Kids on the Go at UAMS Camp Wannarunaround in Helena
| HELENA, Ark. – Children are on the go at a two-week camp sponsored by the Delta Area Health Education Center (AHEC), a program of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).
Seventy-two children ages 9-11 are spending two weeks running, dancing, playing games, and learning about health and nutrition at Camp Wannarunaround. The day camp on the campus of Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas is the first for the Delta AHEC. Nurse Laura Phillips is camp director. Twenty counselors from schools and universities in Phillips County are working at the camp.
Families of all campers and counselors will be welcome at a picnic and closing ceremony Friday, Aug. 15, at 4:30 p.m.
The Delta AHEC will provide 10 weeks of follow-up nutrition and fitness assessments for the participating children. More than 200 children applied for the free camp.
Health professionals from UAMS and Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute will assess the children’s physical condition at the beginning and end of the camp and will administer the President’s Fitness Challenge, a national physical fitness program that awards children certificates of completion.
Youth development experts with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service helped train camp counselors and will oversee an overnight trip to C. A. Vines 4-H Center in Little Rock, where the campers will be able to canoe, swim, build bottle rockets, learn to identify animal tracks, and enjoy a fireside program.
The Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative, a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, also is a co-sponsor of the camp.