Camp Success shows children to handle stress
Finding children's passions and teaching children how to handle stress was the purpose of Action in Recovery's pilot launch of Camp Success. Which was, unironically, a success.
On Friday evening children filled the auditorium of the First United Methodist Church on E. North Street in Butler for an honors ceremony on the last day of the camp. During the ceremony members of the community, including Commissioner Leslie Osche, spoke to the children.
The camp, which was created to help Butler County youths learn to cope with stress, make new friends, and build strong foundations.
Action in Recovery says 12 children between the ages of 11 and 16 attended the camp, which lasted for four days. Boys attended August 6 and 7 and girls attended August 8 and 9,
“The purpose of Camp Success was about teaching coping mechanisms and providing a strong foundation for growth,” said Jamie Lee Goehring, secretary of Action in Recovery.
One of the main purposes of the program for Jason Beckwith, the founder of Action in Recovery, was helping children find and gain access to pursuits and interests they may not have access to on their own. “We are trying to mine them for their passions, for things they can't usually get exposed to,” he said.
Camp-goers took part in a variety of different creative and physical activities including, music, painting, football, dance, and more. Even the Butler High School football team came down to teach the children drills.
One of the activities participants were exposed to was yoga, which was one of 11-year-old Jayden Matuke's favorite experiences.
“Warrior position is my favorite,” she said. “Until they made us bend back all the way and my back felt like it broke.”
Jayden was a part of the program because of her mother, Tawny Matuke, of Butler, wanted to help her daughter learn to cope with stress better. “I did drugs most of her life,” Matuke said. “I'm sober now, but I wasn't there for her mentally and I thought [the camp] would be a good way for her to learn to cope and be a kid because. She didn't really get that before.”
The camp wasn't just all fun and art, it also worked in an hour of education each day with a curriculum developed with the help of Butler County Human Services.
Action in Recovery is happy with how the project went this year.
“All the kids did phenomenal. They really grasped the concept and opened up. The residency of the kids in some situations is inspiring,” Goehring said. “There were a lot of kids who dealt with abuse, whether physical or emotional, and for them, being apart of a group that they could be honest with and not ashamed was the greatest thing.”
Next year Beckwith and the AIR crew plan to make some changes. They plan to change the enrollment process and host 24 children for the camp instead of 12. Beckwith also says they plan to have all kid attend all four days of the camp instead of splitting them up, and being less strict with their schedule.
The event was put on thanks to CCR, Adagio Health, Butler Drug and Alcohol, C.A.R.E Center, local businesses, the county commissioners, and the city.
Camp Success isn't the end of the project. The camp is a part of larger initiative called Project Success, Project Success currently has two parts, Campus Success and Stregthening Families.
Strengthening Families follows the kids and families after camp to help the children form a better bond with their family members, and give them financial support if needed to follow through on the passions they picked up in camp.
