{"id":136142,"date":"2026-02-17T14:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T14:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/136142\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T14:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T14:35:12","slug":"albany-winter-camp-turns-school-break-into-a-learning-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/136142\/","title":{"rendered":"Albany winter camp turns school break into a learning adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) \u2014 With students out of school for winter break, the city of Albany gave kids a chance to stay engaged and learn more about the community around them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The downtown winter camp, hosted from Feb. 16 to Feb. 20, reportedly provides educational field trips to multiple city locations including the fire department, police department and Flint RiverQuarium. The program allows children to interact and build connections with places downtown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Clifford Johnson, a recreation supervisor with the city, said the camp was inspired because many kids in the area don\u2019t know what downtown has to offer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThis idea came about because we had some kids that only knew about a three block radius of where they actually lived at in Albany,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cAnd so partnering with downtown Albany\u2014 They said, \u2018Okay, this is a great idea.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Albany winter camp turns school break into a learning adventure\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/JPN2QL2K75FXPP6E6FJWKICTL4.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Albany winter camp turns school break into a learning adventure(Clifford Johnson)Structured environment during break<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Jonya McKinney, downtown event coordinator for Albany, said the camp provides a structured environment for children while their parents are at work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cTheir parents are at work. I mean, we have kids at home. We don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing, what they\u2019re exposed to,\u201d McKinney said. \u201cIf we bring them out to our camp, we have a structure, very educational camp for them to visit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">McKinney said she is excited about what the program offers children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe kids are excited. They\u2019re happy to be here. They want to see what we have to offer. And we\u2019re just happy to be here to show them what we have,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Desmond Edwards, a parent, said he is looking forward to his child gaining a deeper understanding of the community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s exciting, you know, to get a chance to learn the city itself. You know, even at a small age, we can understand as much as we can in the capacity that they do,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cOf course, the city itself is well represented, and we love our city, so we want the kids to get to know it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officials said the camp helps children experience the city in a positive light while learning about downtown Albany during winter break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-start article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error that needs correction? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walb.com\/2026\/02\/16\/albany-winter-camp-turns-school-break-into-learning-adventure\/mailto:walb-digitalproducers@gray.tv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\">Let us know.<\/a> Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-start article-text\">To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WALBNews10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WALBNews10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\">X (Twitter)<\/a>. For more South Georgia news, download the WALB News app from the <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/walb-news-10\/id449395459\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\">Apple Store<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/search?q=walb+news+10+app&amp;c=apps&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\">Google Play<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WALB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) \u2014 With students out of school for winter break, the city of Albany gave kids&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57879,57878,57874,57880,57893,57894,57881,57870,57877,57899,57901,57895,57896,57871,14507,57868,57897,57898,57876,57885,57889,57900,560,9,11,10,49,51,50,57882,57884,57883,5271,57886,57892,57891,57873,57887,57888,57890,57875,57869,57872],"class_list":{"0":"post-136142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-afd","9":"tag-afs","10":"tag-albany-downtown-pojects","11":"tag-albany-fire-department","12":"tag-albany-ga","13":"tag-albany-georgia","14":"tag-albany-police-depratment","15":"tag-albany-schools","16":"tag-apd","17":"tag-clifford-johnson","18":"tag-desmond-edwards","19":"tag-dougherty-county","20":"tag-dougherty-county-georgia","21":"tag-dougherty-county-schools","22":"tag-downtown","23":"tag-downtown-albany","24":"tag-flint-river-aquarium","25":"tag-flint-riverquarium","26":"tag-future-of-albany","27":"tag-good-hang-podcast","28":"tag-james-irvin","29":"tag-jonya-mckinney","30":"tag-kids","31":"tag-new-york","32":"tag-new-york-headlines","33":"tag-new-york-news","34":"tag-new-york-state","35":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","36":"tag-new-york-state-news","37":"tag-parks-and-rec","38":"tag-parks-and-rec-podcast","39":"tag-parks-and-recreation-albany","40":"tag-schools","41":"tag-south-ga","42":"tag-south-ga-camp","43":"tag-south-ga-parks","44":"tag-things-to-do-over-winter-break","45":"tag-walb","46":"tag-walb-james-irvin","47":"tag-walb-weather","48":"tag-what-to-do-downtown","49":"tag-winter-break-albany","50":"tag-winter-camp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}