Summer camp imbues girls with confidence

OLYMPIA — About 15 girls gathered closer to self-defense instructor Joanne Factor, who sized up the group quickly and realized that they had lapsed into a casual stance.

“Where are your arms?” she said, prompting some of them to drop their arms by the sides for a more confident and defensive stance. “What are you doing with your eyes?”

Factor, about as tall as some of the young teenagers at the YWCA of Olympia, was a guest teacher at Girls Without Limits, a program for girls ages nine to 14.

The Girls Without Limits summer camp organizes a variety of activities in a period of several weeks, all around a central theme, director Tracy McFarland said. During the school year, Girls Without Limits is an afterschool club with themes such as financial education, journalism and government. The YWCA of Olympia created the program’s curriculum.

Camp’s focus

This summer, “the human body is our focus, taking care of yourself,” McFarland said. The girls’ experiences ranged from lessons about human anatomy, to scaling a climbing wall, and taking one-day seminars for yoga and self-defense.

“We’re giving them the opportunity to try things they may not have tried before,” McFarland said.

Factor, who teaches kids self- defense through another program called KidSafe, said her goal for the one-day workshop last week was to give the girls some tools and strategies that they could use to defend themselves, such as punching and kicking and swinging backpacks like weapons.

Learning to yell

At one point, Factor coached the girls on how to yell at an attacker, something that many of them had trouble doing.

“I want you to put your whole body into it,” Factor said. “LEAVE ME ALONE!”

Mariah Arthur, 11, of Olympia said that the Girls Without Limits program was fun and challenging. She said that yelling was the hardest activity in the self-defense class.

“The only time I ever yell is when I’m really mad,” she said.

However, while the girls were working with Factor, Mariah came up with a strategy to help one of her younger sisters learn to yell.

“Yell like you’re yelling at me,” she told her.

Venice Buhain covers education for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5445 or vbuhain@theolympian.com.