THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, JULY 9, 2012
PAGE 11
COMMUNITY
Camps keep kids active, making friends
ROYA IBRAHIMI editor@kansan.com
Students from elementary school to college all look forward to summer break: the chance to stay up late, the time off from schoolwork and enjoying the pools. For some students, summer is an opportunity to meet new people and learn new things. One of the many ways new memories and friends are made is through a camp.
The University offers several camps that are held throughout the summer, but one in particular that has flourished and continues to grow is the KU Sports Skills and Fitness School. This camp has been around for 32 years.
Camp manager Melissa Greene has been involved with the camp since her undergraduate years at the University. She has been managing the camp for the last five years.
Greene says the camp is designed for children ages 5 to 12. It is meant to teach the children basic sports
skills and keep them active.
Camp counselor Candace Hogue, a second year doctoral student in sports and psychology at the University, says the camp is to show the kids the fun aspect of being fit and healthy.
"I like this camp because it's focused on positivity." Hogue said. "It's focused on individual strengths with the kids. The activities are cooperative games, but they make fitness really fun and I think that makes a really big difference because we want kids to want to workout."
Campers Marguerite Cooper, 8 and Hailey Vardiman, 7, both from Lawrence, are prime examples of having positive outlooks. The two go to different schools and during this camp have made new friends.
Vardiman said she wanted to be at the camp to have fun and get a chance to play sports while meeting new friends.
Agreeing with what her new friend said, Cooper expanded on her reason why she is happy to be
here.
"I want to get to do sports," Cooper said. "I wouldn't really get to do sports if I wouldn't be here."
The camp runs two sessions in the summer and is currently on its second session. Each period last three weeks. The class begins every afternoon at 1 and lasts until 4:15. During those hours the children rotate to four different activities every 30 minutes, learning new sport skills like basketball, soccer, rhythm and dance and much more. Then they finish off with swimming lessons and then get a chance to play in the water.
"We're not focusing on one certain sport. We're introducing everything and giving kids a variety of activities and a chance to learn skills at the same time," Greene said. "These kids come and meet other kids from schools and make new friends and it's just a fun time for everybody really."
—Edited by Megan Hinman
JESSICA JANASZ/KANSAN
Camp Counselor Candace Hogue shows Georgia Bailey and other camp participants what to do during a fitness session Tuesday afternoon at the Robinson Center. The KU Sports Skills and Fitness School offers kids ages 5 to 12 a chance to have fun and stay fit in a positive way while giving students and young educators experience in their field.
CRIME
DNA sample solves 23-year-old murder
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri man forced to provide a DNA sample after pleading guilty in a drunken driving case has been charged in a 23-year-old killing.
Prosecutors announced Friday that Guy Shannon Jr., 43, of Odessa, faces charges of first-degree murder and forcible rape. Shannon is accused of strangling and assaulting Marcia Lynn Davis, 20, of Independence, in March 1989.
Davis was last seen leaving the Jackson County Jail after visiting a friend. A homeless person found her partially clad body in an abandoned apartment building the next day, according to a probable cause statement filed in the case.
Shannon became a suspect after he was convicted of driving while intoxicated in 2010 and, as a felon, had to give a DNA sample. It was entered in a database and ultimately linked him to genetic material found on Davis' body.
In the early 1970s, Kansas City police started more carefully archiving physical evidence from hundreds of unsolved homicides, rapes and other crimes, often storing it in a giant freezer in the city's crime lab. Ensuing technological advances made the practice pay off, with numerous cold cases solved with the old physical evidence.
When interviewed, Shannon said he had never seen Davis before. He told authorities he had never been to the building where her body was found.
Shannon requested an attorney when told his DNA was found on the victim, the probable cause statement said.
Although the charges were filed Monday, the case was temporarily sealed until Thursday, when the warrant was served. Bond has been set at $350,000.
One of the most newsworthy arrests was of Lorenzo Gilyard, a former trash company supervisor initially charged with killing 13 women. In 2007, he was convicted of six of the killings.