The morning after getting home from Royal Family Kids’ Camp in 2005, I woke up so see Adrian’s rock sitting on the table. The idea just gnawed at me that we needed a summer camp for the teen foster children. I just had absolutely no idea what that would look like.
I thought to myself….I can’t be the first person to think about a teen camp for these foster kids. There has to be someone else out there who has thought of this. So, I searched Google and found an organization in Oregon with information about camps for teen foster youth. I clicked the link and arrived at their website.
Instantly, I knew this wasn’t a coincidence. The organization was called Hope Unlimited and at the top of their website was the bible verse Jeremiah 29:11. Yes – hope and a future for these foster youth!
I read through the website and how they had developed a teen camp for the Royal Family graduates. THIS WAS PERFECT! So, I called the number and Serena Howell answered. I didn’t get too far into the call and Serena let me know her and her husband, Tim, were going for an after dinner walk and they would call me back later. We hung up and I anxiously waited for the return cqll. About an hour later Serena called me and shared all about Teen Reach Adventure Camp, how they had attended Royal Family in the past and they too had a vision to launch teen camps for the older foster kids. Did I already mention this was perfect!!!
Serena mentioned they had hosted 5 years of teen camps already and were just getting prepared to train others to be camp directors so more camps could be launched. Wow!
And the training was in one week. Uh oh.
Training in a week. Ugh. I wasn’t available to attend with a planned vacation in Hawaii already on the books. Serena encouraged me to send somebody else and I wondered….who could go?
I got off the phone with Serena and immediately called Kelli Freeman. I told Kelli all about the camp and training and that she should go! Kelli quickly shot down the idea to me – “No – I am not a camp director!”
So, I bargained with Kelli: “You don’t have to be the camp director. Just attend and see what they are doing exactly. Learn and see if this is something we can actually do here in Arizona. Just go and check out it.”
And with that, we cobbled up enough money for a flight, hotel and training fees. And Kelli was off to director’s training the next week in Portland, Oregon.
While Kelli was at training, she made it perfectly clear to everyone: “I’m not going to be the camp director. I’m just here to check out what you are doing. But I’m not the camp director!”
God had other plans.
Training was at the home of Tim & Serena Howell with an actual camp taking place in their backyard that ran into the forest behind their home So, while she learned about T.R.A.C., Kelli also got to see an actual camp in action. With bible teaching, I-Spy awards, talent show, and the camper award ceremony.
But the biggest impact on Kelli was for her to see the teens and volunteers engage in what’s called the challenge course. The challenge course is an activity where trust, communication and teamwork are all developed at camp. Relationships and trust are formed.
While I was standing on the beach in Hawaii, Kelli calls me. She just returned from Portland and was so excited. She told me all about the camp and the challenge course and she was just bubbling over with enthusiasm. She said, “Michael – we absolutely can host camp! We can do this in Arizona. We need to do this for the kids. I will be the camp director!!!!” God put it on her heart that she could do this.
I reminded Kelli that we had only filed for our IRS approval 6 weeks earlier, so we wouldn’t be able to do anything until we were approved. We anticipated that would be sometime during the summer of 2006 and we were only in August of 2005. So as excited as she was, we still had a lot of waiting to do.
Two days later, I returned home from Hawaii and in the mailbox, there it was – a letter from the IRS.
I opened the IRS letter and they wanted to talk to me. So, I called the IRS and they asked me to clarify an item on the application. After talking with the IRS agent, the agent told me that we would probably be approved and the official determination letter would arrive shortly in the mail.
It would all soon be official: Hope & A Future would be an official nonprofit and we were ready with Kelli to be our camp director!
All the pieces were falling into place…and quickly too!
Michael Brewer, President
Hope & A Future