camp, and then don not get feed again until 1 PM. I can not go 6 1/2 hours without eating. Come on now, could you do that?" It was at this point that I realized that these young campers really do put in a full effort in this camp. They make sacrifices just like we do to be here.
This camp comes with both challenges and rewards. I am proud to say that the rewards completely outnumber the challenges. The campers bonded with me and trusted in me to talk about personal feelings. I liked being able to learn about their home life or what they desired in life. Being with the children everyday for 5 weeks gave me first hand experience into what a Public Health Nurse may deal with on a day-to-day basis. I was able to learn to understand not only what the community is thinking about but why they think that particular way. An example shared to me was about the issue of school bullying. One young female stated that she was often a victim of school bullying because she was overweight and wore the same outfits routinely. She expressed that she did not like it but she didn't know how to change anything. In a group discussion about this topic many individuals agreed this was wrong. We talked about hows there are things in life that we can not help. We talked about not judging people for aspects like that. Overall, we had a good group conversation. My only hope is that I made in impact in the campers life as they did mine.
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