A few more spots remain open for the third annual Camp for the Performing Arts, June 21-29.

Don’t miss a chance for your 9- to 12-year- old budding star to participate in this free, nine-day program sponsored by the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Miss-Lou.

The camp offers a wonderful opportunity for kids to have fun while learning and expressing themselves creatively. Nine days of acting, singing, dancing, improvisation, character development and performing on stage culminate with a showcase production on Sunday afternoon, June 29. Friends, family and the community will be invited.

The Camp for the Performing Arts was created three years ago as an opportunity for kids 9-12 years old to experience the joy of “creating” — using the performing arts to discover their own unique and special way of expressing themselves. While the camp provides lots of fun through theatre games, exercises, music, movement and performance, it also helps develop some important life skills.

Improved confidence and self-awareness, better language skills and public speaking, improved reading abilities, teamwork and cooperation, and certainly increased creativity are just a few of the tremendous values the performing arts nurture.

The chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia, has said it this way: “The purpose of arts education is not only to create more artists, but to create human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives.”

Our kids deserve every chance we can give them to achieve that goal. The Camp for the Performing Arts is about having fun, celebrating creativity — and supporting our kids along the way.

We’re extremely fortunate to have co-directors for the Camp who are not only professional performing artists, but who are also dedicated to children and providing them with opportunities to discover their own gifts and talents.

The camp will be at the Boys & Girls Club Martin Unit from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, June 21 and 28, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday, June 22 and 29, and from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Monday-Friday June 23-27 (new times).

The camp is free, but kids must be (or must become) members of the Boys & Girls Club to participate.

Applications for membership, and for the Camp for the Performing Arts, can be picked up at the Boys & Girls Club, Martin Unit, 64 Homochitto St., 601-304-5548.

Enrollment is limited; for more information, please call the club or 601-443-7218.

Jennifer Ogden is the organizer of the Camp for the Performing Arts.