JUNE 11, 2024 – For Camp Fire candy lovers and alumni, this news will be hard to hear. It’s with a heavy heart that we share this will be the last season of candy sales (Aug. 2024 – Feb. 2025) with Brown & Haley: don’t miss your last chance to order our famous Camp Fire Mints.
It is an impactful 70-year legacy worth celebrating:
“Working with Brown & Haley these past 70 years has given our youth tremendous growth opportunities,” said Rick Taylor, CEO of Camp Fire Central Puget Sound based in Seattle, Wa. “[Young people] got to use candy sales to work on goal setting, developing a plan and tracking progress, having conversations with adults and realizing the successes of their time and efforts. Though the boxes and the count may have changed over the years, the one constant in our eight-decade partnership with Brown & Haley has been Camp Fire Mints. Whether eaten straight out of the box, frozen then put in your coffee or used to make the best s’more you ever have tasted, mints will always bring back fond memories to generations of Camp Fire youth.”
This was a difficult decision based on market demands, production efficiency, and Brown & Haley’s own business objectives. In dedication to our long-standing partnership, Brown & Haley has continued to make mints over the past two decades on one machine dedicated to Camp Fire alone.
Photo Credit: Los Angeles Public Library/Valley Times Collection – 1965
“We have been grateful for the opportunity to work with Camp Fire for over 70 years,” said John Melin, CEO & President of Brown & Haley. “We appreciate the positive impact that the Camp Fire organization has on our communities and youth, and we are proud to have played a role in your organization’s success through the Candy Fundraiser. Camp Fire is an important part of Brown & Haley’s company heritage. We would like to express our continued support and admiration for the important work that Camp Fire does in our community. We believe in the important role that the organization plays in providing valuable experiences and opportunities for young people, and we remain committed to supporting your mission.”
Camp Fire Mint-lovers will have one last year to stock up!
Camp Fire Central Puget Sound
Brown & Haley will re-do the packaging and mints will be sold in plastic pouches. Affiliates will consider other offerings for the future that will work best for their own programs and communities that can engage youth in entrepreneurial and business development activities.
Mints may be gone but the memories, skills learned, and nostalgic taste will linger for all time. A huge thank you to Brown & Haley, Camp Fire affiliates and youth, alumni, and mint-lovers for such a cherished and long-standing relationship. Cheers to the next chapter and new ways to best adapt and serve our youth and families for the decades to come.
Contact your local Camp Fire affiliate to buy your candy!
Growing up is hard. That’s why Camp Fire connects young people to the outdoors, to others, and to themselves. Founded in 1910, Camp Fire was the first nonsectarian, multiracial organization for girls but today is an inclusive national youth development nonprofit that serves all young people. By creating safe spaces where young people can have fun and be themselves, its 46 affiliates in 24 states provide affirming, year-round, youth-driven experiences—school day programs, afterschool programs, leadership programs, and camps and outdoor education—that enable youth to develop essential skills that have long-term benefits and make a positive social impact on the world.
For more information please contact:
Erin K Risner, Director of Marketing & Communications, Camp Fire National Headquarters, 913.289.4773, erin.risner@campfire.org
Living out your values is never easy. One of our core Camp Fire values is, “We honor the power of young people.” To us, honoring power means sharing power through significant youth participation and decision-making.
But what does this look like in practice? We’re working hard to authentically integrate youth voice through all layers of our organization. It takes forethought and extra energy to upend the adult-led status quo, but it’s worth it if it builds a Camp Fire truly for and by young people.
It’s a matter of equity
Youth Voice isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a justice issue.
“A huge part of it for me is the equity piece,” said Ben Matthews, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Access Manager. “Young people are also a marginalized and oppressed group of people, because of their age and adults’ assumption that they don’t know how to make decisions for themselves.”
This bias is called adultism, and it’s pervasive in our culture. Ben explained that a major red flag for an adultism attitude is responding to questions from young people with “Because I said so,” “Because I’m the adult,” or “Because that’s just the way we do things.”
