Camp calling

Published 6:49 am Monday, March 3, 2008

Two boys, both 13, became involved with the YMCA at age 5. Now, as teens, they are two of eight participants in the YMCA’s Counselors In Training (CIT) program.

“I had such a great time when I was a camper, and I would love to pass on my great experiences to other campers,” said 13-year-old CIT Alex Linville, also known by his camp name, Monkey.

Linville attends College Place Middle School in the Edmonds School District and hopes to become a police officer when he is older.

The YMCA has had an impact on the lives of both boys, teaching values they remember to this day and hope to pass on to future campers.

“The YMCA has taught me a lot of stuff. Definitely the six core values: honesty, respect, responsibility, caring, faith and fun,” said 13-year-old CIT David Cannon, or as the campers like to call him, D Money. “(The YMCA has) made me a better person and they let me have fun during the summer.”

Cannon attends Kellogg Middle School in the Shoreline School District and wants to “do something fun” when he is older.

At age 16, teens can become volunteers with the YMCA and at 18 they become paid counselors. Many counselors have been with the YMCA since childhood.

“There’s no real staff turnaround,” said Carla Hilderbrand, marketing and communication manager for the Shoreline/South County Family YMCA. “Everyone stays.”

Arin Ricchiuti, 23, has been involved with the YMCA since second-grade.

“They (the YMCA) have taught me a lot about community service, supporting the community and doing my part,” Ricchiuti said.

Ricchiuti started as a camper and is now working as the business manager and a counselor.

“I decided to become a counselor because I volunteered and had so much fun being with the kids and being a positive influence in their lives,” Ricchiuti said. “I liked the feeling and wanted to keep doing it.”

Before the CIT program, teens were trained in the Teen Extreme program. This is the first year for the CIT program at the Shoreline/South County Family YMCA.

“This is a more in-depth program. We teach them not just the camp counselor side of it, but also leadership and teamwork,” said Amy Holland, youth development director at the Shoreline/South County Family YMCA. “It’s a good way for them to come together and form relationships.”

The program involves two weeks of leadership training and one week working with the campers.

During the first week of training the future counselors attended workshops and a two-night camping trip. The CITs learned outdoor living skills and participated in a ropes course to learn team building techniques.

“The camp out with the CITs was a whole load of fun,” Cannon said.

The second week the CITs learned how to work with youth, risk management skills and project management.

The annual YMCA family picnic and barbecue, Friday July 22 at Hamlin Park in Shoreline, was the first chance for the future counselors to interact with the campers.

Before parents arrived for the barbecue, approximately 160 campers age 5-12 participated in a field day in which each CIT was in charge of organizing and leading a game while a counselor supervised.

Cannon’s game was capture the flag with water balloons. Linville led a water relay game in which campers had to run with a cup of water on their head and dump it into a bucket a few feet away.

Most of the water used in Linville’s game ended up on Bryan O’Donnell, director of childcare at the Shoreline/South County Family YMCA.

At the end of the relay, Linville declared the game a “tie, everyone wins.”

The picnic gives parents an opportunity to get to know each other, Hilderbrand said.

“The (CIT) program provides a non-school based atmosphere for them (teens) to develop leadership skills, enhance their ability to work with youth and improve their overall self-confidence,” Hilderbrand said.