AOTS Youth To Camp Project

Camping Sunday - April 25

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Each year, the final Sunday in April is designated as National Camping Sunday. In 2010 it falls on Sunday, April 25. The worship service and activities on this Sunday are designed to increase awareness of the church's ministry of residential camping, give visibility to local United Church camps, and help people recall their memories and experiences of church camping.

The focus is on learning more about United Church camps as a ministry and how congregations can support this ministry.

The focus is on God’s creation and camping ministry.

Check out the resources on the United Church Camping Sunday page!

Preparation for 2010

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We are looking forward to 2010 as the best year ever. Sending more Youth To Camp each year is our goal and reaching out to as many youth as we can to help change their life in a positive way.

If your club is thinking about being involved in the Youth To Camp project please send a note to the project chairman.

Here is a Directory of United Church of Canada Camps by province or territory to help you find a camp in your area to support. Many of these camps have a "campership" program where they have a list of children that may need some support.

Download the Youth To Camp Brochure

If your club is interested in getting involved with the “Youth To Camp Project” please contact us for a start up package: youth@aots.ca

Mark Browning
National Chairman for the “Youth To Camp Project”

Summer of 2009

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The summer of 2009 was a big success for the project. There were more new clubs on board that last year and we have some non-AOTS clubs involved this year. There will be more information about the awards and trophy coming soon.

History

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In September of 1996, the late Mr. Don Williams, then Honorary President of the National AOTS, was asked by his colleagues at the National Convention to propose a 'tangible' national project to commemorate the organization's 75 years of serving the church community. Having experienced Christian camp as a young man, and having been the Director of a United Church boy's camp for many summers, Mr. Williams strongly believes that the Christian camp experience fosters spiritual growth and moral development. Indeed he recommended that youth camping be the focus of the project.

In May of 1997, at the AOTS Ontario Round-up in Geneva Park, Orillia, Ontario, the National project leaders presented the pilot project outline to Round-up participants and received overwhelming support. In fact, two clubs from outside the Bay of Quinte area decided to join the project, resulting in eight additional young people being sent to camp.

The overall outcome of the pilot was extremely positive. Fourteen of 16 clubs in the Bay of Quinte area fully supported the project sending anywhere from two to 26 children to camp. A total of 85 Bay of Quinte area youth attended one week of Christian camp in the summer of 1997.

In the Fall of 1997, the National Association of the AOTS Clubs formally adopted the National Youth to Camp Project at the National Convention in Gander, Newfoundland.

There are now over 30 clubs involver in the project across Canada and we are sending more and more "Youth To Camp" each year.

Goals and Objectives

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A National Project Must Do The Following

Appeal to the AOTS clubs across Canada.
AOTS clubs will see the results of other work almost immediately.
Reaches out beyond the church and club into the community- as is the call of Christ "So into all the world"
Involve youth, our future leaders of our Church community and country.
A project that is "do-able" (can be done) and is exciting.

Reasons For Taking Part In The Project

To encourage clubs to undertake 4 of the 8 main objectives of the AOTS constitution:
- To encourage and give practical assistance to Boy's and Youth work in the Church and community;
- To participate actively in the Church's efforts to strengthen Christian family life;
- To develop programs, projects and activities that will both interest the men of the Church and community in becoming active club members and aid in achieving the aim of the club;
To develop consecrated and effective leadership;
A project like this tends to strengthen your club and add new members.
Introduces your club to the community and parents of the youth you have sent.
Helps to promote Christian learning and leadership to the youth in the community that might not have had the chance to experience.
Adds a element of competition between clubs in your community, province and even country
Helps to promote the AOTS Nationally by way of combining statistics to show a greater impact to create a better awareness of the AOTS and the project.

Award and Trophy

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Award Dedication

All plaques, engraving, awarded money and the D.R. Williams Trophy has been donated by the Don Williams estate in loving memory of a great man with dream to affect young lives through camping.

