One of the area’s most popular summer camp programs will again be held on the campus of Crossway Church.

Camp Winshape, a faith-based summer day camp sponsored by Chick-fil-A, will be at Crossway Church from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 10-14. The cost of the camp is $230, said Angela Marshall, children’s pastor at Crossway. She said registration begins March 6 and continues through the first day of camp.

“We’ve had a few changes this year,” Marshall said. “Before, the camp was offered for completed kindergarten to completed eighth grade. This year they’re offering it for completed kindergarten to completed fifth grade. Basically what they’re doing is taking out that middle school age.”

Previously, she said, Crossway has hosted the camp during the first week in June but scheduling conflicts forced the church to move the camp back to July.

The camp program, she said, has not changed.

“It’s the same concept,” Marshall said. “The children are able to select skills they want to participate in while they’re here, and those skills include everything from archery to football to painting and crafts and gymnastics. Pretty much anything they could want to do. They select the skills they want to participate in when they register.”

She said children in grades six through eight can volunteer to help during the camp if their parents are volunteering. Children who have completed the ninth grade or above can volunteer to help with the program without a parent.

Marshall said a typical day at camp begins when the children arrive and go into what is called village training — an area where there are activities they can do as they wait for the other children to arrive.

“Everyone then goes to the worship center for the group meeting,” she said. “That’s where they do worship and get the kids ready and excited for the day.”

After the group meeting, the day alternates between large group time and periods where the children break up into smaller groups and go through their skills.

“They go to whatever skills they choose and then they have team time; that’s where they’re with their own age group — their peers — and they talk about the Bible truths they’re learning that day and spend some time with their leader,” Marshall said. “They’re with the same leader all week.”

Marshall said scholarships are available for Camp Winshape, adding more information on the scholarships will be offered over the next few months. If a person or a business wants to sponsor a child, she said, there are provisions for that.

More information about Camp Winshape and the scholarships is available on Facebook at Winshape Vicksburg and on Instagram @winshape_vicksburg.

Marshall said Crossway’s Winshape leadership team will be going to a Winshape Host Rally in Peachtree City Feb. 6-8 to learn more about the program.

Crossway has hosted Camp Winshape since 2013. It did not host Winshape in 2020 or 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It resumed hosting Winshape in 2022.

Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy established WinShape in 1985 as a way to challenge young people physically and spiritually. The first camp was an overnight camp at Berry College in Rome, Ga.

In 2008, the program was expanded to include weeklong day and overnight camps serving communities across the U.S. with WinShape camps in more than 100 communities across the country and a camp in Costa Rica and Brazil. In 2020, the program went to a virtual format offering programs for children through the Internet.

According to its website, WinShape Camps’ mission is to glorify God by creating experiences that transform campers and families with the message of Jesus Christ.