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Words cannot express the overwhelming feeling of joy when helping a family send their child to summer camp.  For Director Deanna House, it’s an emotion tied up to the promise that her son, Joel House, still lives through the work her family has done to support 551 Maine kids during the academic “down time” of summer.  Since 2009, only 2 painful years after losing Joel, until the summer of 2021, Joel’s legacy has given $90,433.00 in scholarships.  Deanna wants to reach 1,000 kids and $220,000.00 in scholarships by our 15th anniversary in 2024.  To do so will depend on partnering with an Army of supporters to turn their summer camp “dreams” of happier, well-prepared students into actionable and reachable targets.  Furthermore, as the cost of summer camp tuition continues to rise every summer, our goal is to increase the award amount per applicant.

 

We were well on our way by 2019 when we helped over 70 Maine children attend a summer camp of their choice.  Our goal by 2020 was to reach 100 children. But in 2020 the world came to a sudden stand still when the COVID pandemic hit us.  There were no summer camps in 2020.  In 2021 we started the process of slowly rebuilding. We served 15 children that summer.  We are not starting over, but we are renewing our goals. In 2022, our goal is to double that total to at least 30. We will likely need to extend our goal beyond 2024 to reach 1,000.  Twenty years, or 2029, seems more doable.  

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This is how we will reach our goal: In 2019, we served 70 children and awarded $14,397.00 in scholarships.  That means that the average scholarship was $206.00 per child.  We served 15 children in 2021 for $4,838.00 for an average scholarship amount of $322.00.  Individual scholarships typically range from $50.00 to $300.00 depending on the tuition charged by the camp and the rating of each applicant's written reflection.   In 2021 we were able to award higher amounts due to fewer applicants.  To adjust for 2021, the two years combined is $19,235  for 85 children which averages to a $226.00 award per child.  Using this average, in order to send 30 children to summer camp in 2022 will require $6,780 in our budget.  With a plan to double over the next few years, we would serve 60 kids with $13,560.00 in 2023; 120 kids with $27,120.00 in 2024; 240 with $54,240.00 in 2025; 480 with $108.480 in 2026; and by 2027 we will reach our goal with 960 kids $216,960.00!  That leaves 2028 and 2029 to stabilize our goal and make plans for the future of the scholarship program.

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