By Liam Macleod
This week all of our wonderful CIT’s met with SCOPE, an organization that provides children from under served communities with life changing opportunities through the experience of summer camp.
The cornerstone of SCOPE’s program is to provide camp scholarships to children from underserved communities to attend nonprofit, resident camps accredited by the American Camp Association.
This summer, IHC has once again partnered with SCOPE to help raise awareness and build connections to help them achieve their goal of providing over 750 camperships to eligible, deserving children. As we know, the lasting impact positive camp experiences have on children are life changing, our SCOPE supporters are making the difference.
Our CIT’s spoke for hours with Molly Hott Gallagher, the Executive Director of the organization to find out more about what SCOPE do and what they can do to help provide such a positive impact. They came up with some amazing suggestions on how to raise money and awareness, their ideas ranged from car washes to dance marathons.
What they also learnt was that each SCOPE campership in the Northeast is $1300 for 2 weeks of overnight camp, in the Midwest, southeast and southwest, SCOPE support is $500. Each summer based on SCOPE’s annual fundraising efforts, each camp is allocated a certain number of camperships.
Being in the summer camp business we know how much of an impact camp has on children, SCOPE understands this too. By sending someone to camp they have a gateway to nature, fresh air, access for healthy food options, exploratory activities, positive role models, friendship, creative outlets, development of leadership skills, independence in a safe environment, encouragement to step out of their comfort zone while receiving nurturing support and encouragement, and the list goes on and on.
Our very own Assistant Director Matty is really passionate about SCOPE, this year he felt so privileged to be the recipient of the SCOPE Leadership Award at their Benefit Dinner in April 2018. He helped raise over $8500 to help send 5 new campers to experience summer camp for the first time.
IHC is proud of this connection and we look forward to working closely with SCOPE for years to come.
