Transformative Fun in the Sun: Exploring the World of Ultimate Frisbee with a Youth Development Camp


I’m not here to single-handedly change the world; I’m just here to plant some seeds…  


My main goal as a Peace Corps volunteer is to host projects and events that are sustainable by training local community members every chance I get. I recently paired with CEC PCV and Ultimate Without Borders representative, Danielle Thoene, to host an Ultimate Frisbee and Youth Development Camp in my site.  With the common goals of most Frisbee camps, we planned to encourage teamwork among diverse populations, help students plan for their futures and facilitate personal goal setting.  All this can be accomplished while having fun over the school vacations.

After determining a community need and interest in the camp, I looked for community members to train whom could use what they’d learn from the camp in the future. Those community members needed to have similar interests and goals, in conjunction with some form of incentive. Every Saturday, my site hosts a practice for this region’s Special Olympics (SO). I have been fortunate enough to get to know the coaches very well during my time on site.  I decided to go to them first. With their goal of promoting inclusion among differently-abled populations, desire to locally market the SO, and need for more dedicated coaches, these leaders were the perfect match for our camp.  They helped to reserve the field and casa communal, lent us supplies, and even allowed us to work with the SO athletes on a Saturday as part of the Training of Trainers (TOT). It was an all around win!



With the need of the SO leaders for dedicated new coaches in mind, I contacted my connections with the English department at the local UNACHI university extension in my site (CRUBA). From there, I was able to get in contact with the soon-to-be graduating group of Physical Education students. With the permission of their professor, I spoke to the class.  All nine of us shared our goals and desires for the camp. The students were ready to dive in.  While gaining new skills to use with future students, they were also collecting valuable community service hours needed for graduation. Not only did they take on leadership roles during the camp, but many of them are now committed to being weekly SO coaches. It wasn’t until the TOT that I realized we were not only teaching them, but they were teaching us as well. The students were able to offer cultural insight when it came to our camp agenda.  I even learned my new favorite dynamica!


PCVs from across the country came to El Palmar to support the camp as either Frisbee camp veterans or newbie’s.  All of them have plans to host camps in their sites in the future.  We even had some new G82 volunteers come out on different days to observe their first camp. Although I only invited 6th grade students from two local elementary schools and a local multigrado school, 6th graders from nearby private schools got wind of the camp and showed up with a parent, ready to participate. We carefully divided students into teams with students from different schools and communities.  Each team had PCV coaches as well as Physical Education student coaches as their leaders.



Although I did the physical pre-planning, networking, and logistics of the camp, I took a backseat role during the daily camp activities. My favorite parts were watching the Physical Education students and PCVs working together to problem solve and keep the students animated and watching students make new friends from different areas and backgrounds.  Thanks so much to Danielle for the huge role she played in creating a personalized camp agenda and leading the facilitation of activities. Thank you to the PVCs for all their support, all the community leaders that participated, and Valter for his expertise and photography skills.  Students are still asking when we are going to host another camp and if they can still be invited next year when they are in colegio!


To view the behind the scenes planning video click the link below:
Behind the scenes planning 




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