CAMP FLIGHT 2026 Bronzeville CCICS

No Camp Juneteenth. (6/19)

In partnership with the Jackson Park Yacht Club, L.O.T.U.S. Camp Flight offers a two-week Junior Sailing experience that invites youth into a disciplined, confidence-building relationship with the water. Campers participate in full-day sessions, Monday through Friday, blending classroom learning with hands-on sailing instruction led by US Sailing–certified and US Sailing REACH/STEM instructors. Students learn on age- and skill-appropriate boats, including 420s, Bugs, and RS Feva XLs, with placement intentionally matched to each young person’s experience, size, and readiness to ensure both safety and growth.

The experience culminates in a sailing exhibition during the second week, where families are invited to visit, observe, and celebrate their young sailors in action. Campers demonstrate the skills they’ve developed, followed by an awards ceremony and an optional community dinner hosted by JPYC. This partnership reflects Camp Flight’s commitment to meaningful, non-traditional learning experiences—where focus, responsibility, and teamwork are not taught abstractly, but lived, practiced, and embodied on the water.

Please additionally register and sign waivers for your child at the JPYC site https://theclubspot.com/login?login_step=0 and use code LOTUS to offset pricing there.

• Sailing program

• Transportation both ways

• Extended day enrichment with L.O.T.U.S.

An engaging, confidence-building theatre class that uses play, movement, voice, and storytelling to strengthen communication and self-expression skills. Through exciting theatre games, vocal warm-ups, and performance activities inspired by master practitioners including Viola Spolin, Kristin Linklater, Michael Shurtleff, Stanislavski, and others, students explore the foundational acting tools of body, voice, focus, and imagination.

Classes are thoughtfully designed to meet students developmentally while maintaining shared creative goals. By the end of the program, students will feel more confident expressing themselves authentically, speak more clearly and audibly while strengthening the physical voice, connect emotion to vocal expression, and work more comfortably in groups with increased focus and collaboration, and have gained a mini-canon of classic poems and stories.

For two weeks, Camp Flight is proud to partner with Go STEM Chicago to engage campers in a hands-on, inquiry-driven science fair experience. Through this partnership, students move beyond worksheets and simulations and into real investigation—asking questions, testing ideas, and building projects that reflect how science and problem-solving show up in the real world.

Go STEM facilitators guide campers through the full science fair process: developing a question, conducting research, designing experiments, analyzing results, and preparing a clear, confident presentation of their findings. Students work independently and collaboratively, learning how to think critically, revise their ideas, and communicate their work to others. The two-week arc allows for depth rather than rush, reinforcing Camp Flight’s belief that sustained curiosity, thoughtful iteration, and public sharing are where real learning—and real confidence—take root.

In partnership with the Jackson Park Yacht Club, L.O.T.U.S. Camp Flight offers a two-week Junior Sailing experience that invites youth into a disciplined, confidence-building relationship with the water. Campers participate in full-day sessions, Monday through Friday, blending classroom learning with hands-on sailing instruction led by US Sailing–certified and US Sailing REACH/STEM instructors. Students learn on age- and skill-appropriate boats, including 420s, Bugs, and RS Feva XLs, with placement intentionally matched to each young person’s experience, size, and readiness to ensure both safety and growth.

The experience culminates in a sailing exhibition during the second week, where families are invited to visit, observe, and celebrate their young sailors in action. Campers demonstrate the skills they’ve developed, followed by an awards ceremony and an optional community dinner hosted by JPYC. This partnership reflects Camp Flight’s commitment to meaningful, non-traditional learning experiences—where focus, responsibility, and teamwork are not taught abstractly, but lived, practiced, and embodied on the water.

Please additionally register and sign waivers for your child at the JPYC site https://theclubspot.com/login?login_step=0 and use code LOTUS to offset pricing there.

• Sailing program

• Transportation both ways

• Extended day enrichment with L.O.T.U.S.

TWO WEEKS OF FUNK AND RHYTHM!