"One Week at United Church camp will change the life of a child forever" Don Williams 1942-1999

D.R Williams Memorial Trophy

This trophy is given for one year to all club that sponsored the most youth to a United Church camp. The trophy then moves on to the next winning club and a plaque stays with the club.

"Youth To Camp" Plaque's

This plaque is given to all clubs that win the three awards for the "Youth To Camp" award and stays with the club that Sponsored the most youth to a United Church camp.

How to Get Your Club Involved

2009-12-16T10:36:00.000-08:00

To your Men’s Club President:

My job is to encourage men’s clubs across Canada to sponsor youth to United Church camps, with the benefit of having the youth come back to the club meetings to tell about their week at camp. The project has been very successful and is helping to revitalize clubs, introduce youth and their parents to the clubs and to help promote the sending of youth to United Church camps.

The “Youth To Camp Project” was started in 1997 by Don Williams of Stirling Ontario. He was very active in the church on many levels and had strong feelings for United Church camps and how they affected the lives of children. He would always tell me “Send a kid to camp and change their life”. Since Don’s passing in 1999 his legacy has continued to grow and more lives are being affected than ever before.

Many of you have been supporting youth in so many ways and some of you have been supporting your local United Church Camp for a long time. I don’t want to take away from that, I just want all Men’s clubs across the country to join forces to help promote the importance on Christian camping. Our hope is that a greater numbers will help to encourage other clubs to sponsor more children.

The idea of the project is not to pay the full price of camp, although that would be great, it is to send as many youth as you can to allow more to experience Christian camping for one week. Parents are asked to donate toward the project what they can and some of the youth can help out as well. The parents are told that what ever they can donate will help to send other children. A tax receipt can then be given to the family for income tax purposes.

If your club is interested in getting involved with the “Youth To Camp Project” please contact us for a start up package: youth@aots.ca

Mark Browning
National Chairman for the “Youth To Camp Project”

The 5 Steps to Success

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The object of the project is not to finance the children, we are hoping the club will spend more time in finding the children that would benefit the most from this experience. Try to find a child outside of the church community and you will soon see the ways that introducing children to Christianity will help benefit the community, the Church and the AOTS club. If you find the children the money will come.

Send out a request form in the church bulletin so that people can sponsor a child to go to camp. Ask the sponsor to include a donation in the envelope with the name of the child.
Get a member of your AOTS club to stand up in front of the congregation to ask for support by way of names of children and donations and tell them that a member of your AOTS club will be set up in the lobby to accept donations for the next two Sundays.
Send a letter, call or present to service clubs in the community or other church groups to ask for names of children as well as funding for the project. (Sample Letter) In your presentation or introduction letter please include a thank you letter from one of the children you sent to camp the year before or the one I have included. You may find that many of them are looking for a youth related project.
Be sure to invite a representative of the Service Club back to the pot-luck dinner to be thanked formally in front of the children and their families. With your invitation to the pot-luck dinner send a letter of thanks, along with a copy of a children’s letter that was sent that summer. (Sample Letter)
Call the parents of the child and tell them that their child has been chosen to be sponsored in full to spend one week at your local United Church camp. Also make sure that you ask if they are willing to make a donation to the project to allow more children to go. Suggest that the child might feel like raising some of the money him/herself by way of a garage sale or saving part of their allowance. You might find that there is no money and some families could raise a good portion of the money. The important thing is to introduce the project and help where it is needed, not to fund all of the money.

Youth to Camp Concept Takes Off at the National Level of the AOTS

2009-12-15T20:22:00.000-08:00

This is the per-edited article submitted to the United Church Observer in it's entirety.

The National Association of AOTS (As One That Serves) men's clubs have embarked on a journey of church community revitalization. The 'destination' is to inspire young people from across the country to become actively involved in our churches. The 'vehicle' is the experience of United Church camping.

In the Summer of 1998, after setting two years of groundwork, more than 30 AOTS clubs from 5 provinces sent 140 children to United Church camps. This youth-oriented national initiative – entitled Youth to Camp Project – is rapidly catching fire across the country.

