14th Native Vision Camp to Be Held in Santa Fe
800 Youth Participate in Largest Native Vision Camp Ever
From June 10 to 12 approximately 800 native youth from 25 American Indian tribes will converge on Santa Fe, New Mexico, to learn sports and life skills from more than 60 professional and collegiate athletes as part of the 14th Annual Native Vision Sports and Life Skills Camp. Players from the NFL and NBA will participate as well as athletes from soccer, lacrosse, volleyball and track. Activities will include the following:
• Six sports clinics (football, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball and track) led by professional athletes
• Break-out sessions with pros promoting education, healthy lifestyle, nutrition, self-esteem, discipline, team work and cultural pride
• All-star basketball game matching Native youth all-stars against professional athletes to be held June 10 at 6:30 p.m.
• Workshops in traditional cooking and nutrition, indigenous music, arts, media and youth leadership
• Cultural games, feasts and festivities celebrating the traditions of the local pueblos led by tribal volunteers
The Native Vision Sports and Life Skills Camp will host nearly 800 Native American children in grades 4 through 12 from dozens of tribal communities in New Mexico, Wisconsin, California, Montana, Wyoming and Arizona. The camp is managed by the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public in Baltimore, Md., and the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) in partnership with volunteers from business sponsors including NIKE, Bank of America and the Johan Cruyff Institute for Sport Studies (JCI) in Barcelona, Spain.
The camp will take place at Santa Fe Indian School, located at 1501 Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe. Opening Ceremonies will begin in the Paolo Solari Amphitheatre at noon on Thursday, June 10. Festivities will end with closing ceremonies at the Paolo Solari Amphitheatre at Santa Fe Indian School on Saturday, June 12, at 11 am. A complete list of activities and participants is available at www.nativevision.org.
About Native Vision
Native Vision is a fast-growing national youth development program for Native American children founded in 1997 at the President’s Summit for America’s Youth by the Center for American Indian Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the NFLPA and the Nick Lowery Charitable Foundation. The organizations have hosted 13 annual summer camps, and now run three year-round afterschool Native Vision programs in reservation communities in Arizona, New Mexico and New York, with the goal of expanding to 10 new afterschool sites in the next three years. The Native Vision camps have served an estimated 10,000 Native youngsters to date.
Johns Hopkins has a 30-year history of working with tribes to overcome the major health disparities affecting Native American children and families. Preventing obesity and diabetes is a key goal of the Native Vision program, as Native American youth suffer the highest rates of any racial or ethnic group in the country. The mission of the NFLPA is to build better communities through the power of sports by applying strategic resources, with emphases on youth development, civic leadership, education and healthy lifestyles. The Native Vision program is currently under review as a “best practice” for at-risk children by a White House committee Making a Difference for America’s Youth.
In the past five years, many new partners have joined the Native Vision founders to expand Native Vision’s scope and services. In 2010, NIKE is providing all camp apparel for the campers and coaches and funds the year-round afterschool program in the Kewa Pueblo community. Bank of America is hosting three new workshops at camp—gardening/nutrition, cooking and music—and made a $50,000 contribution to help fund camp. The Johan Cruyff Institute (JCI) for Sport Studies supports the soccer components of the camp and year-round programs. All food, activities and workshops at the Native Vision camp are free of charge and are supported by funds raised by Johns Hopkins and the NFLPA. National advocates for this program have included retired U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald L. Evans; retired U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell; actor Robert Redford; and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
For more information about the Native Vision camp, please contact Kristen Speakman at 505-400-6174 or Allison Barlow at 410-294-1362. See www.nativevision.org for more information.
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