HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club held their luncheon meeting at Watson Hall on May 8, 2017. Rotarian Scott White hosted Amber Stedt, the director and coordinator of Aroostook Teen Leadership Camp, and his daughter Quinn White, former camp attendee and now a student leader. The Aroostook Teen Leadership Camp program is a youth development and drug prevention program serving grades 5 through 9.
The annual summer camp will be at Northern Maine Community College for five days from July 23-27. This is the 31st year for this event. This camp is student-led with guidance from advisers and past camp attendees. These students help develop the program because they know the issues that face teens in that age group.
During this residential camp, teens learn how to cope with these various issues that they might face in school or out in the community. Through role modeling the teens that are trained return to school with the tools necessary to live a positive and healthy lifestyle. The workshops at camp are based on these issues through team-building activities and selected motivational speakers.
The summer agenda involves planning committees made up of advisers, team leaders and students. The students are encouraged to follow the ‘SODAS” approach. This is short for Situation, Options, Disadvantages, Advantages and Solutions. The camp hosts follow-up meetings to keep the trained students engaged by planning outings, getting together to plan committees for the next year’s camp and through volunteer activities in their respective communities.
There is also a free day-long version of the camp held regionally in the fall. For 2017 this will take place at Hodgdon Middle School on Saturday, Oct. 18. This is an opportunity for the older teens to prepare and carry out workshops and team-building activities.
This year’s budget is $94,000. Even though they are under the umbrella of Aroostook Mental Health Center, ATLC is self-funding, relying on grants and donations from local businesses and service organizations and yearly fundraising events done by the participants.
The cost to send a child to the summer session is $700, but $500 of that cost is funded through donations. Any child accepting reduced or free lunch rates at school is eligible for a full scholarship. The program is essentially open to any child who wants to attend. Stedt has contacts in all of the schools, home schooling associations and Recreation Centers to be able to reach out to interested students.
On average, 55 teens attend the summer camp each year. For more information contact Stedt at 207-498-6431 extension 156, or write to ATLC at P. O. Box 1018, Caribou, Maine 04736, or email at AStedt@amhc.org.
