Written by Tyler Spivey
Intern with The Messenger

Watching the students at her Reading and Math Camp brings a smile to Carolyn Hampton’s face.

“I’m excited when I see the looks on their faces,” Hampton said.

Hampton said the objective of the camp is to remediate students from previous years and to prepare them for the upcoming school year.

“We all know that during the summer months there is summer loss in reading and in Math, so by them continuing to come during the summer, [the camp] allows them to maintain those skills and standards that they’ve learned all year long.”

The theme of the camp this year is the Olympics and day one of the camp began with opening ceremonies and guest performances – complete with a torch carrying reenactment.

According to Hampton, the students are showing up early for camp and even expressed interest in being there on Fridays.

“We put different colors of icing on cookies to represent the Olympic rings,” said, Detrevian Dix, a fourth-grader, who also said he really wanted to improve his reading and comprehension skills.

According to Tara Davenport, a camp facilitator, this year in particular has been especially successful.

“I would have to say, since I’ve been here, this has been the best camp that we’ve had,” Davenport said.

The camp runs Monday through Thursday mornings and ends June 14.

The camp is running concurrently this week with the summer art camp at Troy Elementary and next week the school will hold a science enrichment program full of experiments and projects.

Hampton said about 100 students are attending the academic camps.