Norman Winkelman introduced Mark Olson, executive director at the YMCA, to speak at the Kiwanis meeting June 14 about Camp Rokiwan.
Olson is a graduate of Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D. His YMCA career of 35 years has been in Albert Lea, Minn., Marshalltown, Iowa, Minot and, for the past 15 years, Jamestown.
A Kids' Camp for youth ages 8-12 years is held every summer at Camp Rokiwan on Spiritwood Lake. The camp is sponsored by the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs and is conducted by the YMCA with Olson as the registrar. For the past three years Lynette Ryan, a teacher at Louis L'Amour Elementary School, has been the director and chooses the counselors
This year's camp will be July 18-22 and has 45 children registered already. The maximum number of children for the camp is 50. The cost of the camp is $50, but no one is turned away if they can't pay. That cost is taken care of by the two service clubs' scholarships. The scholarship numbers vary from year to year with 1/3 to 1/2 of the campers receiving scholarships.
Olson is in charge of all reservations for the use of Camp Rokiwan and this year most of the weekends are taken. A Day Care is using three days, there are weddings and several family reunions. Olson takes bookings for the camp for three years in advance and Camp Rokiwan can be found on the Jamestown website.
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There is interest in a Two Rivers Activity Center with five groups collaborating together to look at the possibilities. The groups are the YMCA, gymnastics, Parks and Recreation, the public schools and tennis association. A question-and-answer session followed the presentation.
Jerry Ronholm will introduce Dr. Robert Badal, president of Jamestown College, who will speak at the June 28 Kiwanis noon luncheon meeting at the Lantern Room. Badal will talk about the college and his recent trip to China.
