LIVE OAK, Fla. — The now-Suwannee Spirit Kids Music Camp changed Charley Dame’s life 13 years ago.

Dame, who owns a wood shop at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park’s craft village, was convinced to teach a class at the camp in 2005.

That mandolin class consisted of six students, including three that had never played an instrument before.

Dame, who is now the director of the camp, wasn’t initially sold on the idea.

“What happened with me was I felt I was getting roped in years ago,” he said Sunday following the conclusion on another camp’s concert about that initial class. “In that first hour, we’re playing a song together.

“I haven’t been the same since.”

The camp, which started in 2003 and is now held four times a year, has that affect on people.

“I saw that group of kids grow up and some of them became good musicians, some of them didn’t,” Dame added. “All of them got a benefit from being here and taking part in that interaction.

“Over the time, we’ve seen so many kids blossom into incredible human beings along with being great, great musicians as well.”

The camp also allows some of those musicians the opportunity to become the teachers as well.

In the drum class, instructor Jason (Stymie) Rossignol allowed 15-year-old student Ronan Daar to help guide and direct.

Daar, from Lake City, has been attending the camp for 10 years.

“When I was 5, my mom signed me up for guitar,” Daar said. “I kind of ran into drum class not knowing where I was.”

He hasn’t left since, saying his favorite part of the camp and the class is “that it’s drums.”

Rossignol also gets a benefit out of the camp, which he has helped with for 10 years now.

“I don’t get, the best way to put it, is I don’t have the opportunity to drum in the outside drumming community,” Rossignol said, adding when he worked at the Music Park he played quite often but now has kids and a job that make it more difficult.

“It’s made me a better drummer. (Because otherwise) I don’t get to play.”

And while he gets to play during the three class sessions during the two-day camp, Rossignol also lets the advanced students like Daar take some of the lead.

He said through his experience, it makes the class more enjoyable for the students.

“It’s a low pressure class,” he said. “If you want to be all in it, that’s fine. If you want to sit back, that’s fine. If you want to just sit on the drum and enjoy the aesthetics, that’s fine too.

“I tried to change the class again and again, and it just doesn’t work well. So I went back to the old class of ‘On your mark, get set, drum.’”

And that freedom to play and get the students involved in the instruction is what Dame said is the vision for the camp itself, which had around 100 students attend Saturday and Sunday.

“That’s exactly the goal,” he said. “That’s what we’ve been trying to do all along. Because kids learn from other kids better than they learn from adults.

“We have adults there to kind of back up what the kid says, but if you have a kid telling another kid something, it’s the gospel.”