In the searing summer heat yesterday, they laughed and criedduring a frantic game of dodgeball. Others labored through a full-court game of basketball, while some sustainede grass stains fromplaying football.
About 400 children were at White Stadium in Franklin Parkparticipating in a summer camp program. City officials have commendedsports programs for youths, saying they provide children a positivesummer experience as the city battles an increase in street violence.
'I've learned how to dribble better, and more of the rules ofbasketball,' said Fabienne Faublas, 14, of Mattapan, after a closelycontested basketball scrimmage. 'I learned most of this here at thecamp.'
The White Stadium Sports Center summer camp, offered to childrenages 7 to 14, began in mid-July. For the second consecutive year, thefree camp has been extended a week to seven weeks long. It concludesat the end of August. Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Dana Barros, thecity's director of recreation, paid a visit to the camp yesterday.
Kristopher Moore, 12, of Dorchester, took part in a limbocompetition, one of the several camp activities on hand, includingtrack and field, tennis, and double-dutch jump rope.
Moore said he's been more physically active this summer and wishessome of his friends who hang out in the streets would join him.
'We could be doing anything right now. We could be stealing,shooting at people . . . but we're here doing something right,' Mooresaid.
Dion Gardner, the camp's director, said there was no comparablecamp when she was growing up in Albany, N.Y.
'I wish we had something like this. It would have been perfect,'Gardner said.
Young campers enjoy the experience so much that they dream of theday when they can become camp counselors, Gardner said.
Michelle Finley, 18, of Roxbury, was a track and field camper/volunteer when she was 15. She begged for a job as a counselor whenshe turned 16. Now in her third year working as a counselor, Finleyis the track instructor.
'I liked it so much that I wanted to work here,' said Finley, whoplans to run track at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.'It's fun, and it gives me a job and somewhere to go.'
As children shot baskets in a game called Knockout, CedarrianCrosby, 10, of Lynn, said he wished he could come to the camp moreoften. He said his parents don't want him in the heat for an extendedperiod of time.
'I want an inside gym,' he said.
Larelle Bryson, Boston's program manager for recreational sports,liked that idea. She said campers play board games in the stadium'sconcession area during inclement weather.
'It's a brainstorming idea and been brought up in conversation,'Bryson said of a possible indoor facility. 'They love to be outside.Even on days when it's really hot, they still want to come.'
