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Give And Go: Brewerytown Summer Camp Combines Sports with Life Skills


  Kids love to play games but they’re rarely excited to learn the lessons of life that will help them cope. But a summer camp in Brewerytown has been trying to combine games with learning life skills for nearly seven years.

  Give And Go Athletics (G&G) has been teaching those skills since 2009. Executive Director Andre Wright said he started the camp in 2007 when his experience as a school therapeutic counselor showed him that kids need a guiding hand when school is not in session.

Andre Wright (right) speaking to a camper./Patrick Clark

Andre Wright (right) speaking to a camper./Patrick Clark

  The camp, held at the William D Kelley elementary school at 28th and Oxford Streets, is held from July 5 to August 5 each year and is offered for kids from first through eighth grades (ages 6 to 14).

  Currently, 80 kids attend the camp, Wright said. A total of 1,500 have used the program over its existence. Now it its seventh year, G&G has always drawn a good response from parents interested in enrolling their kids, said Wright.

  “We always have to turn people away,” he said.

/Patrick Clark

/Patrick Clark

  The goal of the camp, Wright said, is to use athletics to improve both physical and mental health of the kids. While physical activity makes up the bulk of the day’s activity, the athleticism is merely the language through which the lesson of life skills are taught.

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/Patrick Clark

   He described the “Numbers” game in which teams of students compete to gather more basketballs than the other. Teams stand on the basketball court’s sidelines and with an identifying number a student from each team is primed to snatch a ball from the court, but he or she cannot move until a signal is given. If a student jumps before the signal is given, their whole team must run a lap around the gym.

  Wright said the exercise teaches discipline and self-control.

  “We try to articulate into each program some of the things they might face in life,” Wright said. “They learn without knowing they’re learning.”

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/Patrick Clark

  Outside, a student is running laps around a large square of artificial turf. Fellow campers cheer him on with hoots of encouragement and applause, which Wright said teaches togetherness and having each other’s back.

  G&G activities also include basketball, baseball and cross-country running. A performing arts component focuses on dance, including ballet, jazz, hip-hop and African styles.

  Wright also runs the same program at the Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Northeast Philadelphia. During the school year there is also an evening program that runs from 6-8 PM, Monday Wednesday and Friday.

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/Patrick Clark

  Wright began his career at the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center (CCTC) at 1080 N Delaware Ave, a non-profit facility that helps at risk children with emotional difficulties who would not otherwise get treatment and their families.

  For such children now, G&G is helped by Carson Valley Children’s Aid, another local nonprofit social services organization that provides treatment for students with behavioral problems. But G&G also monitors those issues each day. In the mornings they gather with the students to talk about their feelings, and the program’s 8-10 volunteer staff members monitor at-risk students throughout the day to watch for problems.

  After his stint at CCTC, Wright became a counselor with the Philadelphia School District. The Kelley School is his fourth assignment, one he requested since he grew up in Brewerytown, though he did not attend Kelley. Through his years of counseling experience, he saw that kids need the same kind of support they get in school once they for the day. After school programs are needed to guide them through the anarchy of the unsupervised streets. He would like to see more after-school programs offered throughout the year.

/Patrick Clark

/Patrick Clark

  Though some children in summer camps may be more social and participate more, Wright said he and his staff try to make sure everyone gets involved. “We see that all kids get some experience.”

  Campers’ progress is measured by what Wright calls the “Circle of Courage,” which gauges student achievement in four areas: Mastery of Skills, Belonging (their level of participation in the program and consistency to do so), Independence (taking a personal interest in their own education) and Citizenship (becoming an active member of the community).

  G&G helps promote the final segment of the circle by staging three community-based projects each year: a Martin Luther King Day of Service project, and participation in the city-wide Philly Spring Cleanup and “Love your Park Week.”

/Patrick Clark

/Patrick Clark

  Though the camp is for younger children, Wright and his volunteers also counsel high school students in a Work Ready program to give them work experience and life skills mentoring they can later use to find employment.

   The Give and Go Athletics summer camp receives some money from the city’s Department of Behavioral Health but not enough to fully fund keep the program. Private donations and a $400 fee for each student close the gap, Wright said.

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