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Marco’s YMCA broadens its reach
QUENTIN ROUX / Staff
Keanna Alvarez, center, and friends Kancy Delus, left, and Briana Hernandez enjoy a game during a summer fun and educational camp made possible by the Marco Island YMCA, soon to be renamed the Greater Marco Island YMCA because of outreach programs beyond the island such as this.
QUENTIN ROUX / Staff
Boys will be boys. That's evident in the case of Brandon Labrada, left, and Max Guillaum who enjoyed a little horsing around during a break in summer camp proceedings at Manatee Elementary School.
QUENTIN ROUX / Staff
A blindfolded R.J. Munoz seeks out a victim to tag during a play session at the summer fun and educational camp at Manatee Elementary School.
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Thanks to the efforts of the Marco Island YMCA’s board, staff and volunteers as well as a slew of sponsors, about 250 off-island children are benefiting from a three-pronged betterment program.
A long-running after school program has now been bolstered by a summer camp that includes educational aspects, and in addition the Y has introduced a State-sanctioned and monitored literacy program called Y Reads
The initiative, that adds a literacy component to the Y-run summer camp program at Manatee Elementary School, has been so successful that the school is now an A rated institution — two notches above its previous C rating.
“We feel like we received an A as well,” said Cindy Love, executive director of the Y, which is at the moment completing legalities to be henceforth known as the Greater Marco Island YMCA.
This is in line with the Y’s outreach program efforts, said Board Director Joe Hausauer, paying tribute to an assortment of sponsors who take care of the bottom line in the form of hard cash injections.
They include the Naples Children Education Foundation (and in turn the Naples Winter Wine Festival), the island’s Rotary clubs, the Kiwanis Club (a new participant), and assorted individuals, Hausauer said.
Love said the literacy and Y Reads programs are particularly exciting, because the participants are typically children who speak little English while on school vacation, and take weeks to get back to the levels at which they left off.
Because the Y Reads Program is State funded, Love said, strict qualifying and execution criteria apply.
Children have to qualify for the program through school identification — there has to be one mentor for every two participating children.
Hausauer said apart from the cash contributors to the various programs, a strong volunteer group is driving their success.
A further reflection of just how effective the programs are, Hausauer added, is that the new Parkview Elementary School in East Naples has been included in the summer camp program, with about 50 participating children at the moment.
Costs are either subsidized or free in some cases.
“For 10 weeks,” Hausauer said, “the children are in some type of learning environment along with the recreational aspect of a typical summer camp.”
Screeches of delight from one of the activity rooms at Manatee Elementary School during the recent rainy deluge would bear that out.
On hand were Site Director Ira Guerrero and Stephanie Pepper, family services director for the Y.
On July 16 they hosted an open house for sponsors and anyone interested in the programs to have a first-hand look at the proceedings.
Nearby, youngsters squealed with delight during a pass-the-ball game, while in another room there were shrieks of mock apprehension as a blindfolded youngster tried to tag everyone.
In yet another room, teacher Toni Zepka put young students through their paces in a more serious, but nevertheless fun, aspect of the camp.
Zepka handles the English component part of the camp, and for an hour a day guides each child through the complexities of things like phonetics and pulling apart words to examine syllables.
She keeps charts of books read, and says part of her strategy is to keep a fun aspect in learning.
“We did the Dr. Seuss book, “All The Places You’ll Go,” and the message was about moving mountains,” she said. “The idea is to increase fluency, and particularly comprehension, because many of the children read well but don’t remember what they’ve read.”
Anyone interested in participating in the various programs at any level, should call the Y at 394-3144.
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