Camp Good in the Hood: parish offers summer days of fun for inner—city kids - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, August 30, 2002

For nine weeks in the summer the asphalt outside the closed school of St. Agatha Parish in Los Angeles is home to Camp Good in the Hood. There the parish offers "a place of prayer, care, fun and security" for children of the parish and the surrounding inner-city neighborhood.

The day camp, which is accredited by the American Camping Association, is in its fourth summer. More than 100 children from kindergarten through eighth grade participate in sports, games, arts and crafts, cooking, dance, drama and music. On Tuesdays, the children go swimming at a municipal pool and on Wednesdays go on field trips to places such as Knott's Berry Farm, Universal Studios and Disneyland.

Open this summer from June 24 to Aug. 23, the camp costs $125 a week. Through fundraising efforts, financial assistance is available for needy families who cannot afford the fee.

"This is one of the very few asphalt camps in the United States," camp founder Chris Haygood told archdiocesan newspaper The Tidings. "We're out in the hot sun all day, and we're being cooked from above and below. But the kids love it, and they're learning lifelong people skills."