Madison Police Kids Camp celebrates 20 years of summer fun
MADISON – About 160 rising sixth graders are in the middle of a fun week at the annual Madison Police Department’s Kids Camp being held at Discovery Middle School. Mixed with fun activities such as dodge ball and playing in the mud, the week offers campers an opportunity to see a side of school resource officers and other emergency personnel that could make a huge difference.
The camp, which is in its 20th year, is co-sponsored by the Madison Police Foundation. It teaches kids important safety knowledge and warns of the dangers of substance abuse, and builds trust between the campers and police offers who serve as students resource officers. “It helps the kids see that we are here to help them,” said Sgt. Clayton Jordan, who is leading this year’s camp.
Jordan was there from the beginning of the camp in 1999. “We started in the field beside Discovery. We didn’t have access to the school, but we had an RV out there where the kids could get in there and cool off if it got too hot. We had around 50 kids at the most, and six police officers that volunteered to help,” Jordan said. “The goal back then was to get the kids familiar with what police officers did.”
Today, the camp has grown to offer two week-long sessions, with a combined total of 250 campers led by the Madison Police school resource officers. There are also several high school teen counselors who help out.
“We have tried to incorporate a little more fun into it over the years. We have brought in more people to do demos and brought in more expertise outside of the department,” Jordan said.
Demonstrations include law enforcement and medical helicopters and pilots, SWAT team gear and vehicles, HEMSI paramedics and their ambulance, and Madison Firefighters with their truck and equipment.
Throughout the week the kids also get to go swimming, drive a golf cart while wearing goggles to simulate impaired driving, play dodge and kick ball with the officers, run relay races, visit the skate park, witness a K-9 demonstration, play tug-of-war, observe crime scene techniques, and get soaked on ‘mud day’ by Madison Fire & Rescue.
“They have the time of their life on mud day,” said Officer Ralph Dawe, who is the student resource officer at Bob Jones High School. “I have seniors at Bob Jones who come up to me and say, ‘I remember mud day. It was crazy!”
Dawe said the camp is designed to try and reach out to the variety of interests the kids have. “Some are more interested in the technical aspect of what police do, and then you have some who are more into the fun, action-packed stuff we do,” he said. “We try to have a nice balance of fun activities and police educational stuff.”
One of the main benefits to the camp has been the message about the dangers of drug, tobacco and alcohol abuse. After all, the camp is a reward for fifth graders who completed the “Too Good for Drugs” program within the city’s elementary schools, which replaced the old D.A.R.E. program years ago. It is a drug prevention program designed to reduce students’ intention to use alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs, while promoting positive behaviors.
“Without it we would probably have more kids using drugs and trying to experiment,” Jordan said. “But, with the student resource officers talking to them at a younger age, it is helping kids figure out the dangers of drugs.”
“The Too Good for Drugs campaign is an excellent way for the police officers to get into the classrooms, speak to the students and give them the opportunity to ask us questions,” echoed Dawe. “At the high school level, they are asking me questions that are really smart, educated thought out questions that ultimately transitions into making a difference to the people they come in contact with — all their friends and family.”
The kids camp further develops that relationship between students and police with educational and fun summer activities. Jordan said over the years the camp has been a tremendous help opening a lot of communication between police, students and parents.
“It gives the kids another side of seeing how police are — that we are not just writing tickets, working wrecks and taking people to jail. This program shows them that we are human and we like to have fun too, and that they can approach us if they need to,” he said.
“It’s all about building a positive relationship with the youth,” Dawe said. “I want every child to grow up knowing the police are here to help rather than get them in trouble or just looking for something they are doing wrong.”
Over the twenty years since the camp began thousands of kids have come through the summer program. “We build that foundation with them and years later when they see us they come up and talk to us and reconnect,” Jordan said. “Some now have children going through the camp.”
Jordan said he has even seen people who came through the camp years ago as kids now choose law enforcement as a career. “We have seen some of these guys grow up and work for the police department,” he said. “We are proud of that. It means a lot to us.”
