Sloper Kids Grow In The Sun

Arts and a baseball game at YMCA Camp Sloper YMCA CAMP SLOPER PHOTOS

Picture outdoor recess at a typical elementary school. Now raise the number of kids playing outside to one thousand. Divide them into groups and give each group some fun activity – swimming, fishing, archery, hiking, running, drawing, putting on a play, riding a ‘train’ made of golf carts, or playing on a splash pad. Let it run all day, five days a week, for three weeks in a row, four times each summer. Pick one hundred high-school and college-age students to lead the groups, and put twenty-year Sloper veteran Justin Hubeny in charge of the whole operation. Picture all of this, and it will give you some idea of what it’s like to witness Southington’s largest summer camp – the YMCA’s Camp Sloper – in action.

Justin Hubeny (center) with the Sloper staff

All day long Justin stands at the eye of a colorful, playful storm, constantly interacting with, well, just about everyone. On a simple walk through a packed arts-and-crafts pavilion he is like a celebrity passing through a crowd of fans as he returns fist bumps, calls out kids by name, and gives a ‘hey there!’ to every greeting offered him, whether bold or shy. The staff are linked to him and to each other by walkie-talkies that regularly explode with static-filled messages. Somehow Justin keeps tabs on all of them, intervening as needed, while at the same time carrying on one or more conversations with counselors, parents – or a visiting journalist curious about the camp’s goals.

“Our goals are pretty broad,” Hubeny says. “I want the kids to have fun, to be safe, to make new friends, to try new things, to experience the outdoors, and to enjoy nature. And to grow personally - you’re with kids who are different from you, who don’t go to the same school as you, so you learn to respect everybody.”

Growth also happens when kids return to the camp year after year. “As you get older in the program you get to do more. Kindergartners don’t get to do everything a second-grader would. They swim in the shallow end; when they get older they can take a deep-end test. They get to go boating, but only in a canoe with a counselor. When they get older they can go on their own on a paddleboard.”

Just as important as gaining new skills, Justin says, is learning how to deal with setbacks.

“Kids learn at camp how to fail,” Justin explains. “For example, if you do archery, the first time you try it you are not going to hit the bull’s eye. So you learn – you say to yourself, I’m disappointed I didn’t hit that bull’s eye, how can I get better? Camp is a great place to learn about setbacks in a safe environment with role models, the counselors who can help you navigate challenges. And that can help you after the summer when you face other setbacks.”

To keep the show going Justin has five year-round staff members and several specialists, including a nurse and behavioral experts, who are brought on for the summer. The camp counselors stand out from everyone else thanks to their distinctive orange t-shirts. Those in charge of shepherding the youngest campers tower over them like giants – yet most are just teenagers themselves, now sharing the skills they learned in previous summers from their own instructors.

Many of the challenges counselors face require flexibility. On days when the mercury tops 90 degrees, they must adjust the activity schedule to make sure that there is more time in the water, less time in the direct sun, and more frequent brakes for rest and hydration. On rainy days, they must get creative to keep their charges engaged while water pours from the roofs of the buildings. And on any given day, they may need to take extra care if – as sometimes happens at a nature camp – a child trips over a stone or gets stung by a bee.

One last difficulty was surmounted with noteworthy success. As I walked through the clusters of students and counselors, I noticed something missing – try as I might, I never once managed to spot a tablet or cellphone in someone’s hands. Campers relaxed by taking in the scene or talking to their new friends. Disconnected from their phones, Sloper kids were making other, deep, and more lasting connections.