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This was always going to be a huge weekend for youth sports in El Paso.

BOZEMAN — Montana State wide receiver Taco Dowler and running back Adam Jones have been working for six months to bring their youth camp to Bozeman.

On Saturday, hundreds of kids showed up to participate and hang out with their favorite Bobcats at Van Winkle Stadium.

Grace Lawrence / MTN Sports

“It’s important in the NIL world to get out and do something with your platform, and I think Adam and I kind of do that,” Dowler said. “I think this is a really good way of getting into the community, bringing the football community together. And also making more Cats fans in the state.”

Dowler mentioned being in the name, image and likeness era, and that’s exactly what makes this camp unique. Dowler and Jones are still in college playing for the Cats and have the ability to put on an event like this one.

“You know, we’re still playing,” Jones said. “So, when the season rolls around, and these kids come find us after the games, that’s going to be pretty fun and pretty special to look back on these memories. And I know if I was a kid I would think this would be the coolest thing ever, so that’s kind of what we were thinking with this.”

Grace Lawrence / MTN Sports

Dowler also put on camps in Billings earlier this week, and now he and Jones get to host the final sessions in Bozeman — a community that has taken both of them in and supported them.

“It’s meant everything, I can’t explain how much Bozeman embraced a Missoula kid like me and a Billings kid like Taco,” Jones said. “This is my home. This is where I want to be for a large portion of my life, maybe raise my family here. So I’m just trying to figure out ways to give back and to use our platform at Montana State and just how strong the football community is, to do this, it’s been pretty special.”

“This town has meant everything,” Dowler said. “I get goosebumps when you’re talking about that. This town is special, it’s our home. (Adam and I) hated each other in high school because he kept beating me in state championships, him and Zac Crews and JJ Dolan, so having all three of those guys out here now making an impact in Bozeman is really special.”

Grace Lawrence / MTN Sports

As Dowler mentioned, one of the best parts of the camps they are putting on is that a handful of current players joined in to help run and organize them.

“Yeah, the coaches are great,” Dowler said. “I wouldn’t have picked coaches I didn’t trust, and they’re running the whole thing. I mean, (Adam and I) are just behind the scenes, kind of bossing them around a little bit. They probably don’t like that too much, but they’re the ones putting this thing on. All the credit goes to them.”

Grace Lawrence / MTN Sports

While there are no plans to bring a similar program to Bay High to public schools in Omaha anytime soon, Norman said The Bay does plan to bring its Gap Year program to Omaha within the next year. He said organizers are speaking with more potential partners. 

This comes as the nonprofit acquires OGR and explores additional ways the nonprofit can make an impact for local youth in the city. 

The future of Omaha Girls Rock

OGR is an Omaha-based nonprofit with the mission of empowering youth through music education. Starting in 2011 as part of the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, the organization went on to provide after-school programming, instrument lessons and loans and a summer camp for youth ages 4 through 18. During the camp, kids would learn an instrument, form a band, co-write an original song and then perform it live. 

Sara Bertuldo was the operations manager for OGR before the nonprofit joined The Bay. She now works for The Bay as workforce education and OGR program manager. 

Bertuldo said OGR reached a point where it was growing too fast, and it became a challenge to sustain. That forced organizers to turn kids away from programs, which were at capacity. She said The Bay is now able to step in and provide the foundational support OGR needed. 

“I feel like I can really focus on making our program as strong as it can get and really provide a positive experience for campers, as well as staff and volunteers,” Bertuldo said. 

Norman said The Bay plans to relaunch the OGR summer camps in 2026. Still in the planning stages, he said they anticipate bringing OGR programming to Lincoln and integrating Bertuldo’s expertise into other programs provided by The Bay.

“OGR is just another opportunity for us to provide community, build confidence and skills, increase the happiness and decrease the loneliness of this generation,” Norman said. 

Moving into the Benson Community Center

Norman said the organization has always wanted to expand into Omaha and in 2021 started with after-school programming centered on skateboarding and beatmaking at local schools. He said The Bay eventually landed a physical space at the Benson Community Center, largely through collaboration and support from Omaha Parks and Recreation, the Lozier Foundation and the Omaha Parks Foundation. 

Norman said conversations about The Bay’s residence at the Benson Community Center began around 2023, with a vision to help repair and revitalize the space at the heart of the Benson neighborhood. Since the location opened in 2024, the nonprofit has helped facilitate renovations and has tapped into Benson’s art and entrepreneurial scene, including helping kids participate in the 2025 Youth Artist Market during Benson First Fridays. 

