EXPLORE!
View "Focus on Friendship" Newsletter:·
PROGRAMS
Resident Camps:·
Respite:·
Team Quest:·
FACILITIES
Camp Friendship:·
Eden Wood Center:·
EMPLOYMENT
Join Us:·
LEND A HAND
Giving to Friendship:·
Volunteers:·
ALUMNI
Staff Alumni Site:·
Volunteers Come to Give, Leave Enriched
The Youth Leadership Training Program is a unique program that Friendship Ventures has offered for 30 years. Teenagers volunteer to help at camp and receive leadership training, an introduction to volunteering and the potential to qualify for a paid counselor position.
This summer 70 extraordinary teenagers have spent at least a week at one of Friendship Ventures’ sites helping campers to have a memorable and enjoyable camp experience. Each volunteer participates in a training session and then is matched up with a cabin group. Volunteers assist counselors throughout the day helping to escort campers around the site, giving assistance with activities, helping at mealtimes, keeping the cabin clean and interacting with campers.
“The volunteers help to provide the personal attention that many of the campers need,” said Sam Clingan, program manager of volunteers and human resources. “They bring new energy each week.”
Because they usually stay for one to three weeks, new volunteers are starting all summer long. “The volunteers bring a different perspective because they’re young,” Clingan noted. “By mid-summer, the counselors are accustomed to the routine. The volunteers come bringing in a fresh energy; they’re more playful.”
The program also benefits the teen volunteers. “What we hear most often is that they came to help, but they wound up being helped by the lessons they learned from campers,” Clingan related. “They get an education about what’s real about people – what limits are and what can’t limit people. They realize what they themselves have when they see the situations our participants are in for their whole lives. They learn more about their abilities through seeing people with disabilities.”
Volunteers, who must be at least 14 years old, come by themselves, with a friend or in groups. Most are local, from the St. Cloud and Twin Cities areas, but some come from other states or other countries. Teens volunteer because they want to help people, to fulfill community service requirements or because their parents encouraged the experience.
Some volunteers come to Friendship Ventures programs with a church or school group, or through various organizations. For four years, Landmark Volunteers has been bringing a group of high school students to Camp Friendship to work with participants. Landmark Volunteers is a nonprofit organization that leads groups of high school students in volunteer community service opportunities across the country.
A group of 13 youth and a team leader from Landmark Volunteers spent two weeks at camp this summer. They worked with other teens to make camp a meaningful and memorable experience for participants, and they left with memories and personal growth of their own.
Photo caption: Landmark volunteers Kristi DeFrancisis and Catherine Menchev helped Camp Friendship participant Mike K. dress up as a mummy for an evening program.
Friendship Ventures is a non-profit agency that creates unique educational, recreational and social opportunities for people of all ages with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. We also offer conference and retreat services and professional team-building programs to the communities we serve. Friendship Ventures operates Camp Friendship near Annandale, MN and Eden Wood Center in Eden Prairie, MN.
Home · Facilities · Programs · Team Quest · Jobs · Lend a hand · Learn More · Forms Library · Staff Alumni · Contact