In partnership with Intonation Music, L.O.T.U.S. Camp Flight offers a deep, hands-on modern band experience that places young people at the center of creation, collaboration, and performance. Rooted in Intonation’s nationally respected model and aligned with L.O.T.U.S.’ whole-person approach, this partnership engages youth in making music through live instruments and digital production tools, while honoring non-traditional pathways into music learning. Instruction is experiential, relational, and socially grounded, weaving social and emotional learning into every rehearsal, reflection, and creative decision.

Campers form a band from the ground up. They choose a shared musical direction, create a setlist, and learn core modern band instruments—guitar, bass, drums, keys, and vocals—while also exploring songwriting, arranging, and recording. Youth take on real roles within the group, practice collective leadership, and experience what it means to prepare for a public outcome together. The program culminates in a live performance, giving students the rare and powerful opportunity to take the stage, share their work with a community audience, and see themselves as artists, collaborators, and contributors. This is a flagship partnership within Camp Flight, blending creative expression, discipline, and joy into a formative summer experience.

In partnership with the Jackson Park Yacht Club, L.O.T.U.S. Camp Flight offers a two-week Junior Sailing experience that invites youth into a disciplined, confidence-building relationship with the water. Campers participate in full-day sessions, Monday through Friday, blending classroom learning with hands-on sailing instruction led by US Sailing–certified and US Sailing REACH/STEM instructors. Students learn on age- and skill-appropriate boats, including 420s, Bugs, and RS Feva XLs, with placement intentionally matched to each young person’s experience, size, and readiness to ensure both safety and growth.

The experience culminates in a sailing exhibition during the second week, where families are invited to visit, observe, and celebrate their young sailors in action. Campers demonstrate the skills they’ve developed, followed by an awards ceremony and an optional community dinner hosted by JPYC. This partnership reflects Camp Flight’s commitment to meaningful, non-traditional learning experiences—where focus, responsibility, and teamwork are not taught abstractly, but lived, practiced, and embodied on the water.

Please additionally register and sign waivers for your child at the JPYC site https://theclubspot.com/login?login_step=0 and use code LOTUS to offset pricing there.

• Sailing program

• Transportation both ways

• Extended day enrichment with L.O.T.U.S.

In partnership with the Jackson Park Yacht Club, L.O.T.U.S. Camp Flight offers a two-week Junior Sailing experience that invites youth into a disciplined, confidence-building relationship with the water. Campers participate in full-day sessions, Monday through Friday, blending classroom learning with hands-on sailing instruction led by US Sailing–certified and US Sailing REACH/STEM instructors. Students learn on age- and skill-appropriate boats, including 420s, Bugs, and RS Feva XLs, with placement intentionally matched to each young person’s experience, size, and readiness to ensure both safety and growth.

The experience culminates in a sailing exhibition during the second week, where families are invited to visit, observe, and celebrate their young sailors in action. Campers demonstrate the skills they’ve developed, followed by an awards ceremony and an optional community dinner hosted by JPYC. This partnership reflects Camp Flight’s commitment to meaningful, non-traditional learning experiences—where focus, responsibility, and teamwork are not taught abstractly, but lived, practiced, and embodied on the water.

Please additionally register and sign waivers for your child at the JPYC site https://theclubspot.com/login?login_step=0 and use code LOTUS to offset pricing there.

• Sailing program

• Transportation both ways

• Extended day enrichment with L.O.T.U.S.

Camp Flight is excited to introduce our partnership with Black Girls Dance®, founded by industry leader, instructor, and performer Erin Barnette, to our camp community. While the organization’s name reflects its origins and mission, this Hip Hop Dance module is open to and welcoming of campers of all genders. Facilitated by Black Girls Dance® instructors, the experience uses hip hop as both an art form and a developmental practice, helping students build technical skill, musicality, and performance confidence while strengthening discipline, goal-setting, teamwork, and self-belief.

At its core, Black Girls Dance® is committed to creating spaces where young people feel seen, valued, and capable of excellence. This partnership aligns seamlessly with Camp Flight’s emphasis on confidence, agency, and inclusive opportunity. Campers engage dance not simply as choreography, but as a pathway to leadership, resilience, and empowerment—learning to move with intention, trust their presence, and carry that confidence beyond the stage and into daily life. Limited to 15 Students! 

