To Move Forward Together, Give Back. — A Story About Community.

By Liam Macleod

This blog recognizes all the front line and essential workers in Wayne County Pennsylvania (and around the world!) . We want to let you know that you inspire us. Each and every day you continue to be a beacon of light and hope in these uncertain times. Thank you for your continued commitment to keep us safe and healthy!

We are so grateful.

#CampsDoGood

We’ve heard it for months now, we are living in uncertain times.

Only a few short months ago, we were celebrating our Winter Holidays with friends and families, in bars & restaurants, in homes and on vacations, all around the world. Each and every one one of us, filled with hope that the 2020 New Year will be full of new dreams and beautiful chapters.

Very few people would have predicted that just a few months later the global economy and general life as we know it, would almost come to a standstill overnight.

As we all know, an invisible pathogen challenged humans to a fight. A pathogen that doesn’t care about your economic status, your race, your ethnicity, your religion, your gender or perhaps even age. A pathogen that attacks sports stars, movie actors, famous musicians, police officers, school teachers, parents and children.

For many of us, COVID-19 will hopefully be the biggest struggle we face in our lifetime.

But although times are uncertain, there is one thing that is certain… during tough times like the one we are currently facing, human beings have a wonderful capacity to band together and achieve great things.

Over the last few weeks, the Camp IHC team has been encouraged and inspired by the stories we have heard through news outlets, through our community and on social media. Stories about companies giving up their time to make masks & ventilators, stories about retired nurses and doctors coming back to the front lines, balconies around the world singing songs together to feel connected, isolated residents clapping together across cities as their front line workers make their commute, the stories are endless. Each story drives an important message to the unequivocal fact that we’re all in this together.

To bring this sentiment even closer to home, our own IHC community adopted the phrase “Stay Home, So We Can Go Home”. Our very own campers are helping to spread a message about staying safe. Alongside the Camp IHC tags on social media, we’ve received an overwhelming number of emails from people sharing their camp stories and the appreciation for the summer experience.

As a summer camp, our values and mission are built around dedication to human development and it fills our cup up to see so many wonderful acts of kindness, generosity, empathy, selflessness and love. Kindness is universal, an act that requires no charge and available to everyone. Being kind to others can help to open their eyes and hearts more to the good in the world around them and encourage them to do the same.

Outside of our own IHC community, in our extended summer camp world, we have also been inspired by so many summer camps working together in these trying times. It’s great to see so many of them doing what they can to help their local communities and beyond. Every camp wants to open their gates this summer, but with no crystal ball into the future, they have pushed those thoughts aside for now to focus on what they can do in the here and now. Supporting others through giving back.

Our own leadership team has been relentless in generating ideas for how we ourselves can make a difference during this dark time. As we sat talking around the campfire, the words ‘giving back’ and ‘recognizing’ became the buzzwords. We agreed to work on a project that recognized the front line workers of our local communities and give back to them in a meaningful, thoughtful way. We want them to know that we see them, we value them and are so grateful for them.

The next day we spoke to our friends at Moka Origins to see if they wanted to collaborate together on the project. The Moka Team are our favorite coffee and chocolate people in the world. Their mission is to make a difference in rural communities and to have a positive impact on others, in many ways their values and mission aligns with ours. They wonderfully agreed to come on board with the project. Together, we would create a chocolate care package for the people who are taking care of everyone. Everyone loves chocolate after all!

Back at camp, we opened up our arts & crafts department and got our hands on 400 canvas bags. Our team (who have all safely quarantined for the last 4 weeks at camp) banded together to get our hands messy! Creating stencils of our camp logos to spray paint onto the bags and using a hot t-shirt press to put camp stickers onto them too.

Although it’s only April, it felt amazing to feel like it was just another summer day at camp, but more importantly it felt even better to be making something for others.

To all of us, at our camp, it was a positive reminder that the fight against COVID is bigger than summer camp.

Once the bags were crafted and the paint dry, we delivered the bags to Moka HQ at the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale. To see our friends at Moka and have to social distance with no warm hug as a greeting, was an experience we’re still getting used to.

Once we had dropped the bags at Moka HQ, their team took over. They filled the bags with bars of their incredible chocolate and a little note inside that read

“Thank you being a shining light during this dark time”

A small but positive affirmation to those who continue to risk their lives for us.

Once Moka had bundled the bags, they dropped them off to the team at Wayne Memorial Hospital to enjoy, to the local police and fire department and other essential workers in the Wayne County area.

For many, it may just be a bar of chocolate to enjoy with a smile over lunch, to others it may help fuel their fight on the front line. To us, it gave us a purpose and a chance to help.

We’re staying at home. We want nothing more than to go home. We want to welcome our community home. Most of all, we want people to be safe, healthy and happy.

So let’s continue to help others and together, we will make it.

“No-one has ever become poor by giving”

Stay safe & healthy.

Lauren, Joel, and the rest of the IHC Leadership team.

Thank you Camp Starlight for the #CampsDoGood nomination, we nominate our friends at Camp Echo Lake!

Next week, Camp IHC will partner with the Cooperage Project. We’ll be cooking and preparing dinner for 150 families, stay tuned for more details.