It’s summertime at the Miami Yacht Club and the grounds are full of children’s laughter, drenched in a mixture of sea water from the Atlantic and sweat.
The club is home to the youth sailing summer camp all this summer for kids 5 to 15 years-old.
While the kids are off from school, Florencia Barletta, who is the program director for the summer camp, teaches them water safety, and water sports such as sailing, stand-up paddling, windsurfing and much more.
With the help of instructors and camp counselors, the kids take on the day’s activities. Eagerness is all over their young faces.
Beads of sweat accumulate on their foreheads, and they wipe them off to apply sunscreen. Everyone is lined up on the shore, gathering their paddles and organizing their teams under the command of Phillip Palma, the assistant youth sailing director.
Everyone has their life jackets harnessed to their chests, getting ready to set sail on the Atlantic Ocean.
For several hours each day, they work in teams to steer sailboats. Kids get to learn the basics of sailing outside claustrophobic classrooms.
The Miami Yacht Club offers adult classes as well but will temporarily stop to give attention to the children’s summer camp until the beginning of August when they return to school.
Bianca Arias is a college student and sailing instructor for the youth sailing summer camp
“We want to make the lessons fun,” she says. “We take into consideration how they have been sitting in a classroom year-round.”
The Miami Yacht Club is also significant because it hosted the U.S. Sailing Olympic Team Trials in February, and has opened its doors for a generation of new water sport athletes.
The summer camp will run through August 2.
