Operation Thank You

Share the camp experience with children whose parents or caregivers are serving in the U.S. military. If you have extra room at your camp, why settle for less when you can do more? Consider offering that space to a camper in need. The U.S. Department of Defense is collaborating with camps around the nation to provide camperships for children who are impacted by the war.

For one military family whose child recently attended a camp through this special campership program, the experience was a life-changing event, and the gratitude the family had toward the camp was inspiring: "Our son attended your camp through Operation Purple. He came home and gave us such a wonderful, fantastic, and awesome report of his time at your camp. He has faced so many difficulties growing up," says a camper mom. "He doesn't have any friends here in our neighborhood, but now he proudly states that he has many at your camp.  From a mother's heart, I can't express to you how thankful I am that you participated in Operation Purple. I know it was a way to say 'thank you' to our troops, but at this time in my child's life . . .you deserve to be thanked for a life-changing experience that you gave our son . . . ."

According to Janice Witte, director, Office of Children and Youth, U.S. Department of Defense, camps can simply send an e-mail to her attention at Janice.witte@osd.mil detailing the following information, and she will direct a liaison to work with the camp and a local Guard/Reserve office:

• validate the number of camperships your camp can offer and specify whether these will be total or partial camperships;
• note the age group of children you can serve; type of camp (residential or day); and whether you serve girls, boys, or a coed audience;
• state what type of transportation is available to your camp, if any;
• list your camp's Web site address;
• describe any additional costs to the parent other than the camp fee; and
• supply the name and phone number of the main point of contact for your camp.

Since 2003, ACA Keystone has placed children of military families in camps using tuition-free scholarships donated by the camps. Matt Stoltz, director of Island Lake Camps was instrumental in spearheading the campership program. This year, twenty-nine children will be placed in eight camps in the area. ACA Keystone camps are donating tuition-free camperships with a combined value of approximately $55,000 for this summer. For more information about Operation Summer Camp at ACA Keystone, e-mail executive@ACAKeystone.org. 

"It's the best way we know to say 'thank you' to those who are serving, to give their children the opportunity to go to camp, to give the soldiers a little peace of mind, and to instill habits of the heart in our own campers," explains Marla Coleman, one of the owner-directors of Coleman Family Camps, which operates Camp Echo and Coleman Country Day Camp, both in New York. "All the same concerns exist for these parents. Only the logistics are a little more global. Instead of arranging a different parental phone call time because of a late meeting at the office, we are planning around patrol shifts in Iraq. For the camps offering these specialized camperships, it is both comforting and gratifying to be able to assure stability and predictability in young lives when the family is so disrupted by war."