Summer camp session focuses on teamwork Published June 25, 2014 By Senior Airman Sarah Hall-Kirchner 375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- The Youth Center's "Selfies" summer camp participated in an anti-bullying and teambuilding project June 18 at Scott. Ashley Wetzler, Monroe, Madison and St. Clair County 4H program member, led the program for 24 students ranging from 9 to 13 years of age. "Who is in charge of me, you or me?" Wetzler asked the students. "I am responsible for my own decisions. Someone once told me, 'don't have a good day, make it a good day.' You are in control of yourself." Focusing on a positive approach to teambuilding, Wetzler started the students off with a question: What does "bully" mean? The children had many ideas of what bully meant: It means verbal or physical abuse, someone who is mean, and someone who is abusive or attacks others. A bully is someone who is aggressive to someone else and someone who is wrong. One child also pointed out that a bully is someone who was probably also bullied. Wetzler encouraged the students to think about times that they were bullied, or maybe were doing the bullying. She asked them to think about how that made them feel. The students agreed that the feelings they had were not positive ones: they felt sad, powerless, and angry. Teambuilding exercises, led by Wetzler, helped the students to communicate and work out power struggles and conflict. After the exercises, Wetzler asked the students how they could improve their team work. Almost every child contributed something to the conversation. Their ideas were to listen to each other and plan more before they start a project, communicate using kind words, and to compromise. "If you both have an idea," said Olivia Berrios, 11, "you can combine them." Wetzler encouraged the students to continue to work on their team building skills. "Teambuilding is about the whole team," she said. "It's not about the individual finishing; it's about the team completing their mission together." While discussing what it means to be part of a team, Noah Kim, 9, offered this advice: "You have to take risks to help someone else."