Summer camp helps kids to care

FREDERICTON – How do you form children into caring adults? You expose them to the needs in their community and give them a chance to respond.

That is the basis of a one-week summer camp held at Stone Church in Saint John, New Brunswick called Kids Lead.

It was seven years ago that the Rev. Jasmine Chandra began a small group called Kids Lead. They met through the school year and learned about the good and the bad in their city.

“The idea was to expose kids to the needs in the city and the organizations that helped fill those needs,” she said.

Kids visited non-profits and learned how they could help through advocacy, fundraising and volunteering. But meetings held after school did not easily allow visits to the non-profits, so three years ago, they made the switch to a week-long summer camp. Parents were happy to have something for their kids to do, and the summer event has worked much better for all.

This year’s camp had 29 kids from ages 7 to 14, all interested in making their community a better place by doing what they could to ease the burdens of others.

“This year we had quite a few newcomer kids,” said Ms. Chandra. “They’ve gotten to see more of their city and the problems here.”

Ms. Chandra and her husband, the Rev. Terence Chandra, are priests-in-charge at Stone Church. Mr. Chandra and a host of volunteers run ESL summer camps for newcomer kids, which have grown since they began several years ago.

This past summer, the Kids Lead camp had tours of community advocacy groups in action and had guest speakers in as well. They learned about the Saint John Community Coalition, Boys & Girls Club, the Salvation Army Family Services, and Inner City Youth Ministry, which partners with PULSE each summer to hold a weekly barbecue and family drop-in.

But the camp wasn’t only about advocacy and volunteering, guest speakers and tours. There was lots of recreation built into the program, and the highlight of the week was the group projects. Kids formed groups and chose a cause, made a plan to help and then implemented it. On the final afternoon of the camp, each group presented their project, with their parents and loved ones on hand to see their hard work.

New Brunswick Anglican