GOSHEN COUNTY – The Torrington Police Department will be sponsoring the 2024 DARE Camp for all Goshen County students entering the sixth grade August 12-16 at the Eastern Wyoming College (EWC) CTEC building room 101. 

The event will be broken down to two sessions each day with the morning session kicking off at 8 a.m. and will run until 1 p.m. and an afternoon session which will run from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. with lunch provided for both sessions.

“This camp will provide Goshen County youth an exciting opportunity to learn about the dangers of alcohol and drugs, as well as successful strategies for avoiding those dangers. Students can attend either the morning session or the afternoon session,” the TDP said. “Each session will be limited to 30 students. Lunch will be provided each day from noon to 1 p.m. for both classes.”

The TPD will also be featuring additional courses for community youth. 

“In addition, members of the TPD, will be providing firearms classes, which will include safety, gun-handling and marksmanship, including several hours at the TPD firearms range shooting .22 caliber rifles,” the department said in their community invitation. 

During the last day of class, August 16, students will have the opportunity to enjoy summertime activities at the local youth camp. 

“The last day of camp will be spent at Haven on the Rock children’s camp, where the kids will have the opportunity to engage in a variety of fun activities,” the police department said. “Transportation to and from Haven on the Rock on Friday the 16th will also be provided.”

“This last school year, we were not able to teach DARE in the schools,” police chief Matt Johnson said during the Torrington City Council meeting on May 21. “With schedule change and with increasing requirements from the district in terms of academic content we weren’t able to teach in the fifth grade as we normally have in the past. We are pretty disappointed in that because it is something we enjoy doing and building the connection with kids.”

“Assistant chief Connelly and our SROs (school resource officers) worked really hard at this to make it a reality. We are really proud of their work and we appreciated it,” Johnson said.

Because maintaining a postive relationship with area youth is important to law enforcement for a variety of reasons, Johnson feels a summer camp might be the solution to scheduling conflicts in the school district. 

“We are deeply committed to building healthy relationships with kids in our community that will last a lifetime. DARE provides a great method for us to engage with kids on important topics and we plan to continue utilizing the curriculum for the foreseeable future,” Johnson explained. “At this time, it looks like a ‘camp format’ will be the most successful method, but we may need to adapt that in the future to accommodate changes in schedules or resources.”

According to the chief, there are many advantages of the planned ‘summer camp’.

“In terms of my thoughts on the camp, I’m really excited about it because it offers an unapparelled opportunity to connect with kids and provide perspective on important topics, right before they make the big jump from elementary to middle school,” Johnson explained. “Adding in an element of responsible firearms safety, handling, and marksmanship is also a really important element that is becoming increasingly critical in our society.  Finally, we have the opportunity to spend some time just having fun and building relationships.  This will be a part of each day at the camp, and especially on the last day at Haven on the Rock,” the chief added.

According to Johnson, transportation will be provided for the up to 60 student attendees by the school district. 

“We are grateful for the support of Mr. Kramer and the school district for making this possible by providing transportation. We also appreciate Dr. Hawes and the EWC team for letting us use their facility and helping us manage meals.  Feeding 60 hungry kids will be quite an undertaking,” Johnson said.

To register please visit the Torrington Police Department and request an application by July 15.