Empowerment 4 Girls camps offer skills and support

What started as a yoga camp for girls has become a mission for Kristen Rubis of Olympia, director of Empowerment 4 Girls.

The nonprofit’s Empowerment Camps, for girls ages 9-16, aim to inspire and educate girls about their bodies, their health and their value.

“It’s hard sometimes to be a girl,” Rubis said. “It’s a struggle for them still. They don’t feel like they are respected as much as boys, and they know that women don’t make as much money as men.”

On Saturday, Empowerment 4 Girls will raise money for its scholarship program with a dance party and chili dinner at the Eagles Ballroom at Fourth Avenue and Plum Street in Olympia. The event also will include a raffle and the opportunity to learn more about what the camps, and other programs in the works, can offer girls.

The camps, which Rubis has taught since 2012, offer not only yoga, meditation, dance and art, but also provide healthful meals and education about reducing stress, self-acceptance and more.

“It’s a whole healthy life training,” said Jennifer Johnson, an environmental educator and the organization’s secretary.

Rubis shares her own struggles with the girls.

“I was made fun of as a kid,” she said. “When I was in eighth grade, there were three boys who named me ‘Boobless Rubis.’ I remember what that felt like to stuff that inside like nothing was wrong.

“The feedback I get from the girls is that I’m real with them,” she added. “It’s important to me that we’re respecting them where they are and encouraging them to be even better.”

Since she began leading the camps, she has offered informal scholarships to people who couldn’t afford the full cost, but the formation of the nonprofit has made the program accessible to a broader cross-section of South Sound, Johnson said.

Of more than 65 girls who attended camps in 2017, about a third received partial or full scholarships, Rubis said.

“I’ve really seen the diversity of girls increase,” Johnson said. “There’s a greater need out there. We’ve had girls who have been through trauma, who’ve been through abuse who are dealing with anxiety and self-esteem issues.

“At the camps, they get tools for dealing with stress, and they get to connect with other girls. They come out of it as part of this tight-knit group of people who can really support each other.”

Even the menu was a revelation to some. “Part of the culture of the camp is learning about food,” Johnson said. “Last summer, there were kids who had never eaten salad and who were eating three or four servings of salad for lunch.”

Besides expanding scholarships, Empowerment 4 Girls is developing a teacher training program for adults wishing to lead their own camps and a “Conscious Minds, Conscious Bodies” sexuality-education program.

Johnson’s daughter Iris, 8 and in third grade at Griffin Elementary, attended camp in the summer, though she’s a little younger than most campers.

“She loved it,” Johnson said. “She immediately grooved on the meditation piece, which I thought was really interesting. At home, it’s a boring thing that Mom is trying to do, but there, she loved it.

“She wants to go to every camp, and she was telling me the other day that when she’s 17, she wants to be the helper.”

Though she sometimes needs to be reminded, Iris has learned some tools for life, her mom said. The other day, she fell down, and her back hurt, so she turned to yoga.

“She really got into stretching and she was, like, ‘and I know this stretch, and I know that stretch,’ ” Johnson said. “She is continuing to use those tools.”

This story was originally published February 1, 2018 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Empowerment 4 Girls camps offer skills and support."