“It’s so much easier to shut down the conversation, rather than to reflect on, ‘Wait a second, why do we do that?’” Ben said.
Being open to questions doesn’t mean a rule has to change. But treating young people as valuable members of a community means listening to their concerns, brainstorming solutions, and letting them share responsibility for taking action. After all, being a kid or teenager now is completely different from being a kid or teenager 20, 10 or even five years ago. Every generation has unique experiences, challenges and needs. Growing up is hard.
“Technology, language, the way relationships work—all of that has changed so much,” said Ben. “There’s really no way an adult or anyone more than a couple years older can have any idea what [young people] need right now,” said Ben.
Challenging adultism by championing youth voice ensures young people get the Camp Fire they need, not the one adults want them to have.
What is youth voice?
Inspired by the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality’s work on youth voice, Nikki Roe Cropp, Senior Director, Program Effectiveness, explained that when youth voice is fully integrated into an organization, young people share leadership with adults. On the way to that holistic collaboration, organizations often start with seeking youth input and giving young people more choices. The goal is to build on those valuable beginnings to arrive at true power-sharing.
Input: Creating opportunities for youth feedback on activities, programming aspects, and more.
Choice: Creating opportunities for young people to make relevant, meaningful and authentic decisions.
Shared Leadership: Creating opportunities for all youth to lead in diverse, varied and age-appropriate ways.
“Youth voice has been a crucial part of Camp Fire for a long time,” said Nikki, “but it’s one of those areas we need to talk about, concentrate on, and ensure we’re doing intentionally—and developmentally.”
Going from status quo to youth-led
Making the shift to shared leadership means overcoming ingrained cultural beliefs about how adults and young people are supposed to interact. Both Ben and Nikki emphasized how liberating (and even relaxing) it can be for adult leaders to share power with young people.
“It’s really getting adults to act as facilitators of learning rather than instructors of content,” said Nikki. “It’s having power with young people instead of power over.”
Sometimes organizations think of youth voice as something for older teens only, but shared leadership can start early and deepen as children grow alongside their leadership skills. Adults still need to be responsible for making safety decisions along the way, but other leadership roles can be shared at all ages. Youth voice isn’t always a linear trajectory, and Camp Fire creates space to share power in multiple overlapping ways. The leadership opportunities listed below roughly correlate to developmental stages, but don’t underestimate younger kids’ abilities to carry out more high-responsibility power-sharing. We want young people to be the leaders they are today, not just build leadership skills for the future.
Lower responsibility leadership tasks:
Handing out materials
Presenting ideas to a small group
Helping peers
Setting up snacks
Helping a group stay positive
Taking responsibility for daily routines
Explaining directions
Intermediate-responsibility leadership tasks:
Leading a group discussion, song, project, event, etc.
Co-facilitating program activities with an adult
Participating in a program task force or leadership program
High-responsibility leadership tasks:
Planning program activities
Facilitating program activities
Mentoring other youth
Participating in a youth advisory group
Starting their own initiative or group
Shared power in organizational decision-making
Advising the adults
Youth advisory groups deserve a special mention in any discussion of youth voice. They are a powerful channel for integrating youth voice into the larger organization—if the advisory component is prioritized. Leadership programs aren’t the same things as an advisory board whose function is to practice leadership. It’s easy for adults to blur the lines between youth programming and youth advisory cabinets, but adult sponsors can help maintain the focus.
Julia Fleenor Bejarano, Camp Fire Marketing Manager, and Hannah Howard, Camp Fire Evaluation Manager, both serve as Youth Voice Coordinators for the National Youth Advisory Cabinet (YAC).
“We think of our YAC like a person on our staff,” explained Hannah. “We treat our YAC members equally; they are important.”
YAC members are 16 to 18 years old, have Camp Fire experience, and commit to meeting (virtually) with Camp Fire adult leaders (our CEO, president, senior directors and directors) once a month, September through May. As experts in youth experience, they are paid for their time.
