Youth Enrichment During Rootead Kalamazoo Summer Camp 2023

August 8, 2023

Written by Will Stewart, Youth Enrichment Manager with contributions from LLY Communications

There’s something about that Summer Camp feeling. You wake up excited but nervous for the day, not sure what to expect or what memories you’ll make. Even as an adult, there is something about going to camp that just puts the mind and body at such a childlike ease. Over the span of three weeks, we got to give over 60 kids the chance to learn more about Rootead and what we are passionate about using movement, music, and fun. More than that, we were able to give them camp memories that will hopefully last them a lifetime.

What is Rootead Summer Camp?

Rootead Summer Camp is our week-long day-camp for five to twelve year olds. Campers get to do age-appropriate activities rooted in the African diaspora for $200 per week. As with all of our programs, scholarships were offered and received by several families. We prioritize the accessibility of everything we do, including making sure this summer camp is affordable.

We also wanted to make it fun! Our goal was to provide campers with activities that not only taught them to be their best selves but also help them learn more about the culture that motivates Rootead’s intentions.

Newcomers Camp

Newcomers Camp was our week of camp for campers that have recently moved to America. The camp was a wonderful way to welcome kids and their families into the community and show them they have a place for support.

Watching campers be able to organically build relationships with each other and with our teachers were some of the most rewarding parts of the week. This was most noticeable during our third week of Newcomers Camp, where these students were not only new to our area but still getting comfortable in our country in general. Despite the language barriers and cultural differences, so many connections were made because of our ability to just provide them time to connect and bond with no expectations.

Even with the crafting, movements, and teaching throughout the day, just simply getting the chance to sit with them and be present meant the world to us all. It was the perfect way to complete three weeks of camps to take the Newcomers campers to South Haven Beach on the last Friday. The look of joy on their faces when they got out of the vans to see the beach in front of them was all the reward needed. Two hours of splashing on the beach without a care in the world: priceless.

Newcomers camp at the beach. There are kids, mostly from middle school to high school age, standing across the frame in the sand. Most are wrapped in towels and holding up peace signs. In the middle, there is a blue fold-out chair, baskets and bins, a volleyball, and a blue and white towel.

Summer Camp Activities

Our mission for enrichment and freedom for our campers is reflected in the activities we offered.

With camp lasting a full day, we wanted to make sure that kids got the chance to move, create, and process throughout the entirety of the day. Every day we went outside to allow the kids to move together, play community games, and create their own friendships and connections.

No time was more important than our opening circle time because this was where we were able to establish our vibes for the day and week along with giving them a chance to share pieces of themselves with their community. Each day started with the chance to build community through table games, arts and crafts, and simple fellowship around a table. Kids would paint and color or get lost building things in their kinetic sand, allowing them to ease into their experiences in their own time.

When we gave campers space to grow, they took on the challenge. There’s nothing more rewarding than watching a child sit in the circle silently nervous on the first day to being the biggest sharer on the last day. This also tied into every element we offered throughout the week because we wanted nothing more than to help boost their confidence in their ability to speak and represent themselves in any setting.

Our three biggest elements during the week were theater, dance or gymnastics, and drum time.

Djembe for Beginners

Kids sat around the front of an adult, also sitting, with lots of curly brown hair and tan skin, wearing casual rose-colored clothes on a checkered rug in shades of brown and three drums in front of her. One of the drums is in between her legs on the ground. The children also have their drums hugged between their legs on the ground or in a chair.

Between both groups, drum time was a huge moment of new experience and learning. It was more than getting time to bang their hands and make loud noises. This was our chance to teach them some traditional African history about the djembes and dunes, traditional rhythms, and songs. We saw that from day one to day five, the campers were able to embrace and learn simple drum knowledge and be successful at growing in this newly acquired skill. By the end of the week, campers were going from simply listening to being able to start and create rhythms on their own and performing for their parents as well!

Beginner African Dance

Some groups took more of a liking to movement and dance than others. Our Week Two campers loved to move around and take part in more physical activities, like dance! Campers learned the fundamentals of African dance through simple movements that got their energy flowing. African dance made a great combination with the African songs and rhythms they learned during drum time. Dance lessons were educational, fun, and tired them out for the parents.

African Crafts

Crafting is another perfect combination of fun and educational. We took time out of the day to not only create with their own hands but also to learn how crafting ties into African traditions.

Kids were able to craft the things they wanted. They focused on two major craft projects each week. Week One campers learned all about traditional African Kente cloths while Week Two was able to learn about masks and some of the traditions held around them in African culture. We wanted each crafting element to be supported with some type of education so that the campers were able to have context for what they were doing each day.

Playing Mancala

We didn’t forget – caring for their brains is important too! We did this each day by taking time to read books together and playing Mancala.

Mancala is a game that dates back to ancient Eritrea and Ethiopia. The object of the game is to move the marbles around the board in order to capture all of your opponent’s marbles. Mancala is great for practicing counting and strategy skills.

According to the Savannah Art Museum, “Mancala also takes on a metaphorical meaning. The board often represents a village and each hole is a ‘hut’. Different combinations of seeds in play represent different aspects of village life. Single seeds are called ‘women’ or ‘widows’, two seeds are a ‘married couple’, other numbers of seeds are ‘chiefs’, ‘children’, ‘cattle’, etc.” We’re teaching kids to reclaim the village in more ways than one!

End-of-Camp Showcase

Every year on the final Friday of each camp, we invite friends and family to join us as the campers put on their end-of-camp showcase. This is completely planned by the campers themselves and turns out very different from one group to the next. Sometimes they like to end by putting on a play, sometimes a dance, other times a song. Whatever their imaginations take them is where we go!

The Week One campers were full of storytelling power. The story they came up with over the week was about a magic fish being saved by their group of animal friends from a horde of zombies in the jungle. Along the adventure, the animals had to solve three riddles to eventually get to the place of saving their fishy friend. Every riddle, every character, even the problems overcome in the story, were all derived from the minds of our kids. It was so valuable to give them the space to just do whatever comes to their minds along the way.

Week Two campers were much more movement and dance minded which led to their final show being all about showing off their moves, a much different type of energy than the first weeks’ show. For their show, they used their own masked characters they had been creating all week. They also demonstrated what they learned about various ways to move their body and show off their love of movement to music.

Activity time throughout the week was not about us creating what they were going to show to their parents, but it gave the kids a chance to use their own thoughts, creativity, and desires to take what they learned each day and create a show for their families. This is where their week ending performances were created and established through collaboration with our campers’ imaginations. This allowed each week to have a completely tailored show to fit each child that was present in camp, which was extremely noticeable when it came to their theater and dance time.

Summer Camp Memories

Our camps were three weeks of learning, growth, and connection. Kids and adults were able to put themselves aside for a few hours a day and just be present together in a space that helped us all be our best selves. Through moving, talking, and focusing on each other, campers left each week with meaningful memories and connections.

It goes beyond just giving them our culture and knowledge. It’s also being able to embrace their lives and backgrounds as well. Over three successful weeks of camps, we saw kids grow out of their shells, learn about each other and the people around them, and most importantly, establish that they have a community behind them for whatever support they need.