Thanks to Sally for collating these replies for everybody's benefit and to all who responded. Much appreciated.

Hello,
Thank you all for your suggestions and best wishes. I have attached everyone's ideas so that you may read over them. Hopefully you will find something useful for your own program.

As for Jumonville — we have formed a collaborative with several local social service agencies, the local school district and a science museum. Together we are combining resources and expertise and will seek funding as a group. We are looking to develop year-round after-school programming that will include a strong summer camping component. We are in conversation with a local community foundation that we hope will serve as a pass-through organization for funding and help us approach others for contributions.

God bless your work and thanks again.
Sally Tarhi

Replies

We have been quite successful at working with various county social service departments to send kids that they serve to camp. We usually offer them a discount and the county pays the rest. Hope this helps.
Grace and Peace,
Jack

Rev. Jack Shitama
Director of Camping & Retreat Ministries
Drayton Retreat Center/Camp Pecometh

Given that you, like we, are UM, the first places I would go to are the local and district UMW units. We have had great support for campers from the women of our area (seven counties in the NW corner of Ohio). Since children's advocacy is a theme in the UMW, it's a good fit.

United Way is also a place to look. The YMCA here in our county got funding from UW to send 80 kids to camp this year. Given the scope of these children you serve, I think that might be a good option as well. If the United Way can't help, maybe they can refer you to another agency that can.

Blessings as you serve God,
Jeff (+ Valli) Ridenour

In the North Carolina Conference, there are "camperships" available in partnership with United Methodist churches. We work in partnership with them to help children with financial difficulties come to camp. In addition, there are groups who are willing to help raise funds for these children, but you would most likely have to do research in your area. These would be local agencies, not national ones.

At Don Lee, we have special-needs camps for some children, and these are in partnership with Pitt Memorial Hospital. They include camps for children with cancer, sickle cell anemia, and acute asthma. We are currently looking for corporate partnerships for a series of retreats for children with AIDS. How far that will go, I don't know. Since we have spring and fall field trip groups come to visit us, we are also looking for grant funding for public school children to come here for overnight field trips. As you can tell, none of these are government funding, and they do involve a lot of time to work out creatively. You may want to ask our director, John Farmer, for more details. He set up the special-needs camps and they are quite successful. His e-mail is John@donleecenter.org.

There are a lot of good fundraising resources out there. I know that Camp Glisson has a development person out there too. (There aren't a lot of us!) Charity Channel (www.charitychannel.com), Chronicle of Philanthropy (www.philanthropy.com), and an absolute wonder locally Judy Hills (I pray you have one) who is a grants funding coordinator for a 6-county area (yes, that's all she does — lets people know how they can get grant funding) are all good resources. Also, local companies who have a statewide (particularly urban) market would be good approaches.

Good Luck!
Barb

Barbara Adair Krcmar
Development Coordinator
Don Lee Center

We have several campers who are at risk and low income. In Iowa our conference helps fund through apportionments — Camperships for these children. We have plenty of people that give money to this directly also. I encourage our staff to collect pop cans or give tithe money to this fund. We even pass around baskets at the closing program for this campership fund, stating that is a free will offering and all of the money will go to help someone who couldn't afford to come to camp to be able to come.

The other thing is we have a week of JOY camp that is specifically for at-risk youth who are mostly low income. We have a clergyperson named Peggy Egbert (her position is funded by Global Board of Ministries) who is head of a volunteer group called MUMMS (Mobile United Methodist Missions). Sometimes they have gotten funding from various places, but I don't know where specifically. Sorry it isn't a lot of help.

Dawn Wright, Site Director
Golden Valley Camp & Retreat Center

I would look to the local churches for scholarship money instead of government. In the past the Presbytery in our city, Charlotte, NC, has funded these children through the local individual Presbyterian churches ... Perhaps this groups could share in an campaign to present to local churches?
Kirk Bleavins

I saw this posted and thought I would pass this on to you. If any of the children come from homes with a parent who is prison, Prison Fellowship Ministries will subsidize that child’s fee for camp and provide other resources. This obviously does not cover all or even most at-risk children, but you might be surprised and saddened by the actual number.The program is called Angel Tree Camping and is an off-shoot of their Angel Tree Christmas program through which churches provide Christmas gifts for children of inmates. Anyone who wants more information can go to their website or e-mail them directly at angeltreecamping@pfm.org. I would also be glad to respond to any inquiries about working with at-risk campers or the Angel Tree Camping program.

Pax
Curt Ashburn
Camp Oak Hill

Posted 3-17-03.

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