Life Childcare Learning Center at the Christ Community Worship Center in Williamsport, of their wish for their students.

The center’s eight-week Life Summer Youth Camp offers opportunities with teachers and coaches that foster discipline, respect and camaraderie through AI coding, bible based games, Girl Scouting and new this year is self-defense lessons.

Boys and girls in the camp from ages 8 to 12-years-old, can learn not only self-defense but also boxing techniques from coaches John Powell and Alex Pennington.

“Boxing is not something you just take out into the streets, with these kids it’s more about teaching them how to follow directions. It’s really not even so much about showing them how to fight, but showing them how to build camaraderie, and when they are training with each other, to take care of each other,” said Powell, a long-time youth coach and owner of the Williamsport School of Self Defense.

Kamren MaGruder, 10 of Williamsport, works on his footwork with boxing instructor John Powell during a summer camp at the Life Childcare Learning Center at the Christ Community Worship Center in downtown Williamsport. The camp has dozens of campers that come each day to do various activities to keep them active, stimulate their minds and get a sense of community. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

Those lessons align well with the mission of the staff of the Life Childcare Learning Center which combines avoiding the summer learning loss, building social and communication skills while incorporating faith-based values.

“We really take pride in making sure we get quality staff who are engaging in the classroom,” said Floyd.

One of the lessons they model for their students is the importance of reconciliation.

“Being able to apologize, which is one of the hardest things that you can teach,” said Floyd.

“We always tell our staff, if you do something wrong, apologize to them right in front of everybody, so everybody sees that when you make a mistake, you fix that mistake,” added Floyd.

Greyson Blair, 10 of Williamsport, works on combination punches during a summer camp at the Life Childcare Learning Center at the Christ Community Worship Center in Williamsport. The camp has dozens of campers that come each day to do various activities to keep them active, stimulate their minds and get a sense of community. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

Some of the children at the camp face challenges in their lives, whether from their home lives, poverty or abuse. Ninety percent of the children in the program are subsidized.

“All they want is a safe place where they can be a child. They can be a child, that’s what we provide here,” said Mitchell Floyd, director of the center.

Floyd has a unique understanding of the children.

“I was an unfortunate kid who was very unruly, kicked out of school many times and never thought that I would be able to go to college. And here I am, three degrees later, with a master’s, bachelor’s and a doctorate,” shared Floyd.

Powell can relate to children in that way as well.

Heidi Brungard-Turner, 6 of Williamsport, and her fellow Girl Scouts learn about the science of bubbles during a summer camp at the Life Childcare Learning Center at the Christ Community Worship Center in downtown Williamsport. The camp has dozens of campers that come each day to do various activities to keep them active, stimulate their minds and get a sense of community. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

“I was an angry child. I went back to school to get my master’s, but I think my experience in life has done more for kids than anything I learned in a book,” said Powell.

“It’s an outlet for them to get their anger out. They have little punching bags filled with water and they really enjoy that. It just kind of gets their mind off of life and what’s going on,” said Floyd of the boxing lessons.

The idea for the self-defense lessons at the summer camp came about after a conversation between Powell and Rev. Marwin Reeves, the church’s pastor, who have known each other a long time.

Powell has been a coach for years in basketball and boxing and spent 32 years working for Children and Youth.

“I coached basketball for 18 years at the school, to be at an event somewhere, and someway says ‘Hey Coach Powell’,’ you know that’s 35-years-old, that I coached when they were 15 or 16. It’s just nice seeing people grow up and be positive aspects in the community,’ shared Powell.

“I had known Coach Powell for years and have seen how he was a really positive influence in our community,” said Floyd.

One of the students, Greyson Blair, 10, who has won twice the challenges that Powell sets up during his lessons, likes the exercise and was practicing basic boxing footwork.

“You put our foot in and put this foot back, then take this one, put it to the side, then put it in back and then back out,” explained Blair.

The day before, the youngster was sparring with his classmates.

“We were punching one or two and then trying to catch them. You’re catching them as soon as they punch,” shared Blair.

Alex Pennington, who coaches the self-defense lessons along with Powell has seen a marked improvement in the kids during the third week of the eight week classes.

“At first they were all over the place, bouncy. Now we face forward, hands up. They take a second but they are getting better,” shared Pennington.

The mental rewards of the sport are just as important as the physical, according to the coaches.

“The mental release that you can get from this sport is for everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to compete, if you’re young, if you’re a boy, girl, the mental and physical release is extremely important,” said Pennington.

For children that can mean directing anger or frustration in a constructive way.

“If they have a lot of pent-up aggression, they can direct it in a positive manner and learn how to grow with that, versus taking it out on somebody else. Learning how to direct anger and direct bad emotions towards something that is not going to harm themselves or the community,” shared Pennington.

The summer camp also offers AI coding classes and visits from Sheila DuMont, outreach coordinator, of Girls Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania, who recently taught a STEM activity based around bubbles to an eager group of girls.

The Girl Scout portion of the summer camp is part of the Girls Scouts Academic Edge program, which reaches out to girls who might not have access to a traditional Girl Scout experience, whether due to financial reasons, time concerns or transportation restraints, shared DuMont.

“We bring all the materials, we provide everything to them and just giving the girls that kind of support system, strong female role models and teaching them to be good citizens, respectful of others and serving their communities. Just being the best version of themselves that they can possibly be,” said DuMont.

“The biggest thing for me is that I get to help grow and see the next generation of our country grow up. I want to see more people getting involved with kids and teaching them life skills and teaching them how to cope and be healthy members of society,” said Pennington.