DOWNEY - A girl’s youth summer fitness camp is still accepting sign ups before it kicks off next week.

The Get Fit Youth Fitness camp is a collaboration between camp director Jay Waldron and the City of Downey.

Having started around 2014, the camp promotes wellness as a whole, including through education, aerobic and strength conditioning, nutrition, and competition.

“We try to make it as comprehensive as possible,” said Waldron. “It does have some undertones for track and field and cross-country, however we have plenty of kids who come to our camp who are not cross-country or track and field athletes; they may be soccer players, they might not be athletic at all, and that’s another important component of our camp. There’s really no level of fitness that you have to have, any prerequisites coming in. We’re pretty good at accommodating all fitness levels.”

In fact, Waldron says that one of the goals of the camp is to take kids “right off the couch.”

“[We want to] give them an idea, give them some goals, maybe inspire them to get involved in some sort of athletic avenue, whether it be track and field and cross country, or something else,” said Waldron. “Really I think it helps kids get in tune at a young age with who they are, what their limitations are, what their expectations might be, and get them motivated to do something other than just being on the couch.”

City Recreation Supervisor Kevin Ellis says that the camp adds to the city’s catalogue of physically active programming and options.

“We have everything from basketball, to baseball, to lacrosse, to all of that,” said Ellis. “Get Fit is very special for us because it does kind of focus on young lady athletes, young women athletes, but it’s more than just athletics. It’s almost like the whole spectrum because it focuses on wellness and health.”

“They use the platform of running and working out and all of that; I use this as an alternative opportunity for a lot of kids that aren’t ‘the baseball kid,’ or ‘the softball kid…’”

Camp will take place between Apollo Park and Warren High School from June 7 through June 18. Cost to register for first timerss $150.

In addition to athletic activities and team building, participating girls can also look forward to guest speakers.

The camp will also be operated under CDC and Los Angeles County health and safety guidelines, similar to how Downey Unified ran their sports during the school year including temperature checks, spacing, and mask wearing.

“We’ll do a lot of the same protocols that we used at the high school; we’ll adopt what the school district has put forth,” said Waldron.

Participants should wear athletic clothes and footwear.

For more information, email jwaldron@dusd.net or getfityouthfitness@gmail.com.