For many years the United Church has supported sending its young people (both boys and girls) to church camps, often paying for those children whose families could not afford to send them.

In September of 1996, the late Mr. Don Williams, then Honorary President of the National AOTS, was asked by his colleagues at the National Convention to propose a 'tangible' national project to commemorate the organization's 75 years of serving the church community. Having experienced Christian camp as a young man, and having been the Director of a United Church boy's camp for many summers, Mr. Williams strongly believes that the Christian camp experience fosters spiritual growth and moral development. Indeed he recommended that youth camping be the focus of the project.

Over the years, AOTS clubs have not only sent children to camp, but have also conducted the much-needed behind the scenes work that keeps the camps running: building and renovating cabins, conducting camp clean-ups and funding projects. But the idea this time was to spearhead and coordinate a much broader youth camp initiative with a view to revitalizing the United Church community through attracting more youth.

The National Association of the AOTS believes that by coordinating the Youth to Camp Project at the national level, the United Church community of Canada will be better placed to shape its own future.

Mr. Williams is currently the enthusiasm and direction behind the National Youth to Camp Project. "This project will positively affect more than just our youth," he explains. "These young people are the future leaders of our families, church communities and country."

The goals of the National Youth to Camp Project are as follows:

to encourage not only AOTS men's and women's clubs and church ministers, but also other men's and women's groups within the United Church to promote Youth to Camp Canada-wide; and
to reach out beyond the church and into the community to find children who might benefit from an introduction to Christian teachings by way of camp.

Following Mr. Williams' recommendation, the National AOTS leaders launched a pilot project based in the Bay of Quinte Conference of the AOTS to determine the level of support for the project and look at such issues as budgets and time lines.

In May of 1997, at the AOTS Ontario Round-up in Geneva Park, Orillia, Ontario, the National project leaders presented the pilot project outline to Round-up participants and received overwhelming support. In fact, two clubs from outside the Bay of Quinte area decided to join the project, resulting in eight additional young people being sent to camp.

The overall outcome of the pilot was extremely positive. Fourteen of 16 clubs in the Bay of Quinte area fully supported the project sending anywhere from two to 26 children to camp. A total of 85 Bay of Quinte area youth attended one week of Christian camp in the summer of 1997.

In the Fall of 1997, the National Association of the AOTS Clubs formally adopted the National Youth to Camp Project at the National Convention in Gander, Newfoundland.

The National Association of the AOTS is currently collecting statistics which will help in setting national targets for church community revitalization. The Association is working at fostering a healthy, competitive spirit between churches, towns, cities and even provinces as it strives to affect more and more children's lives. It provides financial/fundraising assistance and assists with strategic planning. It also seeks to ensure that the Project's messages and goals are consistent, and builds awareness for the Project at the national level.

Several new clubs are committed to joining the project for the summer of 1999 and have already started their planning.

St. Paul's AOTS Club in Stirling, Ontario sent 26 children to camp during the pilot project and 34 in the summer of 1998. They adopted the attitude: 'find the young people and the money will come.' Although they paid for approximately one third of the children's camp experiences, local Service Clubs were inspired to make an investment in local youth and covered the remaining costs.

In addition, all of these children and their families were invited to St. Paul's following their week at camp to share their experiences with AOTS members who appreciated hearing the children's first-hand accounts about what they gained at camp.

Success stories like this demonstrate the power of working together. As National Chairman of the Youth to Camp Project, I would like to underline that the prospects for this project look great. We look forward to the continued support of the UCW (United Church Women) and other United Church men's and women's clubs.

I am convinced that one week at camp can be one of the greatest, life-changing experiences in a young life. It introduces Christian values and views to children who might otherwise never have been exposed to them.

It is my hope that men's and women's clubs from all over the country will join together with their local AOTS clubs to help find and fund Youth to Camp and have a positive impact on children's lives.