Step Up Summer Camp

Buoyed by the success of last year’s “Extreme PIP” camps and recognizing the need to empower student leaders at the middle school level as well as elementary, Teenfocus created a leadership camp of its own this summer.  “Step Up!,” as the week-long day camps were called, were facilitated by associates from Teenfocus, Womanfocus and PIP. They took place at Depew and Grand Island with over twenty students participating in total.  Students completed activities that fostered abstract thinking and empathy while building communication and leadership skills.  Some of the activities were set up to enable the students to work together better as a team while others built communication ability.  In one activity students had to act as “tv infomercial sales people” and sell an object picked at random out of a bag.  That “sales” ability will serve them well as they “sell” their peers on making healthier and safer choices in their lives.  The teams shot several video public service announcements that will be shown in their schools at various times in the upcoming year.  Because of the camps, the students are all ready to “Step Up” as sixth grade leaders that will positively impact their schools and communities starting this fall.