#GivingTuesday at Maine Camps

Thanksgiving season is a time that encourages us to be grateful for what we have and to help others. Volunteering at shelter dinners, stocking food pantries, and raising money by running turkey trots are a few initiatives, and #GivingTuesday is a wonderful day to donate to charities that touch your heart. At Maine Camps, campers learn the importance of giving back and helping others as Maine Camps engage the community in social action initiatives.

As we recognize #GivingTuesday, we wanted to share information about a few great Maine Camp Experience related organizations that are worthy causes for you and your campers to know about and consider …

Camp Sunshine is a Maine Camp Experience member camp located in Casco, Maine. It’s a retreat providing free, one-week camp sessions for children facing life threatening illnesses and their families. Camp Sunshine recently wrapped up virtual programs for 2021 with a group from Boston Children’s Hospital. They sent out 874 boxes of “sunshine” to their Camp families this year, reached 660 different families with 320 being exposed to Camp Sunshine for the first time through their “Together at Home” initiatives. It is Camp Sunshine’s hope for 2022 to return to in-person camp sessions. Camp Sunshine has a matching funding program for #GivingTuesday on November 30 … anyone donating to Camp Sunshine on November 30 will see their generosity doubled. Their hope is to raise $30,000 and see that figure matched by some supporting donors. https://www.campsunshine.org

World of Change (WOC), which began in Maine a few years ago, is an organization with which many Maine Camps have partnered. It teaches youth philanthropy, using the $10B in spare change estimated to be sitting idle here in the U.S.A. as a low-barrier tool by which to engage and rally kids around making change in their communities. 100% of all change collected is distributed to nonprofits providing life-changing impact to children and families across six focus areas (Health, Housing, Education, Food, Animals & Nature, and Play). Those who collect the change get to decide where it goes. To date, WOC change makers have supported more than 150 organizations in 15 states (plus the District of Columbia), and across nearly 10 countries. According to WOC Founder Matt Hoidal “World of Change’s partnership with Maine Camp Experience and its member camps has been an important and treasured one since we got started just a few years ago. We are grateful to all of the 30+ camp owners and directors who have embraced our mission and given us the opportunity to inspire young campers to activate their change making superpowers.” In addition to the nearly $70,000 in change collected at the camps over the past few years (yes, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters…), campers and counselors return home and introduce WOC to their schools and communities, expanding and building this simple change movement across nine states and growing. https://www.worldofchange.world

Some Maine Camp Experience Camps offer free or low-cost sessions for economically disadvantaged campers. You can visit these camps’ sites for more information:

• Camp Agawam – https://www.campagawam.org/the-main-idea
• Camp O-AT-KA – https://campoatka.org/dennen-week
• Camp Walden – https://themainidea.org
• Birch Rock Camp – https://birchrock.org/birch-rock-fund

Experience Camps is a national, no-cost program for grieving children who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver. Their one-week, overnight summer camp and year-round programs help to reframe the experience of grief and empower kids to develop invaluable coping skills that enable them to move forward with their lives. Through compassion, connection, and play, Experience Camps empowers grieving children to embody a life full of hope and possibility. Camp is held in Maine at two Maine Camp Experience Camps in August, as well as in several other states. https://experiencecamps.org

Maine Camp Experience Resources & Tools

You can share your own Maine camps memories & expressions of gratitude on our Memories of Camp section of our website.

Looking for the perfect Maine camp for your child?  Try out our helpful tool where you can select a camp by choosing: type of camp (girls, boys or coed) and session length (1-8 weeks).  It helps to narrow down a few camps to a manageable list that includes rates.  Then you can research these camps in more depth.  

Next, be sure to  to discuss these camps as well as for free, year-round advice and assistance on choosing a great Maine summer camp for your child.