Children from all backgrounds find that spending a few weeks at Echo Hill provides them with a caring community of peers and adult counselors who can encourage and challenge them, while also fostering friendships that last a lifetime. Echo Hill’s unique mix of free-choice daily activities, spontaneous fun that is so often missing from daily life during the school year, and cherished camp traditions, builds a sense of community and belonging that is felt by new and returning campers alike.

For me personally, I returned for 4 consecutive summers to the States during my university holidays. While there were other volunteer programmes which I was interested in globally, I couldn’t help but apply for another summer of rustic camping on the Chesapeake at Echo Hill. The emotional significance of the summers spent in the US can not be understated. They were, at that point, utterly life changing and shape the work I pursued for the next decade.

Quite simply it was easy to see the significant impact Camp has on young people. I couldn’t help but watch our Campership kids grown year after year. It was simply phenomenal.

I first applied for the job when I was 18 and one day( you had to be 18 to apply). Then 6 weeks later, I landed stateside. While I’d previously worked in youth based projects in the UK, I quickly found out that that Baltimore is very different to the Home Counties and that crime, poverty and racism are all very different in the USA. Needless to say, after finding my feet, I quickly established a network and a connection for the children for which I was there to serve; many of whom have never experienced the Chesapeake Bay and are confronted with economic challenges that will continue to impact upon their adult. life. It’s a situation that places them well below the poverty line let alone and one that absolutely keeps them from attending sleep away camp.