Expansion benefits Wings group, camp serves 1,000-plus kids

Posted by Oree Foster | Aug 6, 2015 | Track & Field |

Wings of America camp coordinator Andrew Yazzie, left, goes through form drills with campers at Fort Defiance last summer. (File photo)

FORT DEFIANCE

Program Director Dustin Martin said Wings of America was proud to expand its Running & Fitness Camp schedule this summer, while maintaining the rigor and instructional quality the camps are known for.

“With the help of community partners in each of the eight Indian Health service units, our facilitators reached over one thousand youth during 19 two-day camps across the Navajo Nation,” Martin said. “These teams traveled to nearly a dozen Just Move It events to assist Health Promotion staff with everything from crowd warm ups and stretches to course monitoring and water stations.

Through the course of the summer we saw no major injuries and everyone who participated had fun testing their physical fitness. Though our organization analyzes many other details to learn more about the effectiveness of our program each summer. Those two are perhaps the most important when we try to quickly sum up the success of our work.”

Martin said this summer’s camps went as planned. He said his is hopeful everything can continue much the same as they did this summer. He added further expansion is always a possibility, but would like to focus on further documenting and archiving the many facets of the camp curriculum as a priority.

“Eventually I would like the participants and parents to have easy access to detailed descriptions of our games and activities even after the facilitators have moved on to the next camp,” he said. “This effort will also provide our facilitators with key lessons and taking points to deliver to running and fitness attendees.”