Send a Kid to Camp, Change a Life. Holly's Story of Hope Inside
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gratitudemarch 2014 ugm.ca Send a kid to camp, change a life. Holly's Story of Hope Inside We thank Tech Web Direct for donating resources to print this full colour newsletter. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. – Isaiah 55:12 I love the picture that this verse paints. Here at Union Gospel Mission, we just It makes me think of all the kids who finished celebrating our community will attend a local camp for the first at UGM’s annual Easter meal, and it time in their life this summer. For many couldn’t have been a better way to kick campers, that week will be their first off this warmer weather. I am so grateful chance to experience nature in a real, for your gifts, which made our Easter transformative way. I think of Liam, who feast possible. Whether it’s a meal that wrote us after a week at Camp Luther leads to so much more, or a week at camp last summer, saying, “Camp opened my that changes a life, your support makes a world!” For the first time, Liam’s heart lasting difference. Thank you. was aware of the beauty of creation. What a life-giving experience at such a As you read through this issue of formative stage in life. But while BC’s Gratitude, I encourage you to reflect on snow-capped mountains and evergreen your own childhood memories. Recall forests can provide a real peace, it’s often your early summers. What were they the relationships formed at camp that filled with? Did you attend camp or camp truly change individual lives. with your family? Did you play in creeks or take to the street for daily road hockey As you’ll see in Holly’s story, it was the tournaments with your neighbours? people that really made a difference. Sometimes, for some of the families we Camp was a place where she felt loved work with at UGM, life’s challenges get and accepted, giving her the necessary in the way of building care-free, positive confidence to pursue leadership and memories each summer. But with your education. Holly gained her confidence help, Union Gospel Mission aims to break because of the people who poured cycles of poverty, bringing the focus back into her—whether her bunkmates, her to making life-giving memories that each counsellors, or the donors that sent child can carry forever. her to camp. It is my deep hope that this summer, many of the families we Sincerely, work with at UGM will get a chance to give their own kids—kids like Holly and Liam—a life-changing adventure at William B. Mollard summer camp. union gospel mission 601 east hastings st. editor in chief: christian mah vancouver, bc, v6a 1j7 editor: blythe hutchcroft To change your mailing address, adjust your mailing preferences, or request a new tax receipt, coast salish territories manager: j stewart please send a note to [email protected], or call 604.253.3323. We’ll be happy to help. 604.253.3323 production coordinator: stephanie ovens ugm.ca design & layout: elizabeth ellis facebook.com/uniongospelmission twitter.com/ugm Kids often tell us that camp Send a kid to camp, truly does change lives. Here’s what Dion, Liam, change a life. Jacob, and Holly have to say about their time at camp: For over 60 years, Union Gospel Mission’s bighearted donors If I could thank the donor who sent have been giving kids in need the life-changing experience me to camp personally, I would thank that person a billion times for letting of summer camp. UGM works with 15 quality Christian me go to this amazing camp and I camps throughout BC, all of which are listed on page 5. would tell them how much this camp Kids can choose the camp they’d like to go to—maybe one has impacted my life so far. – Dion where they can try sailing, waterskiing, horseback riding, Camp opened my world. Thank or rock climbing—so no matter which camp they choose, you UGM!! – Liam their experience is unforgettable! I will never forget tubing with my mom. We were going so fast and we fell off. I went under the ocean and my mom pulled me back on. She said to me that this is like being in Titanic! I want to be a camp counsellor when I turn into a teenager. – Jacob Because UGM sent me to camp as a kid, I know what I want to do with my life. – Holly (Holly’s story on pages 4 & 5) you can send a kid to camp by donating at ugm.ca or by returning the enclosed reply slip today. You Filled Easter with Hope On April 19th, you gave families a chance to start fresh someone transforming their life. It might start with a meal, this spring. Because of generous donors and kindhearted but soon, guests gain the strength they need to work towards volunteers like you, we were able to serve over 2,500 meals building a better life. Whether this means applying for A&D to men, women, and families at Union Gospel Mission’s Recovery, checking out our Emergency Shelter, or learning Vancouver and New Westminster locations. more about our Women & Families services, Easter is often the starting point for someone engaging with UGM’s Every Easter, our Outreach Workers meet community life-changing programs and services. members they’ve never seen before. And every year, it’s a chance to offer relationship and community to someone who might be lonely and in need. Check out our Easter recap video at ugm.ca/videos/easter2014 The connections our guests make at Easter often lead to Holly’s future is bright. Speaking with quiet assurance, she acknowledges that much of who she is today was sparked by a single week at camp, a week that guided her onto the path she’s on now. “I can be, er, enthusiastic,” Holly admits. “But I don’t use words like ‘changed my life’ lightly. And going to camp as a kid really did change my life.” Holly grew up in UGM’s family housing complex in When she speaks about her summers at Qwanoes, Holly Surrey. “Growing up in The Orchard was any kid’s dream,” lights up. This isn’t unusual. Holly’s effervescent personality she explains. “In the summer the other kids would come tends to shine through most of her words. But when she knocking on your door and we’d go play a huge game of Foxes mentions camp, she speaks with the deep nostalgia of and Hounds. The Orchard felt like a neighbourhood, like someone telling her own small origin story. “I remember community.” She continues to speak about her roots with the first day so well. The busses drop you off above a field, humble gratitude. “I had a great childhood. My mom was my which trails down past the dining hall to the ocean. The best friend, and still is to this day. Growing up, I did recognize counsellors made a tunnel for the kids to run through, into a that I was missing a dad but my mother did so much to fill it sea of streamers. That was my favourite feeling. Every time in that, to be honest, I didn’t really notice.” I would arrive at camp, I’d think, I’m so happy to be home.” Holly and her mother have a multi-faceted relationship While Holly has fond childhood memories, she admits that with Union Gospel Mission.“It’s funny. UGM entered my growing up in a world that's filled with brokenness isn’t life in very different ways and in different places,” she says, always easy. “For much of my life, I was bullied or left out a thoughtfully. “My mom started working at UGM when I was lot,” Holly says. It’s hard to believe that this confident, young five, helping to manage the thrift store. But I heard about woman ever felt unsure of herself. “Camp changed that. I camp sponsorships through the daycare that I was going to.” could be me at camp and still be loved. That was a big thing Through UGM’s camp partnership program, Holly’s daycare for me—knowing that I would be loved, totally accepted, and was able to choose three kids to send to Camp Qwanoes that valued. I really felt that people knew me there. They knew me summer. “And I was one of them,” she grins. as me and they still loved me.” Impacted by her week at camp, Holly returned to The Orchard to tell all the other kids about it. “I was the first kid from The Orchard to go to Qwanoes,” she says. “I spoke about it so highly for so many years.” Soon after, UGM started sponsoring other kids at The Orchard. “One year, my best friend got to come with me. And she loved it. So her sister started going—then her sister took her best friends. It’s been so cool to see this transformation carry on through the Orchard generations.” Camp impacted Holly’s sense of identity so much that she decided she wanted to give back. Holly started counselling at Qwanoes in 2009, pouring into girls’ lives—many of whom faced similar struggles that young Holly had grappled with herself.