Many beach camps happen during the summer, to give children something to do when there’s no school, and cost a pretty penny.
But there’s one in Manhattan Beach that takes place a couple of months out of the school year that’s completely free to attend, and its mission has a special connection to the land it’s set on.
The Culture Club South Bay started in 2020 at the height of the pandemic with Zoom events that showcased multicultural talent through art, dance and entertainment.
In fall 2021, Culture Club South Bay launched its first youth engagement camp at Bruce’s Beach with a goal to unite youth ages eight to 13 by celebrating diversity and creating inclusion through surfing, volleyball, arts, education, ocean awareness and stewardship and cultural culinary experiences.
Four years in the making, though, founder and director Allison Hales said the team needs help from the community it serves to keep the beach camp going.
The camp, at Bruce’s Beach Park on Highland Avenue and 26th Street, serves 100 children during each four-weekend session — once in spring and again in fall. The kids come from all over Los Angeles County: Inglewood, Compton Hawthorne, Wilmington, Gardena, Carson, Culver City, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, La Canada, Lawndale, Torrance, Calabasas, Chino Hills, and Harbor City, Lakewood and Panorama City.
Hales, a Manhattan Beach resident, started the initiative after working on the city’s Bruce’s Beach Task Force, compiling with other residents the history of Willa and Charles Bruce’s plight to hold a space for Black people in the beach town at a time when African American people had very limited access to visit the beach, let alone live near it.
The Bruces in the early 20th century bought two parcels of land that they turned into a seaside lodge for Black people to eat, dance and relax while they spent time at the seaside. There was a limited area where Black folks could even walk to get to the beach during the Jim Crow era, as well as restricted space they were allowed to take up on the sand.
But the city in the late 1920s took the Bruces’ land and other landowners’ property through eminent domain to shoo Black people from the area, but under the guise of creating a new park for the city. One of the city’s early leaders years later admitted that they pursued the proceedings for racially motivated reasons.
After her experiences with the task force, Hales wanted to do more, she said, to celebrate and honor the history and continue a legacy of historically marginalized people enjoying life by the beach.
She started Culture Club to do something positive and impactful and to contribute to ongoing education about diversity and inclusion in Manhattan Beach, Hales said.
Hales said simply replacing a plaque at Bruce’s Beach Park with new wording wasn’t enough to truly create a new narrative for equity in the city.
“The whole point of this is to continue the legacy of what was,” Hales said. “There isn’t Bruce’s Lodge there anymore, (and) we’re not necessarily trying to recreate that, but we want every kid who hasn’t experienced beach culture to be able to experience it.”
Hales’ mission is to continue providing that access to the beach, she said, and let youth of every background know it is a space for them to thrive.
“It makes me proud, it gives me purpose,” Hales said of the Culture Club. “It’s a small piece that can change the world.”
The spring 2024 session is underway and continues from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays: May 4, May 11 and May 18.
“It brings everybody together to feel like there’s no difference and there’s similarities and connection in all of us,” Hales said.
Hales, who grew up in London, said living in America has shown her how people of different demographics tend to live in silos and misunderstand the experiences of others around them.
There was “so much diversity outside my door,” Hales said of her childhood, “and these kids don’t have that.”
Historian Alison Rose Jefferson teaches lessons on Bruce’s Beach as the campers sit, play and eat on the land they learn about. Participants and volunteers also get to eat for free each session from local food trucks and vendors.
Cultural lessons come from the food too, Hales added, as organizers share the history of where each dish comes from.
But providing all of this isn’t easy, Hales said.
L.A. County Supervisors Janice Hahn and Holly Mitchell have been supporting the cause since the beginning, Hales said, but other than getting donations here and there, she pays for Culture Club out of pocket and struggles to find resources to keep it going.
“We barely cover costs,” Hales said. “We can’t pay coaches or staff, and it’s not sustainable; I can’t continue doing this” alone.
Her team, meanwhile, has stuck with her from the start, she added, and thankfully is as passionate as she is about the cause.
She said that an $150,000 annual operating budget would allow the camp to run in Manhattan Beach while the team starts up camp locations in other South Bay cities.
If even a third of the 35,000 people living in Manhattan Beach contributed to this community experience, said Hales, a real estate agent, “we would get there; we wouldn’t even have to rely on a grant.”
“We are getting support from the community,” she added, but “it’s few and far between.”
People don’t realize, she said, what it costs to keep the beach camp going and how important it is to keep the Bruce’s Beach legacy alive.
Manhattan Beach Mayor Joe Franklin is collecting donations from the community to replace all the program’s wet suits, he said, and likely provide some surf boards as well.
“Once we increase the awareness,” Franklin said, “We could more than likely get more donations as needed,” continuing to support the camp through future sessions.
Getting new wet suits for every camper, Hales added, would help with the turnaround of a two-day camp.
On top of the ask for more community support, Hales has also called out to the Manhattan Beach City Council to include the Culture Club South Bay in its planning for a city sponsored Juneteenth event this year.
Hales also wants to expand Culture Club locations to Redondo Beach and other coastal cities, and first extend the Manhattan Beach camp to full weekends, she said, to hopefully bring back past participants on Sundays.
Right now, she added, Culture Club only accepts new kids to the program each session to spread the experience as far as possible.
