NEWS

“The Lift Project” summer camp focuses on reading, fitness, and community service

Two friends who live in the Davidson area have created a new summer camp experience for middle school age students. Chase O’Brien is an experienced middle-school English teacher and long-time resident of Davidson. Andrea Gaines Sharp is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer who owns and operates Good Gaines Fitness in Cornelius. Their new camp experience, “The Lift Project,” combines three things that O’Brien and Gaines Sharp are passionate about: fitness, reading, and giving back to the community.

O’Brien says that the duo settled on the name “The Lift Project” because “when kids feel strong in their bodies, inspired by stories, and connected to their communities, they grow into leaders who lift others.”

There are two week-long sessions of the camp available to area students this summer. The camp meets daily Monday-Friday from 1:00-4:00 p.m. at the Good Gaines Fitness Studio in Cornelius. The first session is meeting this week, July 14-18, and the second session meets July 28-August 1.

Each day begins with a workout to get the campers feeling strong and active. Then campers settle into a thoughtful book study and discussion.

In the first of the two sessions, campers are reading And Then, Boom! by Lisa Phipps. Written for middle-grade students, And Then, Boom! is a novel in verse that explores how cyclical poverty affects kids, told through the voice of an 11-year-old named Joe who loves comics and superheroes.

Each day after the reading hour, campers will visit local organizations that serve families in need to connect the themes explored in their novel to real needs in the community. Campers have toured The Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson, helping to paint canvas tiles that will be added to the other tiles that were painted by guests during the recent Juneteenth celebration. The tiles will soon be used to create a new mural at The Ada Jenkins Center. Additionally, the campers will take a walking tour of uptown Charlotte with Roof Above. The tour will introduce the campers to the challenges of being unhoused in Charlotte and will familiarize them with the full scope of Roof Above’s work to end homelessness. The campers plan to spend Friday’s service hour making sandwiches for neighbors served by Roof Above.

Campers in the second week-long session, meeting July 28-August 1, will read and discuss the novel, Flying over Water by Shannon Hitchcock and N.H. Senzai. The novel focuses on a 12-year-old girl named Noura whose family has been granted asylum in the United States. Noura and her family have spent two years living in a refugee camp in Turkey, after fleeing violence in war-torn Syria. Set in 2017 in Florida, the family faces discrimination, but a friendship arises between Noura and an American classmate named Jordyn that stands strong against hatred and prejudice that exist in the community.

In the second session of camp, focusing on the experience of refugees in the area, the campers will partner with Refugee Support Services in Charlotte. The campers are planning to create educational kits for the Love & Learn pre-school enrichment program that helps children who are new to this country build literacy skills, create art, socialize, and learn in a safe environment.

After the reading hour, campers will work on a service project that partners with a local organization that supports refugee families.

The Lift Project’s focus on reading fictional stories followed by hands-on community service projects reinforces research that has linked reading fictional stories to the development of empathy in young readers. The link is further suggested by The Lift Project’s tag line: “Strong Bodies. Open Minds. Kind Hearts.”

Interested students who are rising 6^th through 8^th graders may still register here for the second session of camp that begins on Monday, July 28. Books, t-shirts, and materials for the service project are provided by the camp.