As we look ahead to the 2024 summer of our Camp Sunshine sessions, we are grateful for each person who brings their talents to serve at Camp Sunshine!
This year, we anticipate that we’ll have 149 total counselors (63 first-time counselors!) representing 37 educational institutions, 56 leadership team members, and dozens of day volunteers serving over our four sessions of camp.
In 2023, we estimate that volunteers served more than 23,000 hours, and at an estimated value of $31.49 per hour, more than $724,270 in value was provided to our campers and fellow volunteers.
More than dollars and cents, these astounding figures pale in comparison to the direct feedback we receive from our volunteers as well as campers and their families. We recognize that the Camp Sunshine experience is life-changing, enriching lives in ways that can’t be quantified by numbers. As one counselor shared, “There is no place like Camp Sunshine, there is no place filled with as much love as there is here!”
Not only are we incredibly grateful for the numbers of volunteers who have committed to give their time and talents to Camp Sunshine, we’re inspired by looking back at the first few years of Camp Sunshine. According to our records, in 1983, 26 counselors and six other volunteers joined us to serve 26 campers over the course of the camp session. Oh, how things have changed!
We continued steady growth through many challenges: a move to a new location, the death of our founder, Marcy Vanderwel in 2000, economic uncertainty, and of course, the cancellation of in-person programming in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
As we count down to Camp Sunshine 2024 and look forward to welcoming back campers and volunteers to our special community, we send a heartfelt thanks to those who will be spending their days with us. Thank you for joining us and for helping to make Camp Sunshine better than ever.
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