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Report: Kids Paid With Taxpayer Funds To Attend Camp

COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, Ill. (CBS) -- Youth camp for the elite in Country Club Hills costs the community more than it's worth.

As WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports, the camp is called the Summer Explorer Youth Program, created according to the SouthtownStar, by a group of aldermen who blasted Mayor Dwight Welch and City Manager Henrietta Turner for spending $75,000 on restaurant bills last year.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports

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The camp, the newspaper reports, was created in secret at a cost of more than $50,000, and instead of paying a fee to attend, the participants are paid $1,000 each by Country Club Hills taxpayers to go to the camp.

Critics say there was no open enrollment, and the camp was intended for the children of aldermen and the politically connected, the SouthtownStar reported.

The kids had gone to a ball game and colleges, and had taken classes on etiquette, anti-bullying and peer pressure, the newspaper reported.

The mayor said the camp was not very well thought out, and was unfair to the general population of the southern suburb, the SouthtownStar reported. The 34 children in the program were paid Thursday.

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