Carolina Creek is a faith based camp in Huntsville, TX (just over an hour away from where we live). The camp was originally started to serve the inner city population of Houston. According to their website, "in 2002...Houston was one of the most underserved metropolitan areas in the United States for Christian camping." Because of this, 20% of all campers must come from urban and inner city communities through their scholarship program.
To me, summer camps have always been sort of a "pretentious" thing that only the "rich kids" got to go to every summer. They are not cheap by any means, and even after paying for the fees, the cost of buying the "stuff" they need throughout the week can add up quickly. I love that Carolina Creek gives children who would otherwise not be able to afford camp an opportunity to attend. It is so important to me that my children grow up amongst and immersed with children from all backgrounds. My hope is that they grow up with an expansive worldview outside of our comfortable middle class life.
Dannika is at the age where she is beginning to notice "social classes" within her circles. She knows which kids have parents that make a lot more money than we do, and she knows which kids are struggling to buy lunch at school. We have had really great and in depth conversations about what "privilege" means. Everything from her privilege being from a family with two parents, a middle class family, owning our own home, being able to afford to go to camp every summer, the clothes she wears...even her "white privilege". Basically it came down to..."Hey kid, your dad is a Marine. It's a very honorable job that requires you to sacrifice too. He will always be able to provide for you, and will give you a life better than his. But, we'll never be rich." And she is ok with that.
This is why we love to send her to Carolina Creek every summer. She's not there with a group of campers who are all from middle to high class families (like you would find at most overnight summer camps). She is there with kids from all backgrounds and walks of life. That is such a core principle of what the bible teaches...that we are ALL His children, and he loves ALL of us equally. She comes home every year with such a fresh renewal of her faith. I love that her counselors nurture and pour into her for the whole week as they show her and teach her what it means to "live like Jesus" and "love like Jesus". We love it so much, that we have plans to continue to send her back every summer to Texas just for camp!
This is the first year that I've had to take Dannika to camp alone.
Usually Nick is around to do all the heavy lifting for me.
Not gonna lie, getting this heavy trunk out of my house into my car was quite the feat!
It's always a good day when you're assigned the top bunk!
The last two years she has been in the giraffe cabin.
This year, she moved up to the tiger cabin!
Aren't these cabins so cool?!
This entire camp was actually designed by a former Disney architect!
The Camp updates their website daily with pictures of our campers.
I literally go through hundreds of photos to get a glimpse of my sweet camper!
And of course, out of a gazillion photos, this was the only one I got of her!
Sweet brother is pretty bored without his big sister around.
We've been trying to make the most of our special time together.
We spent hours at the neighborhood pool today playing "sharks and minnows"....or "shark and minnow" lol.
We had the pool ALL to ourselves for the majority of our time there!
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