Welcome to Happy Trails For Kids!

A Message from Our President 

Coming home from a recent Happy Trails for Kids reunion event, I had the opportunity to share a car ride with some of our wonderful campers.  I was struck by a conversation between the four children – two girls, both 10 years old, and two boys, a 9-year old and an 8-year old.  Although I have worked closely in various capacities with foster care children for many years, what I heard amazed me. 

It began with one girl commenting that she lived with her grandmother.  The other girl asked why she doesn’t live with her parents.  She responded, “My dad abused me.”  The girl asked, “Hit you or the bad abuse?”  “The bad abuse,” she said.  Then the second girl commented, “My grandpa did the bad abuse too.”  Then the boys joined the conversation.  One described how his father used to beat him.  They all talked about what it is like to live away from their parents and what their experiences have been in foster care.

I said nothing.  I have never seen children in that age group engaging together in such a deep and meaningful discussion about their lives and circumstances.  I was deeply saddened to hear about the difficulties they were facing in their childhoods, but it was important that they had this forum to be able to share their experiences with other kids who truly understood them.  All four of them had come to both sessions of camp and frequently attend our reunion events.  There was no doubt that a strong bond had formed.

When they were finishing their conversation, I asked, “How do you feel about going to a camp where everybody is in foster care?”  Each of them described how great it was to be with other children who had been through what they’ve been through.  One girl talked about being made fun of at school for not living with her parents and how she tries to hide those facts from her friends.  On their own, they also brought up how much they appreciate being with counselors who are former foster youth themselves.  They all stated with certainty that they were going to be counselors one day too. 

A core responsibility of every nonprofit is to assess the impact of its programs.  Because we are only entering our third year of the camp program, we are not yet able to provide an evaluation of the long-term benefits and outcomes of our program.  However, from this and other positive anecdotal evidence, I believe we are beginning to meet our goals of not only providing a great summer camp experience for boys and girls in foster care, but also creating a sense of community – something that is lacking in far too many of these children’s lives.  We envision our campers joining our Happy Trails family and staying there into adulthood, making them less likely to become a part of the staggering number of former foster youth who end up incarcerated or homeless.  We are heading in the right direction!

Susan Abrams, President                                                                        
April, 2011