Camps Helping Camps - Camps Helping Camps - Brief Article

Is your camp lost-and-found bin full? Are you updating your camp’s equipment?

Camps Helping Camps can help. Camp Helping Camps is a new, nonprofit public benefit corporation for charitable purposes to provide assistance to camps for underprivileged and homeless children through donations of new and used goods. Camps Helping Camps was founded by a group of camp professionals during a Camp Counselors USA camp fair in Prague, Czech Republic. It quickly became evident to the group, which included private independent camps and camps serving New York City’s homeless children, that camps that serve children from the inner city are in dire need of resources — resources other camps could supply. Many inner city children arrive at the camp bus with little more than a plastic bag with a change of clothes for the next day. The clothing list that is often seen as the essentials for a summer at camp is impossible for many inner city and homeless families to fulfill. The clothing from your lost-and-found bin can go a long way toward enriching the summer for many children at these camps.

How your camp can help

At the heart of Camps Helping Camps are camp directors and camps, just like you, who are willing to share their extra resources with those camps that would truly benefit from their help. The organization will arrange for pick up and transportation to a camp in need and welcomes donations of:

* Equipment and supplies in good working condition that would otherwise be discarded

* Gently worn or used clothing left behind at the conclusion of your camping season

Camps Helping Camps is a nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization. All donations are considered charitable under IRS code and are eligible to receive a gift letter from Camps Helping Camps for submission to the IRS for tax deduction purposes. Members of the board of directors include:

* Sam Borek, Camp Laurel, Maine

* Michael Fried, Camp Agawak, Wisconsin

* Bill Harwood, Camp Counselors USA, California

* Helene Klaus, Camp Perlman, Pennsylvania

* Tom Troche, KenMont and KenWood Camps, Connecticut

To make a donation of clothes or other equipment, please write to 2330 Marinship Way, Suite 250, Sausalito, California 94965; fax 415-339-2744; or e-mail campshelpingcamps@campcounselors.com.

COPYRIGHT 2001 American Camping Association
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group

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