IF you were one of the lucky students who had a chance to take part in the Lego Yuh Mind summer camp, you must be quite excited.

This camp hosted 40 children from the ages of six to 15 from communities like Jacques Road, Goodridge Lane, Back Bush, Vegas, and Vineyard Town, and taught them everything — from constructing to programming robots and helping them with their reasoning abilities and teamwork.

It provided the children with opportunities that some in previous years would not have necessarily been exposed to and also provides them with high quality education.

The programme has been running annually for the past three years and first started because of a connection a student in the community, Duran Wright, had with one of the Halls of Learning founders, Marvin Hall, who taught him at Camperdown High School. The camp is also administered by Marki Young.

Both decided that they wanted to make a difference in the community as the Lego Yuh Mind programme had been making a difference in the lives of those who had taken part in it since its inception.

In its first year, the programme was hosted in the Good Ridge Lane area of Mountain View, where they occupied a church.

Quite humble beginnings for them, but even though it may have been hard, it was never in the back of their minds to abandon the programme in the community.

Now, they occupy a house, which is quite symbolic for them as it was on the borderline on two previous warring sides of the community. Bringing the children from the two sides of the community together, they helped to bring peace to the area.

The community, in an effort to keep this initiative going, provides any needed items for the camp as the programme is inadequately funded.

One lucky girl taking part in the camp from inception, Sannashae Stephen, who affectionately calls some of the co-ordinators Uncle Marvin and Auntie Cathy, states that she is extremely excited every year to come to the camp. She spends her days looking forward to when she can go to camp again, but sadly states that it will be her last year as she will now be too old to take part. However, she has learnt a lot from them and will definitely use all she has learnt in her everyday life.

Nile Sadler, a volunteer, also stated that his reason for joining was to give back as he went through the same programme and it had made a difference in his life. Thus, he wanted to provide others with the same opportunity that he had, being totally mesmerised at how well they enjoyed the programme and worked together.

So, for all who didn’t get to take part in the camp this year and you are a part of the Mountain View Community, next year will be the ideal time for you.