Photo By Chuck Cannon | From left to right: May Woods, 13, Emily Glenn, 14, and Trisha Lowry, L.E.G.O. Chapel...... read more read more
FORT POLK, La. — Kids can sometimes find it a challenge to fill the hours of summer with interesting and fun things to do.
Thankfully, Fort Polk offers a wide variety of activities to keep them busy including L.E.G.O. Chapel Camp. With the help of 61 volunteers, the camp hosted 140 registered campers at the Main Post Chapel July 15 through today. Each day focused on a theme taken from a letter of the word L.E.G.O.
Monday: L for love (your neighbor)
Tuesday: E for equip (yourself for life)
Wednesday: G for give (of yourself)
Thursday: O for overcome (adversity)
Today: God is the master builder
Chrissa M. Gross, Fort Polk religious education director, Brittany Zelt, Protestant religious education coordinator, and Sharon Harris, Catholic religious education coordinator, were the driving forces in creating the L.E.G.O. Camp.
Most vacation Bible school themes are bought in the form of a cohesive kit that has everything the church needs for that week including Bible lessons, skits, suggested crafts, songs, decorations and more, said Gross.
“The kits are universal. They work for everyone, but we wanted something that would be specific to our military kids. We created a program that dealt with things like a permanent change of station move, making new friends and going to a new school and tied it into Bible lessons to give kids the skills they need to overcome the challenges they face,” she said.
Gross said the kids understood the connection and relevance of the themes and lessons to their lives.
“They recognize the challenges they face and I think the camp is giving them the tools they need to be successful,” she said.
Harris said their own experience as military Family members came in handy when creating this program from scratch.
“It took us months. We started last year as soon as vacation Bible school ended. I think God had a plan,” she said.
Though Harris, Gross and Zelt wrote the bones of the program, Zelt said they couldn’t have done it without their volunteers.
“The L.E.G.O. Camp was built and accomplished by the Fort Polk chapel community,” she said.
Zelt said life can be hectic, even for kids.
“I think we sometimes forget in our fast paced world that God is with us everywhere we go. His word is our foundation and this camp is set up to help remind the kids of that,” she said.
L.E.G.O. Camp volunteer De Anna Moffit is the official game leader for the camp. She said games range in complexity based on the child’s age. There are children attending camp from preschool to sixth grade.
“The littlest kids might play duck, duck, goose and the older kids might play a game that has Biblical aspects that tie into the lesson of the day,” she said.
At the end of the day there is an all-camp game that everyone plays together.
“It’s a bit of madness when we put all the kids together, but the best kind,” she said. “The most important thing about the games is that they are fun,” said Moffit.
“We are trying to entertain and teach them at the same time,” she said.
Both of Moffit’s children are attending the camp. It’s another example of the support and dedication the chapel staff shows to the adults and children of Fort Polk, said Moffit.
“That care is priceless to a mom. The best word I can use to describe my feelings is gratitude. This community has become our second family,” she said.
Camper Michael Portwood, 10, said L.E.G.O. Camp has been great.
“We get to do a lot of fun activities. I really enjoy Bible story time. It’s my favorite because it teaches kids about the Bible,” he said.
Camper Marilyn Wise, 5, said she was having a lot of fun at camp.
“ I think my favorite part of camp is snack time. I got to help make and eat cookies. The skits are great too because we learn about God and they are funny. They make me laugh,” she said.
| Date Taken: | 07.19.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 07.19.2019 09:28 |
| Story ID: | 332110 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 43 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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