Introducing Keith!

 

I first met Keith in 2013 when he decided to join our PhD program at the University of South Carolina. Keith joined our research group and "hit the ground running"!!

The summer of 2014 really showed me what Keith is passionate about - quality physical education and allowing children to have fun through physical activity! He ran some activity sessions at a local summer camp. It was clear through this project that Keith was meant to teach children (and maybe even adolescents) the importance of physical activity as well as the importance of having fun while being physically active.

Those kids LOVED Keith – ALL of those kids were running after Keith, listened to every word he had to say and bought into his games. There were some games modified to the point that I was not wanting to play them... looked too intense and too much running. They just weren't the same games that I was used to, but somehow Keith was able to get the kids to play and love it!

In the fall of 2014, I was helping another colleague with a study more focused on healthy eating in after school programs. I immediately recognized 5-10 children from the previous summer –the summer that Keith and I ran the study with the all the fun games – and almost instantaneously, a little boy named Bryson ran up to me to ask what games we were playing and wanted to know when Mr. Keith would be arriving. It almost broke my heart telling little Bryson that we wouldn't be playing games, and that Mr. Keith would not be coming.

Keith is well equipped with the passion, drive, and skills to be the physical educator and trainer for Camp MATES. He did work with the camp last year and, of course, was amazing at facilitating fun physical activity for the campers! Very excited to see what we can accomplish this summer!

--Written by Jessica Chandler