Among multiple activities offered by the Summer Inspiration Program of the Putnam County Charter School System is a camp that teaches kids the importance of not giving up and pressing on, even if at first you fail.
Putnam Survivor camp at Putnam County Middle School helps kids to overcome challenges in a fun way.
“My camp is designed to develop team-building skills and critical thinking,” said Nicole Crawford, the camp instructor, who came up with the idea for the camp based on a combination of TV shows The Amazing Race and Survivor.
The Putnam Survivor camp is set up on a point system. All campers are divided into teams and for each challenge, the winning team gets 10 points, which are summarized at the end of the six-week camp. This year they made two teams, the Ghost Riders and the War Eagles.
Just as the name suggests, this camp is all about challenges. Two games – head, shoulders, knees and toes, and the passing of the cones – are good examples.
For the first game, the teams line up facing each other and the instructor tells them to touch their heads, shoulders, knees and toes, starting slowly, then going faster and faster. The goal is to keep up with the instructions at a very high pace and the team that makes fewer mistakes is declared the winner.
In the second game, the teams line up side-by-side so each player faces the back of their teammate ahead. Once the instructor commands, the first player of each team has to pass the traffic cone to the following players so it would reach the end of the line. Once the cone reaches the end, the last player runs forward and starts passing the cone in his or her turn. It’s important to pass the cone exactly as instructed: either over the head or between the knees, because if the first player passes the cone under instead of over, the last player doesn’t go forward, and the team has to start over. The winner of the game is the team that completes everything correctly and reaches the finish line first.
The other challenge at the camp is an eating challenge, where the competitors are blindfolded and have to guess what they eat.
The camp offers not only physical but intellectual challenges, such as puzzles, as well.
“Today, I cut up a cereal box into pieces. They’re collectively putting it together as a team. Whoever finishes first wins,” said Crawford.
“It’s my favorite camp,” said Gabriana Gearheart, whose favorite game is the eagle challenge. To meet the eagle challenge, campers have to find an eagle hidden in advance by the instructor for a prize.
But the biggest challenge of the year was awaiting the campers at the JROTC Raiders Obstacle Course at the Putnam County High School, which includes monkey bars, balance beams, stumps, climbing walls and an army crawl. This activity was timed, and the fastest team was the winner.
“My camp recruits for the JROTC program at the high school,” Crawford said. PCHS JROTC cadets volunteered to supervise and assist middle-school campers in this challenge under the guidance of their instructor, SFC Moore. After going through the obstacle course, the campers received JROTC t-shirts and caps as keepsakes.
“This camp was a big success last year and this year,” said SFC Moore. “It’s good for kids because it gets them active and makes them do things they normally wouldn’t do. Teamwork is good for them, too.”
“It’s good for kids to do the obstacle course because they can get out, run, have fun, jump over things,” said high school senior Abigail Pickle, who’s also manager of the Raider team and has been a cadet for four years.
“It was fun,” said sixth-grader Alexander Rochau. “My favorite one was jumping over the walls and the monkey bars. I learned that just because you lost it doesn’t mean you cannot be a winner. Believe in yourself and you can get through it.”
“I liked all of it, except the monkey bars,” said seventh-grader Kaydon Bridges. “They spun, and I didn’t expect them to spin. I learned that no matter what you do, you are still learning.”
“The obstacle course was hard. I think the worst one was the army crawl,” said seventh-grader Caleb Pittman, who got his arms scratched crawling. “It was fun. I learned to try to do the army crawl twice. And not to give up.”
“What I learned here is don’t give up and keep on trying,” said sixth-grader Justin Lukes. “No matter what, even if you are tired. I liked the obstacle course, although it was hard to do it. The challenges made it hard. I was tired, but I still kept going through, and it made it fun.”