Now entering our third year with the Lincoln Park Boat Club, rowing has become a true staple of the Camp Flight experience. Each season, students step into the rhythm of the shell and learn—through their bodies—that progress only happens when everyone moves together. Coaches guide campers in technique, timing, and the mental discipline that turns many hands into a single, unified motion. On the water, young people experience unity as something lived and practiced, discovering how shared breath, trust, and steady focus create momentum stronger than force alone.

We are especially excited about the long-term possibilities this partnership continues to open. Through Title IX, collegiate rowing—particularly women’s rowing—offers substantial scholarship opportunities, making the sport a powerful and often underrecognized pathway to higher education. Because rowing values commitment, coachability, and discipline, students who discover it through Camp Flight can grow quickly and envision real futures tied to their effort. As we enter year three of this partnership, rowing stands as a clear example of Camp Flight’s purpose: sustained exposure, meaningful access, and experiences that connect what youth are doing today to who they can become tomorrow.

L.O.T.U.S. partners with the Bronzeville Fencing Academy to introduce youth to the Olympic sport of fencing while highlighting the academic and college pathways connected to the discipline. Through hands-on sessions led by experienced coaches, students learn the fundamentals of footwork, balance, timing, and strategic thinking while engaging in drills and supervised bouts that challenge both body and mind. Beyond the sport itself, fencing opens doors to educational opportunity—more than 40 colleges and universities in the United States sponsor varsity fencing programs, many of which offer athletic scholarships or financial assistance to student-athletes who demonstrate both skill and strong academics. This experience allows students to see fencing not only as a unique sport, but also as a potential bridge to higher education, leadership development, and long-term opportunity. (bfafencing.org)

Drone Lab is a hands-on course where youth learn to build, and pilot drones while developing real engineering and flight skills. Students navigate obstacle courses, practice aerial surveying, and explore how drones are used in industries like filmmaking, construction, agriculture, environmental science, and public safety. Along the way, they gain an introduction to a fast-growing, well-paid field and the professional standards that come with it. The learning is rigorous, playful, and grounded in real-world application. The goal is simple: help students discover work so engaging they’ll one day say, “I can’t believe I get paid to do this.”

In partnership with the Jackson Park Yacht Club, L.O.T.U.S. Camp Flight offers a two-week Junior Sailing experience that invites youth into a disciplined, confidence-building relationship with the water. Campers participate in full-day sessions, Monday through Friday, blending classroom learning with hands-on sailing instruction led by US Sailing–certified and US Sailing REACH/STEM instructors. Students learn on age- and skill-appropriate boats, including 420s, Bugs, and RS Feva XLs, with placement intentionally matched to each young person’s experience, size, and readiness to ensure both safety and growth.

The experience culminates in a sailing exhibition during the second week, where families are invited to visit, observe, and celebrate their young sailors in action. Campers demonstrate the skills they’ve developed, followed by an awards ceremony and an optional community dinner hosted by JPYC. This partnership reflects Camp Flight’s commitment to meaningful, non-traditional learning experiences—where focus, responsibility, and teamwork are not taught abstractly, but lived, practiced, and embodied on the water.

Please additionally register and sign waivers for your child at the JPYC site https://theclubspot.com/login?login_step=0 and use code LOTUS to offset pricing there.

• Sailing program

• Transportation both ways

• Extended day enrichment with L.O.T.U.S.

In partnership with First Tee, youth learn the art and ethics of golf—quiet focus, measured power, and honest play. Every swing asks them to settle their breath and trust their form. The field trip for this week is a trip to visit and play on an actual golf course in the area. Jackson Park or South Shore.

Culinary with Chef Jasmine brings nutrition and self-sufficiency to life through hands-on cooking and care for the land. Campers tend the garden all summer, learning patience, responsibility, and where food truly comes from. Over 11 weeks, they harvest what they’ve grown and turn that yield into real, nourishing meals. From soil to stove, it’s learning you can taste — and yes, we create meals with the yield.