Camp Counselors Keep Kids Cool

By JoAnn Augustine, Bridget Freiler and Jeff Richards

No shirt? No shoes? Problem!

As the mercury continued to rise in downtown Phoenix, local workers at the Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA summer program were serious about taking care of themselves and the youngsters in their charge. Clothing, hydration and keeping cool were the staff’s tips to avoid trouble with the heat.

Shay Glick, camp counselor-in-training, noted that she gets wet even when she is working as a counselor. “Kids always come up and hug you and get you wet,” she explained. When not working, Glick swam every day in her pool at home or on a swim team.

The hottest job at the summer camp activity, held June 16 in Civic Space Park, went to Samuel Gomez. Standing at the grill, loading hot dogs and hamburgers onto the blazing fire, Gomez said he likes to serve the kids but he does not like the heat. “I stay inside, I drink a lot of water and when I have to be outside I dress accordingly,” Gomez said.

“Ice cream, sodas, water especially,” were the recommended solutions from Myrna Byerly-Zarate, camp staff member. Wearing summer clothes was important to both Gomez and Byerly-Zarate. Gomez described the right clothes as being shorts and a shirt, and he said clothes should be loose-fitting.

The kids running through the sprinklers had the best possible solution of course, though drinking a lot of water was everybody’s advice for adults, who could not be caught on the water slide on a work day.

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Kids play in a fountain on a hot afternoon in the Downtown Civic Space Park in Phoenix. The children were participating in an outing with the Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA summer program. (Photo by JoAnn Augustine)

Samuel Gomez, YMCA camp counselor, grills hamburgers and hot dogs. (Photo by JoAnn Augustine)