LEWISTON — Wearing matching “Tree Street Youth” shirts, director Julia Sleeper led inner-city summer campers in a nonsense song and dance Thursday that got them shaking, moving and laughing.

“I said, ‘Boom-boom-chick-a-boom,’” Sleeper said with the energy and style of a Bronx rapper.

“I said boom-boom-chick-a-boom,” her campers repeated.

“Unh-hunh, oh yeah, one more time!” Sleeper led.

“Unh-hunh, oh yeah, one more time!” the campers followed.

Sleeper was a hit. The second- to fifth-graders followed her lead, cheering, dancing and watching her with bright eyes and smiles.

Welcome to the first year of Tree Street Youth summer camp for inner-city kids. It was started by Sleeper, 25, a Brewer native who graduated from Bates College in 2008 and stayed in Lewiston to help disadvantaged children.

Four Bates College interns teach literacy, recreation, art and “hodgepodge” (games or cooking) classes at Tree Street. They’re paid stipends by Bates.

Thanks to a Maine Community Foundation grant, another 10 downtown high school students, called “street leaders,” are paid stipends to be counselors.

“Their job is 24/7,” Sleeper said of the teens, who live in the “tree streets” in downtown area: Birch, Pine, Walnut.

“No matter where they are, they’re always representing and teaching children in the community how to behave, how to stay in school and be successful in their lives,” Sleeper said.

The five-week summer program that runs through Aug. 12 includes two parts.

From 9 to 2:30, it offers structured play and classes for students in grades 2-5. From 2:30 to 4:30, Tree Street is a drop-in center for high school students who can take part in games, sports, dance and art. About 160 students participate each day.

The summer camp’s budget is about $20,000, raised from donations, plus grants from Trinity Church, Bates College and the Maine Community Foundation. The biggest cost is the $5,000 a month rent and utilities for the Birch Street building, which used to house Sandcastles Preschool. If enough money is raised, Sleeper hopes to offer an after-school youth center in the fall.

The Rev. Steven Crowson of Trinity Church said his downtown church agreed to be the fiscal sponsor of Tree Street Youth, calling it a “wonderful program.”

“It’s such a testimony to the energy and imagination of young people” Crowson said. “The church is so happy to be a part of it.”

Sleeper, who has run an after-school program at Trinity’s Jubilee Center, and Bates student Kim Sullivan, began planning the summer camp last winter, when they began worrying about students with nothing to do during the long summer.

For years, the Libra Foundation offered Lewiston students scholarships for summer camp. That funding stopped last year.

“I was having nightmares in February” about what bored students would be doing, Sleeper said. “We want them out, exercising. We want them busy, having a good time and making good choices.”

At Tree Street Youth, young people are taught about things like crossing the street using the sidewalk, raising their hands if they have a question, respecting others, and paying attention when a counselor or teacher is talking.

“It’s not like school, but it is keeping them on a schedule, making sure they get breakfast and lunch each day,” Sleeper said.

Campers say they’re happy to be there.

“At home, I’d be bored,” Hawa Hassan, 10, said in art class. “I’d watch TV all day long and do nothing. I like it here.”

Casyandra Cole, 9, agreed. “Here, kids can make good choices, not bad choices,” she said.

In literacy class, Chyanne Smith, 10, said she likes to participate in karate, basketball and dance. Sulekh Abdow and Ahado Abdirahman said they’d be bored at home. “If I wasn’t in this program, I’d be so lazy” and might forget things she learned in school, Abdirahman said. “This helps me catch up.”

In literacy class, Bates intern Alyse Bigger drilled students on parts of speech. Bigger dictated the sentence: “Three tall men were painting the garage.” Twelve students quietly wrote the sentence and identified the noun and verb.

University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College Professor Betty Robinson watched like a proud parent.

Robinson said she was Sleeper’s thesis adviser last semester as Sleeper worked on her master’s degree. Sleeper told Robinson about her plans to create a summer camp.

“She said, ‘I found this great place. I just have to find the money. I have to get the people,’” Robinson recalled. “And here it is. I’m so impressed.”

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To find out more about Tree Street Youth, go to tree-street-youth.org

Email: [email protected], or call 577-6386.

The program is free to students who qualify. To qualify for the day program, a student must be in grades 2-5, enrolled for free or reduced hot lunch at school, and be able to walk or get a ride to the program. A few spots are still available.

There is more room in the afternoon drop-in program for middle- and high-schoolers.

A few organizations that have donated to Tree Street Youth include St. Mary’s Health Center, Dempsey Center, Healthy Androscoggin, the Lewiston Islamic Center, the Lewiston Police Athletic League, L/A Arts, Maine Immigrant Public Health, Pine Tree Trading, the Somali Bantu Youth Association and Sylvan Tutoring.

Donations such as pencils, pens, tables, basketballs, art supplies, paper towels, garden tools and office furniture are being sought, as are child sponsorships for $100.