At-Risk Youth Build Resiliencey in the Wilderness

“I’m trying to express in words how much this trip meant to me, but truly it’s not completely possible to describe it. This trip has brought me so much happiness.”    -Camper Melissa

It’s often hard for us to express in a simple letter how much your support of Camp Amnicon means to kids like Melissa. To put it simply: without your gifts, there would be no wilderness trips like the one she attended last summer, no summer staff to help her build faith and confidence, no place in the Northwoods for her to call ‘home.’

Melissa’s church brought a group of teenage girls to camp. They didn’t know each other well, but they had one thing in common—a tendency to be negative towards themselves. Their guides stepped in right away with a new rule: for every unkind thing each girl said about herself, she had to give herself two genuine compliments.

It worked. Two days into the trip, and the girls were starting to see themselves—and each other—in a new light.   Melissa shared things with the group that she never would have shared at home. She felt safe here. She was real. She was challenged. And she was changed.

Later she said: “We discussed as a group things that were a ‘light’ in our darkness and these trips are mine. These trips remind me of my importance and my place in my faith. I hadn’t known I was on the wrong path until this week, but I feel I’m once again on the right path. I will take home confidence and new friendships.”