Airport conversation at NASUP yields summer collaboration at DeKalb YMCA

A Valentine’s Day conversation at Reagan National Airport grew into summertime fun and learning for all ages at DeKalb’s Kishwaukee Family YMCA.

Official response and confirmed impact

The YMCA’s Kish Camp already provided children in kindergarten through fifth-grade with group activities, creative arts experiences, games, sports and a weekly field trip that improved their social and emotional skills in the process.

Registration tops 200 children throughout the summer, and between 130 and 160 come each day.

Meanwhile, middle schoolers in sixth- through eighth-grades were welcome to enroll in “the next level” Counselors in Training camp where they hang with friends, enjoy good times, try new things and maybe even become big buddies of sorts for their younger counterparts.

Yet Aaron Confer, the Y’s Youth Development director, wondered what more he could offer those preteens.

“Every year, you’re trying to figure out, ‘What can I add to the programs to make them better?

What can I do to make more of a difference for the kids?’ ” he says.

“With K-5, they’re in that age where you can still do a lot of different things with them.