“We try to be really clear,” said Julia, on making sure other adult leaders understand the purpose of the YAC. “The youth are here to help you make decisions. Come ready.”
YAC meetings include educational content when it’s necessary for them to fulfill their mission, but the first goal is shared leadership. YAC has advised on a wide variety of topics including website design, social media content, how to word youth survey questions, internal training courses and more. In the past, the YAC has led the redesign of awards and recognitions and traditionally been one of the first stops for strategic plan feedback.
Julia and Hannah have led a professional learning community for Camp Fire affiliates interested in expanding youth voice and have met with other national youth organizations who want to start youth advisory groups. They report that it’s hard for adults everywhere to make the youth-voice shift.
“It’s really hard for folks to wrap their brain around,” said Hannah. “It’s a longer process of rewiring our brains to understand that young people are equally if not more important in conversations about youth development. It’s a reframe of the power dynamics between adults and youth.”
It’s 7 am. Your alarm just went off. You have a few minutes before you have to get out of bed. What do you do? If you’re like most people, you grab your phone and see what you missed on IG and TikTok while you were asleep.
10 am. You’re taking a little work break. You check your IG to see if anyone in the group chat replied to the meme you sent. You scroll through some reels. Suddenly, your 10 min break is up and you go back to work.
12 pm. Lunch break. You open TikTok while your food heats up. You see a text from your sister pop up. You’ll reply once this video is over. Before you know it, you’ve fallen down a TikTok drama rabbit hole and your lunch is over. You never got a chance to reply to your sister.
2 pm. You have 5 minutes before your next meeting starts. Without thinking about it you open Facebook.
4 pm. The work day is almost over. You just need to reply to some emails. You take a quick break before doing so. You check your messages and stories on IG. Maybe watch a few reels.
5 pm. Dinner time. You’re reading someone’s rant on twitter when it’s time to sit down. You can finish reading it. Having your phone at the table for a couple minutes won’t hurt. You don’t realize you start scrolling when you are finished. It is halfway through the meal before you realize you haven’t said much to your family since you sat down. The kids even pulled out their phones and are scrolling and eating.
8:30 pm. The kids are in bed. You finally have time to yourself. There are lots of things you know you could spend this time doing but you really just want to zone out and not have to think. You open TikTok. An hour and half goes by without you noticing. You go to bed and keep scrolling until you fall asleep.
Does this day look similar to yours? It looks very similar to a lot of people’s.
2 hours and 24 minutes is a lot of time when you factor in work, taking care of family, connecting with friends in real life, enjoying hobbies, etc. We all know how precious time is.
We also know that the more we spend time with something or someone, the more we take on their attributes as our own. The same goes for the content we consume: the more we watch a type of content, the more it affects how we see the world, ourselves, and others.
Enter the algorithm.
Whether you are aware of how social media algorithms work or not, they are playing a huge role in your online life. And the online life of young people.
“Social media algorithms are designed to serve up content they think a user will like, based on the history of past ranking signals…If the user likes, interacts with, or follows any of these posts or accounts, the algorithm quickly learns to serve up and suggest even more of the same.” (Thank you, Hootsuite)
Each social media platform has its own algorithm that functions a little differently but the general idea is: the algorithm is watching and learning from the way you interact with the content in your feed, and who you follow.
The algorithm also has a motive: to keep you scrolling.
How to make your algorithm work for you and your mental health:
So, if the algorithm is driving the content we see and the experience we are having on social media, what control do we have over it and the content it feeds us?
Save your likes and comments for types of content you definitely want to see again. Only interact with content that is educational, uplifting, and creating connection.
Unfollowing and muting are your friends. Your social media platforms are an extension of your space, so protect it! Unfollow or mute accounts that do not benefit your mental health and well-being.
You can also mute keywords or phrases so content that uses them does not show up in your feed.
Limit the amount of news, politics and diet culture content you have in your feed. Staying in the know is important, but there is definitely a limit to how helpful consuming that content can be. Avoid doomscrolling.
