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Pacific Camps awarded $1.2 million in grants
Rommerswinkel darts to the left, jumps into the air and then quickly sidesteps to the right, where he jumps again. The workout's pace quickens and Rommerswinkel needs to jump higher and move faster. On the screen, a small digital person mimics his movements, transmitted to the machine's computer via a wireless sensor that looks like a belt buckle. Rommerswinkel's score, his heart rate and the height and speed of his jumps are all recorded. Minutes later, the workout finishes, and Rommerswinkel is winded. "The machine is intuitive, so as I do better, it gets harder and harder to do these exercises," he said of the Trazer virtual reality trainer from Massachusettsbased Cybex International. Rommerswinkel, a salesman for exercise equipment Out-Fit in Moorpark, is not standing in a state-of-the-art training facility for Olympic or professional athletes. The new machine is part of more than $100,000 in exercise equipment being installed at the Camarillo location of Pacific Camps, a Christianbased nonprofit summer and after-school program for elementary and middle school students. The new exercise equipment, which includes four Internet-linked exercise bikes, complete with their own virtual reality programs, is a far cry from the four-square and tether balls camp officials scrimped and saved to buy when the program started 19 years ago. The money for the high-tech machines will come from a $1.2 million federal grant Pacific Camps received earlier this month. The massive grant was awarded through the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools as part of the Carol M. White Physical Education Grant program. Bud Harley, the camp's executive director and a Camarillo resident, said the money will also be used to hire and train staff at the camp's five locations throughout Ventura County. "It allows us to hire staff, who, under our normal registration fees, we couldn't afford," Harley said, "people with degrees in kinesiology, fitness, physical education, health." Harley said the grant, good through 2010, will endow his camp with nearly $400,000 a year for the next three years. The sizable endowment may be the largest the camp has received, but it's not the first. Harley, an ordained pastor, has used the Internet to research a number of previous federal grants over the past four years. Since 2003, when Harley took a gamble and emptied the camp's savings account to hire a professional grant writer, Pacific Camps has received about $1.7 million in federal aid. That money has been split between Pacific Camps' rapidly expanding physical education program and its PATHS mentoring program. PATHS, which stands for Positive Adults Teaching, Helping and Shepherding, pairs Pacific Camps' children between fourth and eighth grades- most of whom are being raised by single parents- with an adult volunteer who spends time with the child. Pacific Camps now staffs 80 summer counselors who oversee nearly 800 campers from throughout the county. Because the camp focuses on youngsters from singleparent homes, Harley said the grant money allows him to offer scholarships to far more campers than he has in the past. In addition to spending time with the high-tech equipment, the campers spend most of their time during the camp's 11 weeks taking field trips to a variety of summertime activities, Harley said. Because the camp has expanded over the years, Harley said he's in talks with Pleasant Valley School District officials to possibly take over one of the district's recently shuttered campuses. The district recently closed Los Primeros Structured School and Los Altos Middle School; however, Harley said talks are in the early stages, and he is unsure which campus Pacific Camps might occupy. For more information call (805) 290-8401. |
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