We're pleased to announce the selection of six worthy non-profits to help during our next GiveCamp, May 4th-6th!
CAMP TO BELONG, (CTB), has been actively reuniting brothers and sisters placed in separate foster, adoptive or kinship homes through Summer Camp Programs and year round events since 1995. Founded by Lynn Price (biography), Camp To Belong Summer Camp was created to offer siblings in foster care and other out of home care the opportunity to create lifetime memories while reunited at camp. The CTB chapters are growing with the latest one being started in Colorado.
Siblings may not have the opportunity to read bedtime stories together at night, have breakfast together, cheer for each other at school functions or share precious holidays – all the things that typical siblings get to do each day. Siblings are often taken for granted. Yet, the sibling relationship can be our longest relationship in life.
Our primary goal is to provide a sense of belonging to youth as individuals, and as siblings, giving them opportunities to share childhood memories together and among other youth in the same situations.
Global Refugee Center
The Global Refugee Center works with the refugee community to improve their quality of life by implementing programs in education, health, finances, cultural integration and civil and human rights that lead to self-sufficiency and self-reliance.
Greeley Imagination Station
The Greeley Imagination Station is a non-profit, 100% volunteer based, parent/child interactive playgroup.
High Plains Chautauqua
For five days each August on the Aims Community College campus, audiences step back in time as High Plains Chautauqua recreates the traveling tent show that brought education and entertainment to communities in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The 2012 theme “Courage and Conviction in America,” will be reflected in evening portrayals of Patrick Henry, John Paul Jones, John Quincy Adams, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, Harry Truman, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, and Alexander Hamilton. Prior to evening performances, local restaurants provide meals for purchase and local musical groups provide first-rate free entertainment. Daytime lectures, workshops, dramatizations and children’s activities take place at Aims, in downtown Greeley, and other venues. All presentations are free and open to the public.
One of the hallmarks of High Plains Chautauqua is our Young Chautauqua program. Students from local schools study famous personalities of their choosing and some perform their portrayals as part of the program. Last year nearly 2,000 students from 13 schools participated.
For more information, call the Greeley Convention and Visitors Bureau at 970-352-3567, or visit www.highplainschautauqua.org.
Mountain View Young Marines
The Young Marines is open to all youth, (boys and girls) ages 8 through completion of high school. The only membership requirement is that the youth must be in good standing at school. THIS IS NOT a program for at risk youth! It will test your physical abilities, your discipline and dedication to your fellow Young Marines. This is not the scouts. THIS IS THE YOUNG MARINES – TEAMWORK- LEADERSHIP-DISICPLINE are our core values. There are over 240 units with 10,000 youth and 3,000 adult volunteers in 46 states, the District of Columbia, and, Germany, Japan and affiliates in a host of other countries.
The Mountain View Young Marines were established in May of 2011 and have completed 2 recruit classes and are planning a 3rd for in July. They have about 30 members and have both male and female members. They have a strong bond with the Navajo Code Talkers from WWII and visit the Navajo reservation every Aug. 14th for Navajo Code Talker Day. The Mountain View Young Marines is a for the kids by the kids unit which features a mentor program throughout recruit training. They are the current Unit of the year for their battalion and are in competition for Unit of the year on a higher level. Teamwork - Leadership and Discipline are the core values.
The mission of the Young Marines is to positively impact America’s future by providing quality youth development programs for boys and girls that nurtures and develops its members into responsible citizens who enjoy and promote a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.
SOAR! Youth and Adult Choir was founded by Dr. Vicki Burrichter in 2011. With a long history of marrying social justice issues with artistic presentations (Sing for the Cure with the Colorado Symphony and 200 singers, We Are Voices for genocide awareness at DU) as well as several decades of teaching in private and academic settings, in the spring of 2011 Dr. Vicki began working one-on-one with foster kids, teaching them voice and poetry. She realized the children needed a community of adult choral musician mentors to give them more structure and support. She integrated some foster and adopted children into her summer choir. The concerts were so successful, and audiences deeply touched, that she made that configuration into what is now SOAR! Youth and Adult Choir.
The mission of SOAR! Youth and Adult Choir is: To offer a unique opportunity for at-risk children to become involved in a safe community of mentoring adult performers, focusing on appreciation of the arts with an emphasis on developing skills necessary for success in life.
Since the inception of SOAR!, there have been many opportunities for the choir to perform. In November of 2011, they performed for The Adoption Exchange's annual black-tie event at the Seawell Ballroom at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. They were also featured on Channel 4 News in a special segment on the choir. In January of 2012 they recorded an anti-bullying campaign song entitled "Courage Said I Can" for two-time Emmy Award winning composer Denise Gentilini. Their next event will be concerts on Saturday, June 2 (7:,00 p.m.) and Sunday, June 3 (2:00 p.m.) at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 2100 Wadsworth Blvd., Lakewood, CO (tickets at the door), featuring music including John Rutter's Mass of the Children, and other music including the Beatles, "Home," from The Wiz, spirituals, and several pieces written by one of our children, and our accompanist, Tami Meise specifically for this choir.
As we move forward, we look forward to also launching a Summer Life Skills Program where adults mentor and teach other skills, such as martial arts, sewing, nutrition, photography, and musical instrument playing.