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Tampa Bay students take center stage in week-long camp

By Barry Wong
Published  March 20, 2025 3:48pm EDT
Education
FOX 13 News

Tampa Bay students take center stage in week-long camp

For the last 15 years, an annual Spring Break tradition has put the kids and teenagers at the Metro Ministries on center stage.

The Brief

    • A week-long camp lets kids and teen at Metro Ministries take center stage.
    • It's a week-long camp that is part of a partnership with Straz Center's Patel Conservatory.

TAMPA - For the last 15 years, an annual Spring Break tradition has put the kids and teenagers at the Metro Ministries on center stage. 

"I've learned how to sing and memorize songs and dance, fun dances obviously, and give like speeches and stuff," 11-year-old Harmony Montgomery said. 

It’s a week-long camp that’s part of a partnership with Straz Center’s Patel Conservatory. The kids learn about musical theatre, dance and acting. The week ends with a performance for family and friends. 

"Where their parents and friends and staff can come and watch them really express themselves in a different way that they might not always be able to do," Metro Ministries Director of Communications Brensey Thompson said. 

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This year’s theme is "Love Conquers All" and features performances from "Wicked" , "Hairspray" and "High School Musical". The kids and teens rehearse some scenes together, and then rotate through dance, singing and acting instruction sessions. The teens are also learning scriptwriting. 

"I just act like nobody's there, and I close my eyes and just talk and sing and stuff," Montgomery said. "It's hard, but it's fun at the same time." 

For the staff at Metro Ministries, they love watching kids come out of their shells. They love "watching it come together" from Monday to Friday. Metro Ministries houses around 300 kids and teens daily, with up to 90 participating in the camp each year.

"A lot of these kids in our care come from very traumatic backgrounds, and they go through so much on a day-to-day basis that you and I probably have never experienced," Thompson said. "When they get to come in and be themselves and be a kid and not have to worry about where the food is coming from this week, we really hope that it resonates with them, that they're able to know that there's this different way that they can express themselves and that they can be themselves, and that they can be a kid." 

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