The research is undeniable: Early childhood education lays the foundation for lifelong learning, health and well-being. Studies show that sustained, high-quality early childhood education narrows achievement gaps1, improves health outcomes, increases high school graduation rates and is linked to better jobs and higher earnings in adulthood.2
But access to high-quality early learning opportunities is far from equal! In the U.S., only around half of 3- and 4-year-olds are enrolled in preschool programs.3 Families in higher-income areas tend to have better access to early education programs than those in disadvantaged neighborhoods. And systemic racism limits both the respect and resources available to early childhood educators: Low wages lead to high turnover and challenges finding qualified early educators, with women of color disproportionately doing this critical work.
As the Center for American Progress notes, “Despite ongoing oppression and exclusion, women of color—and Black women in particular—have been leaders in the movement for child care, organizing community-led solutions such as family child care networks to fill child care needs in the absence of federal or state support.”4
At Camp Fire, we are working to expand access to powerful early learning experiences, both by taking early education outdoors and by supporting early childhood educators. While 3% of the youth we served last year were pre-K and 29% were in kindergarten through 2nd grade, our impact on early learners extends beyond direct programming.
Here are two great examples:
Taking Early Childhood Education Outdoors
Catherine Hubbard, Outdoor and Nature Programming Manager for Camp Fire National Headquarters, joined the organization in early 2023. Before joining Camp Fire, Catherine spent 16 years at the Nature School at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She started as a teacher and ended up as the director of the innovative outdoor-based school. With co-author Pattie Ensel Bailie, Catherine wrote a book based on her experiences there,Partnering with Nature in Early Childhood to help other educators take early childhood learning outside, and she also is developing an online course, “Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Outdoors,” for Camp Fire’s staff and volunteers.
Catherine emphasizes that high-quality early childhood programming lays a foundation of social-emotional skills that makes all other learning possible: “Anybody who works with youth at an older age is seeing all of these issues arise—with mental health, emotional health, and self-regulation—and it’s probably because those foundational skills were skipped,” said Catherine.
She sees nature as one of our best SEL collaborators. “What I learned through my years at the Nature School is that I’m interested in how nature can be a partner in social-emotional learning (SEL),” said Catherine. Getting very young folks outside aligns with Camp Fire’s three-part vision to connect them to the outdoors, others and themselves. (More than 40,000 kids of all ages took part in 79 Camp Fire environmental and outdoor programs across the country in our most recent program year!)
In addition to the obvious nature tie-in, Catherine says that learning outdoors creates more equitable classrooms that enable connection to others. “There’s an endless amount of resources outside if nature is the source of your teaching materials,” said Catherine, comparing limited supplies in indoor spaces to the wealth of natural toys (sticks, sand, pinecones, etc.) and open space outside. “So there’s enough to go around. It creates this sense of community.”
Learning outdoors also offers opportunities for self-discovery: Young children navigate new environments, solve problems and see themselves as part of a larger ecosystem. “As you’re testing your skills in an environment where you’re free to be yourself, you’re really discovering who you are.” explained Catherine.
She promotes the power of unstructured outdoor play for early childhood students. “It never works to take a group of 3-year-olds outside and start lecturing them about plants and animals, right?” she laughed. “That is not how they learn. They learn with their whole bodies, and they need to play and wiggle and throw themselves into the mud puddles.”
Catherine said this wisdom isn’t new; it’s just been discounted by those who have viewed early childhood education as “babysitting,” not foundational learning.
“Early childhood educators have been talking about SEL for a long, long time,” said Catherine.“
Empowering Early Childhood Educators
Camp Fire First Texas is doing the opposite of dismissing early educator’s experience: It’s amplifying through their Early Education Workforce Development program.
Travis Davis, Vice President of the program, said the 20-year effort grew out of a long-time Camp Fire family’s passion for supporting early childhood education, the affiliate’s past experience running an early childhood center (now led by Early Head Start), and Camp Fire First Texas’s role as the area’s child care resource and referral touchpoint.
