Charity kids’ camp requires aid, funds

UCLA, you’re needed.

The official charity of our campus, Unicamp, a summer camp for
kids at or below the poverty level run almost completely by
students and funded through donations, will have to turn away 400
kids in August and September after an unfortunate accident rendered
the only bridge to the program’s campsite unsafe.

Not only will those 400 kids miss out on the experience (though
Unicamp hopes to make it up to them next summer), but the charity
must raise an additional $200,000 this year to cover the cost of
fixing the bridge.

For most people, summer camp is a luxury, a way for your parents
to have some time alone and to let you be outdoors for a week or
two. But for the kids of Unicamp, it is a way for them to see how
things can be. These kids live in poor areas where concrete and
fences take the place of grass and evergreens. Their parents work
long hours for little pay and statistically, they don’t have
much of a chance.

For many of the hardest luck cases, the kids are under the care
of the Department of Child and Family Services, seeing mom and dad
meant beatings rather than love. Some almost died at their
parents’ hands before government intervention. Their lives
are surrounded by alcohol or drugs, and some of them suffer from
mental illness. These are the kids who seldom go to college, who
seldom succeed and who seldom escape.

To have any kind of chance, they have to see something
different. They have to know there is something else. Unicamp gives
them that. It’s not the answer, but it helps.

As UCLA’s official charity it sadly receives little
institutional support from the campus besides office space and some
logistics. What really makes the camp work are the generous
donations of alumni and the volunteer student-counselors who spend
hundreds of hours preparing and mentoring the kids.

About 100 trained counselors won’t be able to use their
training this summer. Most of them don’t mind the time
they’ve spent though ““ they’re more disappointed
for the kids. Ask any counselor who has been there and
they’ll tell you it’s all about the kids.

Unicamp must raise about $800,000 a year to run the camp, almost
all of which goes to the children. It used to receive a lot of
funding from UCLA’s student-organized Mardi Gras fair but
unfortunately that ended years ago due to some safety and
organizational issues. The camp has struggled in recent years and
faces such a significant cost this year. UCLA’s student
governments ought to consider what could be done for a charity that
benefits so many. While an event the scale of Mardi Gras is beyond
reach, as is the case with any needy cause, anything helps.

For the rest of us, it’s time to support UCLA’s
charity in any way we can. These kids didn’t have a choice
““ we do.