TheLeader VOLUME XXVI ISSUE1 Winter2025 - Flipbook - Page 25
G R A N T S
AT
W O R K
Department of Youth and Young Adult Ministries Reported
$270,000 Funding of Camping Ministries Grant
The Department of Youth and Young Adult Ministries,
Y2AM, reported allocation of the annual Leadership
funding of $270,000 ($30,000 each) for the Archdiocesan
District and Metropolis Summer Camps for 2024 as
follows:
The Archdiocesan District Camp Saint Paul provided
$15,000 for scholarship assistance for campers and $15,000
for supplies for sessions and daily activities in a “record
breaking summer” with a total of 703 registrants for the
five-week session.
Metropolis of Atlanta St. Stephen’s Summer Camp hosted
431 campers from 46 different parishes across the
Metropolis as well as five different parishes across the
Archdiocese for five weeks of camp at Diakonia Retreat
Center at 90% capacity with 105 staff members and 27
priests. Most funds were expended on supplies,
scholarships, and travel reimbursement.
Metropolis of Boston Camp (MBC) hosted one of its
busiest summers in 35 years of ministry. Over five, oneweek-long sessions, in addition to one week of staff
training, MBC welcomed about 600 campers and over 100
young adults. The camp also offered the Kosmos project
again, where 25 young people from the Metropolis of
Boston and about 25 young people from the Metropolis of
Neapolis and Stavroupolis in Thessaloniki participated in a
two-week-long exchange program. About 15% of our
campers receive financial aid. The success of the summer
camp is led to the record sell out of the MBC fall camp
program which left over 100 campers on its waitlist. As a
result, two winter camp sessions were opened for the first
time in MBC history resulting in over 200 young people in
attendance. All the funds awarded to the Metropolis of
Boston Camp through this grant have been disbursed.
Metropolis of Chicago camping ministries at Fanari Camp
in Wisconsin and St. Mary's Camp in Minnesota saw 800
campers attend and 41 campers receive financial aid for five
weeks at Fanari Camp and one week of Camp St. Mary. All
funds were used for camper scholarships, so that all the
youth of the Metropolis could participate.
Metropolis of Denver Camp Emmanuel was held at a
rented facility (Ponderosa Retreat Center in Larkspur,
Colorado) and staffed by clergy and lay volunteers. Because
the Metropolis is geographically large covering 10 western
states, campers and staff had to travel great distances most
often at personal cost. Camp Emmanuel had a capacity for
120 campers in 2023, and this year (2024) accommodated
129 campers, with 30 staff. This number is higher than in
the previous ten years of Camp Emmanuel.
A training session was held before camp to ensure that staff
were prepared to offer consistently high- quality, safe camp
experience. All staff and clergy participate in the
Archdiocese’s regulated Youth Protection training. Camp
Emmanuel is accomplished through many hours of
volunteer time.
The Leadership 100 monies are primarily used to keep the
cost of camp down for families, many of whom send more
than one camper, and many of whom are also paying
significant airfare costs to transport their children to and
from camp. The funds provide relief by paying for the
lodging and meals of staff members and otherwise bringing
the cost of registration per participant down to significantly
lower than they would otherwise have to be. It is our goal
that no camper is denied access to camp for financial
reasons. Personal cost to clergy and volunteers for meals
and lodging over their time at camp and cost for arts and
crafts, usually passed on to campers, was eliminated and
the cost per camper was reduced by $40, all due to the
Leadership 100 grant.
The Metropolis of Detroit has three Metropolis camps
(Metropolis of Detroit Summer Camp/MDSC, St. Nicholas
Summer Camp/SNC, and St. Timothy Camp/STC). Each
one of the camps communicates with the Metropolis
regarding its ongoing needs and goals for
growth/improvement. Camps request the use of funds for a
specific goal. The Metropolis reviews the request and grants
the monies if the use follows the conditions of the grant.
Leadership 100 funds make it possible for each of the
camps to subsidize the cost of attendance for the campers.
By charging camper families less than the actual cost of
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