Georgia Highlands College, 100 Black Men of Rome and Northwest Georgia taking applications for the eighth annual Foundation Camp

Media release: Georgia Highlands College and 100 Black Men of Rome and Northwest Georgia are currently taking applications for the eighth annual Foundation Camp for boys aged 10 – 14, scheduled for June 3 – 14, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the GHC-Floyd campus.  The camp offers academics, athletics and personal enrichment at no charge to boys and young men.  Breakfast and lunch are both provided, and bus service is available to those who live within the Rome city limits. 

 

The camp's many activities include swimming lessons, technology instruction and use, biology, physics, art, basketball, soccer, canoeing, kayaking and more.  This year's camp will also feature a separate track for the oldest campers, who may have attended in the past.  The added track will offer something new for these young men. 

 

The Foundation Camp was created out of the ashes of the federally-funded National Youth Sports Program, which lost its funding in 2005.  That program, which GHC had run for more than 30 years, had been extremely successful, resulting in numerous personal stories of triumph and achievement.  Many camp alumni returned to serve as counselors.  They went into a variety of fields.  One got a law degree.  One went into criminal justice.  Others became business owners.  Obviously, key stake holders at GHC and in the community didn't want to see resources withdrawn from a population who might not otherwise be exposed to the opportunities that college and a wider world afforded.  The 100 Black Men of Rome and Northwest Georgia stepped up as a partner to run the program with GHC.  Businesses in the community that saw broader benefits to the greater Rome area provided funding.

 

The first Foundation Camp served 25 campers for five days.  Today it has grown to more than 100 campers who attend for two weeks.  They learn self-respect, confidence, motivation and teamwork. 

 

Families interested in sending their boys to the camp may call camp co-director Jon Hershey at 706-368-7629 or email him at jhershey@highlands.edu.