Free South Bay Youth Camp Empowers Kids Through Beach Culture

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — Culture Club, a South Bay non-profit, is offering free beach youth camps ahead of the summer season.

Culture Club was founded in 2020 by Allison Hales, showcasing multicultural events such as art and dance through live events on Zoom during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

By the following year, the non-profit began hosting youth engagement camps at Bruce's Beach to promote diversity and create inclusion amongst local kids by exposing them to life outside their regular routines, according to the non-profit.

"Our goal at Culture Club is to not only expose the youth in the greater Los Angeles area to beach life but have the youth of the beach communities have an exposure to cultures outside of the "South Bay Bubble," the non-profit said in a statement last week.

More than 500 campers, including 100 local youth from Manhattan Beach, have attended the camp over the last five years, according to the non-profit.

The camp caters to underserved children between the ages of 8 to 13, offering activities such as volleyball, surfing and local history education.

Altadena resident Robin Jones said her family lost everything in the Eaton Fire and were consumed by the aftermath for several months. One day, Jones took her family to take part in one of the Culture Club's free beach events, where they experienced what the program was all about.

As Jone sat in a beach chair after a long day of learning how to surf and digging for shells, she noticed the tension her family had been feeling was away.

"At the end of the event, we all were given goodie bags," Jones said. "But what was worth so much more, as a wife, mother and grandmother was seeing the relaxed shoulders, tension-free sun-kissed faces and fatigue from a day spent just having fun."

The non-profit is still looking for roughly 20 to 30 more campers in the Manhattan Beach area for the upcoming camps on April 26, May 3, May 10 and May 17 at Bruce's Beach.

Parents looking to register their child for the free camps can do so here. The non-profit is also looking for volunteers to help out with the camps. Volunteers can sign up here.