History, About Us, KidSpirit Youth Programs, College of Health & Human Sciences at Oregon State University

KidSpirit History

Oregon State University began its first summer sports program during the summer of 1961. Offering only boy's baseball, the program was severely limited. Since then, the program has developed by leaps and bounds to offer a wide variety of sports and other activities year round. This sports program is now known as KidSpirit.

Fairly small in its first ten years, the program first started to really grow in 1971 when directors Don Martin and Dow Poling decided to offer more activities. In addition to baseball, they decided to offer swimming and soccer. The camp further grew in 1976 when the Girls Summer Youth Program was introduced, as per request by parents. This camp implemented gymnastics and swimming, activities that had been offered through OSU since 1968 but had not been through the summer program.

In 1989, the boys and girls camps combined to become the Oregon State University Youth Summer Sports Program. This summer program was a six-week camp for youth ages 8-14. It offered many more activities then previously, including activities such as aerobic dance, soccer and basketball. The camp was enlarged in 1995 to become a full day camp, consisting of four 2-week sessions. In 1999, the camp was enlarged once again to become five 2-week sessions, under the direction of the current director Karen Swanger. Due to increasing enrollment, in 2001 the camp was expanded to include an 11th week and camp hours increased to be 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Enrollment that summer was about 400 students for each 1-week session.

The camp continues to expand to this day, as we are constantly coming up with new classes to offer and activities for kids to attend.



	Limit results to this site.		OSU Home » Health and Human Sciences » KidSpirit Youth Programs » About Us » History. KidSpirit History Oregon State University began its first summer sports program during the summer of 1961. Offering only boy's baseball, the program was severely limited. Since then, the program has developed by leaps and bounds to offer a wide variety of sports and other activities year round. This sports program is now known as KidSpirit. Fairly small in its first ten years, the program first started to really grow in 1971 when directors Don Martin and Dow Poling decided to offer more activities. In addition to baseball, they decided to offer swimming and soccer. The camp further grew in 1976 when the Girls Summer Youth Program was introduced, as per request by parents. This camp implemented gymnastics and swimming, activities that had been offered through OSU since 1968 but had not been through the summer program. In 1989, the boys and girls camps combined to become the Oregon State University Youth Summer Sports Program. This summer program was a six-week camp for youth ages 8-14. It offered many more activities then previously, including activities such as aerobic dance, soccer and basketball. The camp was enlarged in 1995 to become a full day camp, consisting of four 2-week sessions. In 1999, the camp was enlarged once again to become five 2-week sessions, under the direction of the current director Karen Swanger. Due to increasing enrollment, in 2001 the camp was expanded to include an 11th week and camp hours increased to be 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Enrollment that summer was about 400 students for each 1-week session. The camp continues to expand to this day, as we are constantly coming up with new classes to offer and activities for kids to attend.