BALTIMORE — A Baltimore comedian has turned his passion for laughs into a free summer program that's making a difference in children's lives.
WATCH: Baltimore comedian's summer program helps kids build confidence through arts
The Lil Laughs summer program celebrated its fifth anniversary Tuesday with a special performance showcasing the campers' talents.
Fred Watkins Jr., known as Comedian Big Fred, created the Lil Laughs program in 2018.
For the past five years, the organization has been hosting a free camp for children during the summer.
"I was involved in some community programs, summer camps, and at the school programs, and good people—emphasis on good people—in those programs that became mentors for me. It changed my life, and I know that in such a way that I always knew no matter what I did, I would create like a youth component," Watkins said.
Tuesday was the celebration and official showcase for the children who performed everything from dancing and drawing to sports, spoken word, and even cheerleading, while their parents sat in the crowd cheering them on.
"This program is really impact for her because my daughter wants to be an actress. She wants to sing, she wants to dance," Larry Caudle said.
But the summer camp is about more than just fun. It also serves as an anti-bullying initiative.
"We work with the youth, but at the same time it's an anti-bullying campaign, and the way we do that is really organic, uh, just fueled from the inside-out approach, building confidence, building self-awareness, emphasizing self-love and affirmations, but also providing de-escalation methods, communication, healthy communication methods," Watkins said.
The program also focuses on helping campers build confidence.
"I mean programs like this build self-esteem it build character, right? And once again, right, we talked about the bullying situation, right? So like it also gives you a voice, right? A lot of these kids, I can remember the first day when they walked in, they was walking slow, you know, 2nd week they they run to the door. 3rd week they don't wanna leave," Larry Caudle, a parent, said.
Since Lil Laughs is a free summer program for families, the organization is hosting an adult comedy show in August as a fundraiser to keep the program going.
"For us to continue to do that, we need support. We've never had an open fundraising, um, campaign, you know, just a little laugh center; we never had a straight-up fundraiser event. So this is our event," Watkins said.
The Lil Laughs adults-only comedy show fundraiser to support the future of this program is on August 21 at 8 p.m.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
