DYS summer camp had 2 cohorts

Children ages 6-13 years stay active at the 2017 Summer Youth in Transition Camp by Division of Youth Services at the Carolinian Utt. (Bea Cabrera)

For Azriel, Alyanna, and Aliya, the youth summer camp organized by the Division of Youth Service last June not only kept them busy during the summer months; it also had topics on personal development.

Colleen F. Diaz, program coordinator from the DYS Family and Youth Enhancement programs, said the summer camp had speakers from the newly created drug court, dentists from the SDA dental clinic, from the Non-Communicable Diseases Division of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., who talked about healthy plates and diets, and the division’s Child Protection Unit, who talked about safe and unsafe touches with camp participants.

The two-week summer program, called the 2017 Youth in Transition Summer Camp, was held from June 19 to 30, from 7:30am to 11:30am. For the first time, this year’s camp was held in two different locations: at Hopwood Middle Shool in Chalan Piao and at the Carolinian Utt in Garapan.

“We wanted to touch base with the different youths from different areas on island. For both locations, the turnout was good. The program is great for the youth participants and for our youth volunteers,” said Diaz.

The camp programs focused on counseling, anger and aggression management, training and counseling. It gave children knowledge in sports, culture, new skills, good hygiene, and nutrition.

The participants’ ages ranged between 6 and 13 years old. They were provided breakfast composed of fruits, bread, and milk to keep them energized for the activities that follow.

“We exposed the youth to sports and wellness, arts and crafts, traditional practices such as coconut weaving, bead making and traditional dancing. We also had a recycling program where we teach the kids to make trash into treasure.”

The Carolinian Utt and Commonwealth Arts Council provided artists and craft making professionals who could instruct children how to do those things, Diaz said.

“We found about the summer camp from the Tanapag Youth Center… This is such a good event for the kids, something to keep them active rather than watching television all day,” said Beatriz Matifola, mother of Azriel, Alyanna, and Aliya.

The long-term goal is for other agencies to collaborate with DYS and provide summer camps north, east, west and south of Saipan.

“As much as possible we want the kids to be active and we want to keep them informed. We would love to have it longer but for this project, we wanted to try out summer camp in different locations to reach different demographics,” Diaz added.