Camp Discovery

Maysville Initiatives is responsible for Camp Discovery which provides a summer day camp program for one hundred twenty-five to one hundred fifty campers age 5 through 12 – eight hours a day, five days a week – during the school district’s summer vacation. This tremendous child care resource for local families is free and open to all who would like to attend. We provide breakfast and lunch to all campers – at no cost. Our “no-bullying” policy and a counselor-to-camper ratio of 1 to 10 insures that Camp Discovery is a safe place for campers.

We don’t ask campers or their families questions about “qualifying” to attend. We do have one checkbox on our Registration Form asking if the camper was eligible for the free or reduced-cost school lunch program in the prior school year. Over eighty percent of our campers were eligible. This tells us we are reaching the population we intend to serve. During the school year, our community has created a “backpack program” to help students have adequate nutrition over the weekend. Camp Discovery tries to address the same concern Monday through Friday, during the eight to ten weeks of summer vacation.

Camp Discovery’s home base is Beechwood Park, in the “East End” of Maysville. This area has the most substandard housing units and is the most racially diverse. It has the most obvious drug and alcohol abuse problems.

The Justice Department says that children in this kind of environment are more likely to be either the victim or perpetrator of a crime during unsupervised hours. Camp Discovery provides safety and supervision.

A new “wrinkle” in our Camp Discovery program is meals. Four years ago the area “Summer Lunch Program” (a USDA program) offered breakfast and lunch to our campers at no cost. That program has been seriously cut back, and now provides only three lunches per week. Camp Discovery is now in the food business, providing five free breakfasts, two lunches and daily snacks each week for all our campers.
The bottom line? Camp Discovery promotes the financial stability of families by offering them a free summer child care option other than “TV, chips and Mountain Dew”. We offer field trips and swimming, community involvement and educational enrichment while facilitating parents’ continuing employment and/or schooling.

No federal or state money is involved. Maysville Initiatives must raise $60,000+ from local individuals, businesses and organizations. You can do all these mobile spy without her knowing about it

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