YMCA Camp Cristina

Fun, Friends and Adventure at Camp Cristina!

Most parents do their best to avoid the famous phrase, “I’m bored,” yet many hear it all summer long!

Jen Gordon, a mother to eight-year-old Emily and seven-year-old Kenneth, empathizes with parents around the nation. Yet, she shares that her kids rarely complain about summer boredom. Jen attributes her children’s positive attitudes to their love of YMCA Camp Cristina.

Emily and Kenneth are coming up on their 3rd and 4th summer as campers at YMCA Camp Cristina, and love the friends and adventure they experience throughout their summer days.

Jen shares, “My kiddos come home full of stories, adventures to share and are completely exhausted every day. They look forward to going to Camp Cristina and often tell us that we come too early to pick them up. The Y provides a great place for my kids to interact with other kids, be active and stay safe all while having a great time!”

Emily’s favorite memory from summer camp is meeting a real-life “unicorn.” Like other eight-year-old girls, Emily has a strong love of horses and adores spending quality time with the eight horses at Camp Cristina.

Kenneth enjoys spending his summer days with his friends learning new sport skills in the adventure day sports camps, swimming and gaga ball. Gaga ball is a summer camp favorite – a variant of dodgeball played in a gaga “pit”. The game combines dodging, striking, running and jumping with the objective of being the last person standing!

Making memories is one of the most important takeaways we hope our campers obtain when they come to one of our American Camp Association (ACA) Accredited summer day camps. Additionally, we strive for them to build friendships that last a lifetime, explore their unique talents and discover who they want to become!

These objectives are executed by our highly trained and certified camp staff. Jen notes, “Everything from the drop-off, extra activities, general camp experience and even emergency situations are so well handled and coordinated by staff. Counselors come back year after year, so I know they are treated just as well as the campers.”

The Tampa YMCA is proud to be an ACA Accredited day camp. The ACA Accreditation means our camps underwent a thorough review of our operations – from staff qualifications and training to emergency management – and complied with the highest standards in the industry. The ACA’s nationally recognized standards program focuses primarily on the program quality, health and safety aspects of a camp’s operation.

You can register your child for an unforgettable summer at one of our ACA Accredited day camps today!


*Presented by Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA