Last month at dawn, in front of the Santa Maria Valley Youth & Family Center, fifteen families put their middle school boys on a bus to the Kern River Valley. Thirteen days later, they picked up these boys – who looked the same, but had notably risen to the challenges of leadership, hard work and team building through an intensive program at the R.M. Pyles Boys Camp.
Since 1949 Pyles has been providing programs for boys that promote long-term positive behavioral change. Over 28,000 boys have gone through the program since its inception. Santa Maria Valley Youth & Family Center has been selecting candidates since 1985, offering the program at no cost for participants.
Nancy Johnson, Clinical Director in Santa Maria has worked with the camp, families, and boys since 1986 and is an enthusiastic advocate for the program. “Pyles Camp is for those boys who are at a bit of a fork in the road,” she said. “With the right motivation, support and challenges, they develop skills to become leaders – a tip over the fence toward positive choices is sometimes all they need.”
Pyles camp primarily looks for boys from low-income families living in challenging environments who would benefit from a multi-year wilderness camp experience supplemented by year-round mentoring and exposure to male role models. Participants are referred by FSA Outreach Mentors, school counselors and teachers.
Gail Burges, Outreach Mentor Program Manager in Santa Maria sums up her process, “When I recommend boys for the camp, I look for boys that are trustworthy, kind and are deserving of this privilege. Their teachers or I see potential in them.”
The Pyles experience includes activities such as horseback riding, ropes courses, archery, hiking and work detail. Camp Director, Dale “BammBamm” Decker, went through the program as a teen and says that each activity has a simple but powerful life skills lesson. All activities are focused on building self-confidence, setting goals, developing decision-making abilities that instill the values of hard work, education, and positive choices.
Dale emphasized the importance of positive reinforcement, “I remember trying to get to the top of a steep hike,” he reminisced, “I wanted to give up but then the counselor said, ‘You have to do it – I can’t do it for you’ and when I finally made it to the top, he said, ‘Good job, Dale!’ That was the first positive acknowledgement I had ever received from a male! That was my life changing moment.”
There is a winter follow-up where campers can reconnect and participate in fun activities. The following years are geared toward leadership programs and then paid internships at the camp. Campers who have gone through the programs may apply for college scholarships. Since 1977, the Pyles Scholarship Program has awarded $1,193,164 to 567 individuals.
The boys are surveyed before and after camp and the results are outstanding.
- Post-camp, 97% of our campers agreed that they are an important person, a 16% increase from the beginning of camp.
- There was a 30% increase in campers agreeing that if other kids were choosing a leader, they might be chosen.
- 58% of campers agreed that other kids look up to them.
- 100% of campers agreed “I have a good life ahead of me!”
“I think this program is successful because these boys get to do things they probably never thought they would ever be able to do. What boy that rents a room with his family in Santa Maria gets to camp out under the stars in the mountains, go horseback riding and do a ropes course up in the trees with no cost to the parents? Not very many,” said Gail Burgess.
For information on Santa Maria Valley Youth & Family Center’s process to send boys to the camp, please contact Nancy Johnson at njohnson@fsacares.org. For details on the camp, please see their website – https://www.pylescamp.org/
