Camp Fire USA - A youth development organization
Camp Fire USA is one of the nation’s leading not-for-profit organizations in youth development. They "spark the light in every child" by helping them grow academically, socially, and emotionally. The Midlands Council, the local Camp Fire USA organization, serves nearly 20,000 local boys and girls in grades K-12 with after-school and summer educational programs, community learning centers, and prevention education plays.
Camp Fire USA received the proceeds from our first event, Who's Your Omaha Nexus?. In addition to attending the event, participants voted to participate in the following activities:
After School Program Projects
Kids in Camp Fire's After School Programs enjoy a variety of experiences and activities because of the
generosity of groups like Omaha Nexus. For example, we have a gardening project at one program that is
funded through an individual donor that provides our kids the chance to grow their own garden. The kids
are responsible for planning the layout, planting the seeds and tending to their vegetables each day all
while learning about the importance of nutrition and community service. These types of hands on activities
give the kids something real to look to other than a craft. Our programs are always looking to be involved
in a variety of activities ( i.e. art, sports, drama, cooking, insert your favorite hobby here!). Having
the funding to do so liberates our coordinators to truly "think outside of the box" in how they deliver the
programs, and your group can help implement the activities or lead the program depending upon their interests.
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Teen Mentoring
Camp Fire teens need mentors to succeed. Oftentimes just having a trusted adult who speaks their language
discussing college and career opportunities with them provides them with the confidence they need to make
decisions. Funding could be put toward providing field trips for the teens to explore college and career
choices and volunteers from the group would pair off with the teens to establish mentoring relationships.
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Family Nights
Each Omaha Camp Fire After School Program offers participating children to bring their families to program
one night a month for dinner and educational activities. These opportunities give our parents the chance
to meet one another, discuss issues with the Camp Fire staff and truly come together as a community. Each
program budgets to spend $5.00 per person for food and activities for the night. With programs serving
anywhere from 30 to 400 people for their family nights, extra funding and helping hands would make it
possible for our staff to focus on strengthening their relationships with both the kids and their families.
Funding and volunteers would also make it possible for programs to provide a special end of year party for
their kids or in the case of our Council Bluffs programs, allow them to have more than two family nights per
semester. As volunteers, your members would help serve food, greet parents, run activity stations and even
provide themes for the stations depending on how involved the group would like to be in the planning process.
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