By By Adam Robinson
sports editor
In 1988, Jim Hayes attended a Fellowship of Christian Athletes sports camp in Black Mountain, N.C.
The T.R. Miller football player told his family and friends the camp changed his life.
Just two weeks after the camp, Jim was killed when he was hit by a car while he was riding his bike in Destin.
He was just 16 years old.
Jim, the son of Dr. Bob and Ellen Hayes, will be honored at the fourth annual Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp in Brewton with an award named for him.
The camp, for first through sixth-graders, will be held June 22-25 at T.R. Miller High School and the Brewton Area YMCA.
The Jim Hayes Aaard will be given to a sixth-grade camper at the end of the camp.
Dr. Hayes will present the award on the last day of the camp to the sixth grader who has been to camp at least three years and exemplifies the pillars of being a Christian athlete and what FCA stands for.
Dr. Hayes is planning to tell the campers about FCA and what it means to him and his family and about his son that last day, Winton said.
Winton said the name of the award would read as follows on the plaque:
The FCA Camp is designed to help give children who have completed first grade through those who have completed sixth grade an opportunity for a Christian camp environment that balances both athletic competition and character/integrity development with the message of Jesus Christ.
The camp is staffed by high school athletes and coaches who have a love for athletics and children.
The cost for the camp is $35. It will begin at 8 a.m. on Monday, June 22, and 9 a.m. on the remaining days.
FCA has been touching millions of lives since 1954. It has been challenging coaches and athletes on the professional, college, high school, middle school and youth levels to use the powerful medium of athletes to impact the world for Jesus Christ. FCA is the largest Christian sports organization in America.
Winton, youth minister at First Baptist Church, heads the camp for the week.
During the camp, each age group has a camper of the week and that means that they have been a great camper, teammate for that week.
Huddle leaders are assigned to the age groups during the week and serve as coaches to the kids.
Six stations are played daily on a 15 minute rotation and accumulate points due to win, lose, or tying. Points gather through the week and conclude wit the ‘Wild Tiger Relay’ on the last day of events.
Winton said locally the camp averages 80 kids and it’s growing.
Winton said the camp is starting to come full-circle now heading into its fourth year.
The local FCA camp is run completely by volunteers who give of their time and effort without pay.
Contact Randy Winton, First Baptist Church youth pastor, at 363-0429 or T.R. Miller football coach Jamie Riggs at 867-8436 for more information.