Norman said The Bay doesn’t see the community center as its “forever home.”

“Our job is to bring a lot of energy and activity into it, as well as help draw other partners who want to use that space,” Norman said. “Our goal with the Benson Community Center is to leave it better than we found it.”

We are now a few weeks into summer with kids out of school enjoying their break from the classroom.

While the school year offers endless learning opportunities, so does summer with the added element of lots of fun.

The list of things to do is nearly endless. You can:

• Check out your community’s library programs for kids to keep them reading, learning and having fun through summer.
• Take your children to the multitude of parks and splash pads in our area communities.
• Splash around in a lake and build a sandcastle at a beach.
• Take a walk or bike ride on the Paul Bunyan Trail or through your neighborhood.
• Walk the Veterans Trail off Crow Wing County Road 16 in Jenkins Township, or take a guided tour of the Uppgaard Wildlife Management Area on the south side of CR 16 at 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays through summer.
• Enroll your child in a Vacation Bible School or an area camp. The Lakes Area Music Festival offers an Explore Music! camp the first week in August in Brainerd. There are many youth sports camps going on all summer long; let your child experience a few to find out what they might be most interested in doing.
• Take a Wednesday afternoon to participate in Turtle Races in downtown Nisswa. You can’t grow up in the lakes area without racing a turtle!
• Try Duck Drop Bingo, a new Friday afternoon event starting June 27 in Pine River to replace the former Duck Races event.
• Check out Happy Dancing Turtle offerings for children at their Pine River campus.
• Spend a day at a zoo.
• Visit a county park. Climb the fire tower at the Paul M. Thiede Fire Tower Park in Pequot Lakes.
• Visit a state park for a day or spend a weekend exploring one.

This is just a short list of opportunities for learning and fun in our communities, and all are affordable or free.

Summer should be a time for relaxing and recharging for all ages after a busy school year. But that shouldn’t mean three months of screen time in front of cellphones, computers and TVs.

Get your kids outside. Take advantage of what our communities offer in the form of outdoor activities and fun yet educational programs.

Every week while compiling news releases to publish in the Echo Journal, I learn about cool activities for kids. It makes me wish my 5 year old granddaughter lived closer so I could experience some of them with her.

I have such great memories of my childhood summers that include friends and the outdoors. Whether it was playing creative games in my best friend’s pool, building forts in the woods and climbing trees or riding our bikes around the neighborhood, we were always outside having fun.

I came across this enlightening information in an email from the University of Minnesota. Katie Schuver, a lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, shared why physical activity is important for kids.

“While it might just seem like a way to burn off energy, regular movement plays a powerful role in child development and has the potential to impact everything from physical health to emotional well-being and academic success,” she said.

“Regular physical activity helps build strong muscles and bones, supports a healthy weight and improves cardiovascular health. Additionally, studies show active children tend to perform better in school, as it improves concentration, memory and behavior outcomes,” Schuver said.

Encouraging kids to be regularly physically active at a young age lays the foundation for a lifetime of healthy habits and may reduce the risk of chronic diseases later in life, she said.

So what are you waiting for? Exciting summer opportunities abound for your kids right out your front door.

WAITE PARK (WJON News) — The extreme heat this weekend didn’t stop kids from playing some ball.  Waite Park Babe Ruth held its annual Summer Classic Baseball and Softball Tournament over the weekend.

Over 50 combined teams were in town for the games, and Softball Tournament Director Brian Mathiasen says the tourney is fun for the kids but great for the community too:

“It really is a boon for the area. The city does a good job of helping us out as needed, but it really generates a lot of additional traffic through the town. I know that all the restaurants, gas stations, shopping they all want to know when this is going on because it really does provide a lot of stimulus to the area.”

How long has the Summer Classic been taking place, and how is it run?

The tournament has been taking place for over 10 years, and Mathiasen says a lot of people pull together to make the tournament happen:

“Our association does all the work, it’s all volunteer hours, from our board members, we obviously pay the umpires, but everything is run by volunteers within our association to conduct all this and it’s a lot of work but the kids have a great time and it’s good for the community.”

He says because of the heat they did have an extra emphasis on safety for everyone involved and the kids were still having a good time.

The tournament will crown three champions in softball and four in baseball, plus runner-ups. The Summer Classic took place at River’s Edge Park in Waite Park Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

READ MORE FROM AUTHOR PAUL HABSTRITT:

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