Learning To Spread Their Wings At Foundation Camp

Story Credit: Rachel Hartdegen, Rome News-Tribune. Photos by Georgia Highlands College

Local kids spend their days learning life skills, building friendships, and learning about aviation at this year’s Georgia Highlands College Foundation Camp.

Foundation Camp is an annual two-week camp for young men in the Rome area who would otherwise not have the opportunity to experience many of the activities. Every year the camp provides a unique experience for camp goers and this year one of those experiences was aviation-based lessons from the Tiger Flight Foundation.

This camp was established to allow these kids to experience something they wouldn’t have a chance to before.

— Maurice Wilson

Georgia Highlands College, in partnership with 100 Black Men of Rome-Northwest Georgia, hosts the camp every summer at the Floyd Campus.

At the free camp, boys aged 10 to 14 got to visit an aircraft hangar, sit in a cockpit and speak with pilots about their careers. Camp director Maurice Wilson explained that the aviation experience was a way to get these young men thinking about their futures and learning something new.

"This camp was established to allow these kids to experience something they wouldn’t have a chance to before," Wilson said.

Aviation was just one of the topics featured at the camp. The day camp started Monday this week and the schedule has been packed with invaluable lessons. The camp goers were involved in discussions on personal hygiene and anger management, and took part in fun activities like kayaking, swimming, and playing sports.

The kids at this camp are learning important things that will help them through their lives.

"Personally for me, it helped me better myself," 12-year-old Kaydence said. "My mom recommended it to me because she thought it would prepare me for life as an adult."

Around 90 kids are attending the camp and the kids are broken into groups by their ages. Each group has two or more camp counselors who are either college students or recent college graduates.

For me, it was definitely life-changing. I feel like the two weeks we were here wasn’t enough.

— Taqurius Glynn

One of the camp counselors, Taqurius Glynn went to Foundation Camp when he was 10. He said the camp showed him that he could go to college. He was the first person to graduate high school in his family and he’s the first one to attend college.

"For me, it was definitely life-changing," Glynn said. "I feel like the two weeks we were here wasn’t enough."

Wilson echoed the sentiment that two weeks of this camp isn’t enough. He shared that the work they’re doing with these kids is impactful, but it would be more so if it was ongoing.

The mentorship the camp provides is beneficial to these kids, but Wilson says they need constant mentorship in their lives.

"I really hope that this inspires those who are able in the city of Rome to actually go find a mentee that they can visit with in the school system," Wilson said. "We’re right now trying to build strong young men. It’s called a foundation camp, we want to lay a foundation that’s completely solid."