It’s important to Hales to have Black coaches on staff for surfing and other activities, she said, and an overall diverse team. All coaches are Red Cross certified, Hales said, and attendees get versed in water safety before going out into the ocean, with two people to every one kid on a board.
“It’s a collective effort,” Hales said. “It is our responsibility (as a community) if we have the means, to contribute to a program that solely serves the better good of their own youth in their own community, and youth who do not have access to what their youth (may) take for granted
It offers an experience some children may otherwise never have, Hales said.
“Some of these kids have never been in the water before,” she said.
Carson resident Julian Harvey was working near Bruce’s Beach for L.A. County Public Works while the camp was happening one day, he said, and had to find out more.
“It was different,” Harvey said of the moment he first witnessed Culture Club in action. “You don’t see people of color at the beach” at that volume; “it was pretty breathtaking to take in.”
Harvey soon after signed his now 13-year-old daughter, Journey, up for the program in 2021.
After just one session with the Culture Club, Journey returned a year later as a surf coach. Harvey grew up with a fear of water, he said, stemming from his mother’s — who is from the south — apprehensiveness about swimming in pools.
But he is changing that narrative for his own children, he said.
“I made a point that my kids’ experience the water and learn how to swim early on,” Harvey said
“Some parents are worried about (their children) swimming,” Hales said, “There’s a fear factor, it’s a cultural thing; if their friends don’t do it, it’s not in their family or they can’t walk down the road to do it,” certain activities can seem foreign and scary.
Journey Harvey was already a strong swimmer before joining the Culture Club, she said, but still initially was a little hesitant about getting on a surfboard in the ocean for the first time.
“I was scared of the water before,” Journey Harvey said. “When we went to the beach (as a family) we’d usually just walk into the waves and not (let the water) go above our knees.”
That has completely turned around, her father said, as she picked up surfing instantly and excelled at it.
“Now I can teach people in my family do stuff they’ve never done before,” Journey Harvey said, “like pop up on the wave or stay out of a rip current.”
More than that, she added, the new experiences help her develop as a person.
The Harveys found new family in the Culture Club and the world of opportunity the program opened his family up to, Julian Harvey said, calling the experience “inviting and family orientated.”
The family has since attended many surf events around the region, such as Huntington Beach’s annual Black surf gathering, A Great Day in the Stoke, her father said, and Journey competes in surf competitions.
When she tells people she surfs, Journey Harvey added, some people don’t believe it. But that doesn’t stop her confidence in herself, or her peers.
“I’m glad when I go to the beach I see more and more people that look like me out on the water,” Journey Harvey said, “I never associated Black people with surfing.”
That representation means a lot to her, she added, seeing more Black people now involved in a broader spectrum of sports than she’s seen in her young life.
“I can see more Black people like me in more competitions,” she said: Black surfers, skaters, soccer players, baseball players and so much more.
Journey Harvey’s older sister, Jaylin, meanwhile, was already out of the age range at the time, but still found a way to be involved with Culture Club by volunteering.
Making sure the camp runs smoothly from start to finish, “I’ve learned so much (and gained) leadership skills,” Jaylin Harvey, 16, said. “I have that hands-on experience registering people, getting the kids where they need to be. It showed me I can go for those high roles in a career –anything that I choose.”
She helps with check in, lunch, arts and crafts, breakdown, and even a bit with the history lessons.
“It wasn’t that long ago that this happened,” Jaylin Harvey said of the Bruces’ story. “We’ve tried to make it so these kids understand the severity of it, but also the hard work fighting for the rights of Black people on the beach.”
Los Angeles resident Katrina Mathews, signed two of her three daughters up for Culture Club sessions in 2021 and 2022 after finding out about the program on Instagram.
“The impact has been eye opening,” Mathews said.
Before spending time in the ocean with Culture Club, Mathews’ daughters — Journey, Andie and Blair Walok, ages 17, 13 and 11 — liked going to the beach, Mathews said, but it wasn’t something the family did regularly, since the sea isn’t right next door.
During their sessions, the girls have enjoyed playing volleyball, learning how to surf, the different food trucks, Mathews said. Journey, once too old to participate in the program, jumped at the opportunity to volunteer with the Culture Club.
Andie, meanwhile, found surfing made her feel more comfortable in water, something she was previously scared of, her mother said. She also got a boost in volleyball, which she plays in school.
“They offered her support and it taught her to be more comfortable playing,” Mathews said, and “gave her more confidence.”
The hands-on coaches in a new environment helped her blossom, Mathews added.
“Sometimes learning stuff with your peers at school, you’re more intimidated or shy,” she said, “But in another setting, more open to learn.”
Kids who show up on the first weekend shy, nervous, anxious, quiet and reserved, Hales said, “just come alive throughout weeks two, three and four.”
“They’re able to get up on a (surf) board,” Hales said, describing the kids’ growth over the camp days, “The smiles you see when they’re playing volleyball, they’re eating food they’ve never eaten before.
“It’s just joy,” Hales said. “There’s like this magical, joyful three to four hours where you see them expand, gaining courage.”
Learn more about the Culture Club South Bay, register your children to attend the camp and sign up to volunteer at cultureclubsouthbay.com.
