Every year, we tell campers and volunteers: whether this is your first year (or your 10th!), every summer, we are all brand new. There is never the same mix of volunteers, staff, weather conditions, virtual options, and millions of other details from one year to the next. We try to celebrate every year the new things, the “firsts” for people as they experience Camp Promise.
Jett Foundation’s Camp Promise 2021 season was full of new surprises, new faces, and trying new things for the first time! Here is just a small snapshot of the many “firsts” we experienced as a group this year:
- We held three virtual sessions divided by age group!
- Hosted fire performers virtually from Florida who juggled and breathed(!) fire!
- Lots of our campers told us it was their first time:
- Preparing a hot cocoa bomb (Amber, Mason, Reed!)
- Making slime (Aiden, Noah, and Julian!)
- Having our first camper from Hungary (Misko!)
- Visiting the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and the New England Aquarium in Boston! Campers were able to get a behind-the-scenes look at how animals are cared for and their habitats in and out of the aquarium (Will B!)
- Decorating maracas for Jungle Fever Day (Ben!)
- Creating tie dye t-shirts (Henry, Harrison and Beckham!)
- Lost a tooth while on Zoom (Calvin!)
- Watched E.T. on Zoom (Caeden and Will!)
Along with our “firsts,” Camp Promise also broke some new records with its virtual programs:
- 175 campers registered for virtual camp sessions! In 2020, we had 160 registrants.
- We were happy to have many NEW faces join us this year! 51% of registrants were joining us for the first time at Camp Promise.
- Served campers from 35 states (up from 26 states in 2020!) of all different ages. Our youngest campers were six years old; our oldest camper was 45 (yeah for Cheri! Second place goes to DJ!)
- Ordered 1,480 ounces (that’s 92.5 POUNDS) of scented slime activator and 875 ounces (55 POUNDS) of color-changing glue for our camp boxes!
- Wrapped up 525 bottles of tie dye for our t-shirts this year.
- Heard 371 dad jokes (it’s an estimate but we are still laughing about many of them!)
Family and friend events this summer and fall
As always, the 2021 Camp Promise season was fantastic, and we still are NOT done! We are coming to a city near you where we will host events that are designed to involve the whole family and bring our community together IN PERSON! While not our traditional camp sessions, we are excited to see all of you not through a Zoom screen!
Dates and times for upcoming in-person events are included below.
- August 21-22, 2021 – Colorado
- August 28-29, 2021 – Connecticut
- September 11-12, 2021 – Washington
- September 25, 2021 – Georgia
We are also hosting 18+ only day events in Ohio and Arizona!
Thank you to our sponsors!
Camp Promise is fortunate to have the support of several terrific partners that make it possible for us to continue to deliver virtual and in-person programming to hundreds of youth, adults and families across the country. This year, we want to say thank you to the Flatley Foundation, Sarepta Therapeutics, Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation, NS Pharma, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals for their generosity and helping to make Camp Promise possible.
Thank you to our campers and families!
We say it all the time but we look forward to seeing all of you every session. You make it interesting, fun, silly, exciting, sweet and special – thank you for joining us on computers and being a part of this special year in Camp Promise history. We look forward to seeing you all soon in person and in 2022!
