Local 4-H Club holds weeklong camp in CL

By Dawn Lutynski
Reporter, The Friday Flyer

4-H Clubs are a whole lot more than just livestock and farming. Such was on full display last week as the valley’s club held a weeklong day camp at Indian Beach where 27 youths participated in a variety of activities.

The 4-H Club is a youth development group that teaches kids, from as early as 5 years old, skills to get them ready to be future leaders. The club offers activities and learning skills with fine art, yoga, sewing, welding and community service. The group’s main goal is to teach leadership skills.

Canyon Laker Pam Mascio has both of her children in the program and they attended the camp at Indian Beach. Pam’s older daughter, Gianna Mascio, is 14 years old and a first-year counselor. Gianna, along with her co-counselor Abby were in charge of the Blue Group at the camp. They both thoroughly enjoyed being counselors to the younger kids.

“There were no issues,” Gianna said. “We feel we have the best group and we love our job and our campers.”

4-H Club counselors work with their Primary campers on one of the many activities during the day camp at Indian Beach. The week-long camp brought 27 youths together for fun and learning. Photo by Dawn Lutynski

Campers who show interest can become counselors. The counselors basically run the camps. They are overseen by adults, however, the teen counselors planned the camp and the activities for the younger campers.

The participants were broken into four age groups. The youngest group was named Primaries, to which three counselors were assigned. Emily, 14, was one of the Primary counselors and said working with the youngest group takes a lot of work and planning.

“My fellow counselors and I have to keep things moving along in order to keep the kids interested,” she said. “It takes work to keep them on track and entertained. We have three counselors for five campers and they definitely keep us busy the entire day.”

The Yellow Group, which consists of 8-12 year olds, was led by Sarah, 14, and James, 12. Sarah said it’s a great group, and the only thing that she found challenging was “keeping the group enthusiastic about a project that they might not want to do.”

Overseeing all of the counselors is a lead counselor. Daniel was the lead counselor this year. He said he oversaw all the groups and would step in when a group needed a little extra help. Daniel kept the campers and counselors on schedule and he was the one that coordinated and organized with the adult volunteers the planning for the camp. The teen counselors have been planning the camp since April.

Counselor Gianna Mascio, 14, from Canyon Lake enjoys water time with the younger campers. With temperatures nearing 100 degrees, the refreshing splash of water was well received. Photo by Dawn Lutynski.

“This is the best program for leadership training and skill development,” Devon Carmichael, a former 4-H camper and counselor who is now one of the adults in charge of the Riverside 4-H Chapter. She has no children of her own, but volunteers her time to help keep camps such as the Canyon Lake one successful.

Of the 27 youths who participated in the day camp, 10 were counselors. The 17 campers ranged in age from six to 12. The counselors organized all activities and the parent volunteers who were on hand were there to ensure the success of the camp and to make sure there was always an adult on hand should one be needed.

Dawn Rhodes, one of the parent volunteers, said there is no judging of any of the campers’ skills. They all have equal opportunity to win prizes, as long as they put forth their best effort in any and all activities, she said.

Dawn said the kids are “evaluated, never judged.”