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Family Day gives parents peek into teen’s new potential

Jesse Hollett
Posted 8/24/16

CAMP BLANDING – Necks slick from sweat, cadets with the Florida Youth Challenge Academy march in measured lines sandwiched between sets of bleachers jammed with their parents who they haven’t …

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Family Day gives parents peek into teen’s new potential


Posted

CAMP BLANDING – Necks slick from sweat, cadets with the Florida Youth Challenge Academy march in measured lines sandwiched between sets of bleachers jammed with their parents who they haven’t seen in nearly two months.

Parents wiped tears away last Saturday at FLYCA’s family day, a day filled with music, food and hugs. Parents from around Florida travelled to Camp Blanding to get a one-day visit with their teen, just two months into the transformative program that helps troubled kids examine their lives and unlock their potential.

By her own admission, Madison Lemmon, 17, of Keystone Heights was undisciplined and lazy when she lived at home. Now, nearly halfway through her five-and-a-half month residency at FLYCA, she’s turned that all around.

“I feel like I’m actually going to be able to do something when I get out of here,” Lemmon said. “Before, I was overwhelmed with ‘oh well, I didn’t do this right or that right,’ ‘oh what if I can’t get a scholarship’ and here they tell you it’s life, you’re going to be prepared for it when you leave.”

Lemmon attended Keystone Heights Junior-Senior High before she registered for FLYCA Class No. 31. She said she despised the school because it bred drug use among the students.

Often, she’d stay out late at parties drinking with students who would experiment with opiates and psychedelic drugs. Her neighbor, with whom Lemmon used to party, enrolled in the program and came back a “completely different” person.

FLYCA, Lemmon said, gives her a distraction-free environment where she can think about her future and work on her discipline. Now, even at ease, she starts and ends everyone sentence with sir.

FLYCA is a voluntary five-and-a-half month program that gears itself towards at-risk youth who have dropped out of high school, in danger of dropping out or may just be disrespectful and unmotivated.

Established in 2001, the program is a cooperative effort of the Clay County School District, Florida National Guard and state departments of Juvenile Justice and Children and Families.

Students, called cadets, serve their residency on the 73,000-acre Camp Blanding compound in an existing military complex renovated for the program’s needs. Counselors maintain a highly-disciplined and structured environment that promotes academic achievement.

The program focuses on leadership, health, community service, life skills, job skills and physical fitness.

“These kids, they’re coming here because they want a second chance,” said Gwendolyn Boney-Harris lead counselor at FLYCA. “Young kids that just do not respect authority, no one can tell them anything, and then to see them walk away from here five-and-a-half months later saying yes ma’am and no ma’am.”

Each cadet’s five-month residency is immediately followed by 12 months of supervised mentorship from academy graduates and case managers who check in on them once a month to see what they’ve done with what they learned from the academy.

“I got excited earlier when I saw a young man who came back as a former graduate who came back as a mentor, that’s really the key point of our program, that student mentor relationship,” said Ben Barksdale, special projects officer with FLYCA.

Cadets march everywhere in four separate platoons divided by gender. Their day starts at 4:45 a.m. They get three “chows” a day and complete basic hygiene tasks along with their daily studies and physical training.

Lemmon said there is an astounding difference from her general education diploma scores from when she entered and now, halfway through the program. An on campus Pearson testing center allows students to take the test before they leave.

As a sort of diversionary program, students have a chance to turn their lives around and become productive members of society, saving tax dollars – and perhaps lives – in the meantime.

Each of the 40 Challenge Academy programs nationwide receive 75 percent of their funding from the federal Department of Defense with the remainder coming from state sources, thus allowing the program to be tuition-free. The teachers are Clay County School District employees.

“I’m very glad this program’s here, because it’s good for any and all students who feel like they’re lost,” said Melanie Hartman, Lemmon’s mother. “It gives them a sense of purpose.”

Lemmon has goals now. She hopes to complete her GED and join the Army after she graduates from the academy this fall.