The California State University, Stanislaus campus will be brimming with health and fitness this summer, as hundreds of girls between the ages of 8 and 18 learn the lifetime skills to help them lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Camp California Fitness, based in Turlock, will cover several different-length sessions, ranging from two to eight weeks, between June 19 and Aug. 14

Participants, who are expected from as far away as Australia, will stay in the CSUS dorms, and attend classes and workshops throughout their stay.

Each session will be limited to 100 girls, which is one of the benefits of the camp, according to Shawna Rocha, CCF administrative director.

“It’s a small, informal-type atmosphere,” she said.

There are no prerequisites for camp attendance, she added. Girls wishing to lose any amount of weight, or learn lifetime fitness skills, can attend the camp, where they’ll take classes in nutrition, fitness and behavior modification, as well as undergo personal counseling sessions.

According to Rocha, there’s a big need for this type of fitness camp for girls.

“There’s been an alarming increase in childhood obesity,” she said. “People don’t know how to teach their kids how to live healthy.”

Physicians are also seeing an increase in the number of young people who are developing juvenile diabetes, she said, which can be caused by overweight.

The fitness classes offered at the camp will include aerobics, body sculpting, water aerobics, kickboxing and Pilates.

Each day of the camp will begin with breakfast at 8 a.m., and end with bedtime at 9 p.m.

The days will include five hours of physical activity, three hours of classroom instruction and nightly activities such as a scavenger hunt, movies or karaoke. There will also be organized field trips one a week.

“The girls will make permanent lifelong changes,” said Rocha.

The concept behind CCF took a year and a half to develop, and is being run under the auspices of the father-and-sons team of Drs. Sam Romeo Sr., Sam Romeo and Mike Romeo. Other members of the CCF team include Dr. Chris Hawley, dietitian Bryn Garrzelli and health and fitness administrative director Mellisa Faust.

As the younger population becomes more obese, juvenile diabetes and other medical conditions, such as elevated cholesterol and arthritis, begin to manifest themselves, according to Dr. Mike Romeo, “because they’re carrying around more weight.”

According to Dr. Sam Romeo Sr., chief executive officer and president of CCF, obesity is now becoming recognized as a major health problem among young people, especially as it can lead to other, more serious conditions.

“The challenge is that you can’t take a pill to correct it,” he said.

But the tendency for a child to become obese is not genetic, he said, it’s environmental, meaning that the wrong eating and exercise habits are being learned at home.

“Someone has to break the cycle,” he said of the CCF concept.

During the camp, girls will “definitely lose weight,” say organizers. They’ll also become armed with the knowledge of how to make better choices when it comes to a healthy lifestyle, which will include exercise and proper nutrition.

These will “make a significant impact on their health and weight,” said Dr. Sam Romeo Sr.

According to Dr. Mike Romeo, the camp will also address the psychological factors involved in being overweight, and will allow participants to modify their behavior for the rest of their lives.

Today’s culture is based on food as a way to celebrate or reward good behavior, he explained. “It gives you a positive feeling,” he said.

If people are not feeling good about themselves, and have a poor self image, they will turn to food as a way to make them feel better.

“They feel comfort, and we try to give insight into that so they will turn to other things that are healthy choices,” he said.

According to Faust, who will help coordinate the fitness classes, the girls will become “more confident with higher self esteem.”

“They will go back to school with bigger goals,” she said.

Attending the camp will provide “more of a jump start” to a healthier lifestyle, said Dr. Mike Romeo, and will allow the girls to take what they have learned and make it part of their families’ daily lives.

The staff at the first CCF in Turlock will include 35 professionals in the areas of medicine, nutrition and counseling. The girls will be supervised 24 hours a day and will sleep in the college dorms.

The camp is the only one of its kind in Northern California and a first for the Central Valley, according to Dr. Sam Romeo Sr.

“It’s oriented to kids,” he said. “I believe that there’s an opportunity for this because of the epidemic (of obesity).”