by Mike Gallagher for the CMF NewsWire
Posted 7/6/10
By any measure, "Live 2 Give: 2 Methods, 1 Mission," the 2010 Youth Philanthropy & Service Camp held recently (June 25-27) at Michigan State University (MSU) was a phenomenal success, according to student attendees, teachers and camp organizers.
More than 425 students from small towns and big cities throughout the U.S., including Colorado, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, made their way to the event in East Lansing.
This year marked the first time that the Michigan Community Foundations’ Youth Project (MCFYP) and their affiliated Youth Advisory Committees (YACs) combined their annual Youth Conference with the Michigan LEAGUE powered by Learning to Give and Learn and Serve.
Sponsors for the event included the Max and Marjorie Fisher Foundation, Dow Corning Foundation, Jackson National, Comcast and State Farm Insurance.
Bryan Lewis was one of the 24 members of the Michigan Community Foundation Youth Project/Service Learning Conference Committee that helped create and lead the event.
Lewis, a student at Carnegie Mellon University, said he was pleased to see the melding of the different methodologies of youth philanthropy and Service Learning at this year’s camp.
“YACers are involved in grantmaking to give money to communities where they need it,” he said. “Service Learning is taught by teachers in school and the students learn by being involved in various community service projects. At this conference we bring those two ideas together for one greater purpose.
“Through the camp program, we showed the participating students, YAC Advisors and teachers that we are really sharing one mission: giving back to our communities,” said Lewis.
The sessions provided campers with strategies and tools to handle a range of issues when they are out in the field, said Lewis. “Some of the most popular included: ‘Leading Effective Meetings,’ ‘Hunger and Homelessness,’ ‘Motivational Values’ and ‘Assessment of Community Needs.’”
For instance, students attending ‘Public Speaking’ were given the opportunity to address their peers and then their efforts were critiqued for such things as conciseness, clear presentation of facts, attention to audience cues and effective delivery techniques.
In “Public Relations,” tips were provided on the importance of preparing effective press releases, developing and maintaining media contacts, communicating successes, sharing needs with community leaders and using social media to advance a project.
Other interactive sessions focused on the environment, fund development, proactive grantmaking and youth-adult interaction.
Campers also participated in team-building and networking exercises and discussed how those skills could be used to develop projects in their respective communities.
The wildly popular poetry slam, featuring noted “slammer” Rafael Casal from California, was one of the great highlights of the conference, according to several attendees.
“The camp is a way to bring these motivated and committed students together and to provide them with new tools to use in their work,” said Katelyn Videto, CMF’s 2010 Mawby Intern.
“We’ve gotten rave reviews from those who attended,” added Videto. “It was so much fun watching the students arrive at camp so quietly and then really getting into it and chatting with each other about all their cool community projects. It was great!”
Breannah Alexander, CMF’s new Program Associate for Youth Philanthropy, called this year’s camp “a once in a lifetime experience.
“As part of the activities, everyone went out into the community and did service projects like painting, reading and playing with children,” said Alexander. “They helped people in many different ways and they had a ball doing it!”
Many students came to the camp with only their experiences either in youth philanthropy or Service Learning – a few had participated in both – but they all quickly began brainstorming new ways they could incorporate the best from both worlds, said Mike Goorhouse, CMF’s Private Foundations Coordinator and Grants Manager and former Program Associate for Youth Philanthropy responsible for overseeing the YAC programs around Michigan.
“The turnout was terrific, and all the campers seemed to be engaged and excited about being together with those that shared their passion for youth philanthropy and Service Learning,” noted Goorhouse.
Grace Feenstra, past co-chair of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation YAC and member of the conference planning committee, said the event was successful on many levels.
“The first day of the camp we scheduled ice breakers and energizers to get everyone fired up and motivated,” said Feenstra. “The success was in seeing how everyone quickly bonded and interacted by sharing stories of their own community projects, identifying what worked and what didn’t and discussing how the new tools we were providing could be put to use.”
Students Call Camp “Awesome”
Student campers used superlatives when describing their experiences with many saying they couldn’t wait to attend the 2011 camp.
Ilana Parach, a YACer with the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area, said it was great to participate in the camp where there were other kids who were as passionate about philanthropy and Service Learning as she is.
“We learned about making our YACs better and that there are a lot of ways for us to be involved in our communities that will make a difference,” said Parach. “The youth in our communities are underrated. Some people assume we are lazy, so we need to bring about an awareness as to what we can do.”
Parach said for her camp community service project, she visited a food pantry to help package meals that would be served to the homeless later in the week. While doing so, she learned what it took to secure food donations, bring in volunteers, handle the food prep and the cleaning up.
“It was a great experience to see all that was involved in getting those meals ready…and we learned so much,” said Parach.
Chad McClain of Hamilton, Ohio said going out into the community and reading to a group of young children, trying to get them to see the joy and sense of wonderment a great story can hold for them, “was the best hands-on experience I could hope for. It gave us a chance to really connect with those kids.
“Also, the things I learned about leading effective meetings and fund development were just awesome,” he added. “I now have even more ideas to make my YPC (Youth Philanthropy Committee) better than ever.”
Camp attendee Rebecca Neveu of Sault Ste. Marie, said the session “Bringing Service-Learning to Your School” provided new ways to encourage student participation, such as holding project-specific assemblies, classroom sharing of individual needs fellow students see in their neighborhoods and encouraging involvement through student newsletters, text messages and Tweets.
“I learned so much about Service Learning, grants, slam poetry, all the wonderful youth in Michigan and how much I want to come back next year!” said Neveu.
Brian Bates, an advisor for the Community Foundation of Greater Flint who attended the youth camp, said he came away from the event energized and with new respect for the power and dedication of today’s youth.
“After going to the 2010 Youth Philanthropy & Service Camp, I’m now convinced that it’s not the youth I need to be worried about. I’m more worried about the adults stopping them!” he said.
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