“The initial work of Camp Fire First Texas serving as Dallas / Fort Worth’s Child Care Resource and Referral Agency has served us well to meet the needs of early childhood teachers and directors today,” said Travis.
The Early Education Workforce Development program offers in-person and virtual workshops, an early education apprenticeship program, and Child Development Associate and Child Care Director Administrator credential courses. Travis says they try to offer professional development for people just starting their early childhood careers and those who are looking for more advanced continuing education.
There’s healthy crossover between the Workforce Development program and other Camp Fire offerings, especially afterschool initiatives. Travis is able to offer afterschool staff continuing education opportunities.
Most importantly, empowering effective early childhood educators aligns with Camp Fire’s mission, including helping very young children connect to others.
“At the heart of our work is helping young children have good relationships, both with caregivers, but also with other children in the program,” said Travis. “Then that translates to good relationships with people down the road, too.”
He cited an Early Learning Alliance study of how Fort Worth kindergarten teachers defined school readiness: Instead of focusing on academic readiness, the teachers were mostly concerned with incoming students’ social-emotional skills, such as getting along with peers, self-regulation and being able to follow simple instructions.
“That’s what being ready is really all about,” said Travis. “And that comes back to people creating environments where children can feel included and supported. And where adults have the skills they need to help build successful relationships within their program.”
Starting a lifetime of connection early
We all need to feel like we belong, whether we’re 2 or 92. And we all need to feel connected to each other.
“The essential human needs don’t change,” Catherine said. “Really small children, middle-aged people, and really old people all need to feel that they matter. They all need to feel safe and loved. And they all thrive when they have access to the outdoor world. It doesn’t really matter what age you are. It’s just a human need.”
As we get ready for Earth Day, we’re curious how our community is responding to environmental challenges in an everyday way. It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of dire headlines about climate change impacts and the need for huge systemic changes. We started looking for examples of what everyday environmental action could look like…and found Kazumi.
Kazumi Haag is a fourth-generation Camp Fire participant and a National Youth Advisory Cabinet member. Her dad, Eric, a biologist at the University of Maryland, started Spark Seekers, a Camp Fire group for Kazumi and her friends in College Park when they were grade schoolers. Growing up in Nevada, Eric had joined his sister’s Camp Fire troop because he wanted more outdoor experiences than he was getting in the local Boy Scouts. Eric’s dad (Kazumi’s grandfather) led that Camp Fire group. He was inspired by his mother (Eric’s grandmother and Kazumi’s great-grandmother), who joined Camp Fire in Florida in 1910, the year it began.
Kazumi grew up hiking and car camping with her family and Camp Fire buddies, but her relationship with the environment deepened when she joined the crew team her freshman year of high school.
Kazumi’s team rows five days a week on the Anacostia River. The Anacostia runs almost nine miles between Prince George County in Maryland and Washington, D.C., where it merges with the Potomac River. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calls it, “one of the Chesapeake Bay’s most heavily altered and contaminated watersheds.” Contaminates from nearby hazardous waste sites and storm and sewage runoff have challenged the river’s ecosystems for decades. It is illegal to swim in the Anacostia outside of closely monitored special events, and there are multiple warnings against eating the river’s fish.
“It’s a very polluted river,” said Kazumi. “You’ll come down to the dock to put your boat in the water, and you can’t because there’s so many plastic bottles that it’s like a barricade around the dock. It’s very disheartening, but it’s also made me want to help clean the river and make sure that it gets better.”
Thanks to the work the Anacostia Watershed Society and the Alice Ferguson Foundation does with the community, Kazumi already understood the environmental issues her local waterway faced. Kazumi had been on river field trips, learned watershed conservation practices, and participated in river clean-up days with her Camp Fire friends.
“One time, we went down to this site on the water, but there was no dirt next to the river, it was just packed trash,” remembered Kazumi. “There was just layers of plastic and plastic, almost like sedimentary rock”
“We filled up 30 30-gallon trash bags, and you couldn’t tell that we did anything,” said Eric. “The trash was sort of like a geological feature. After that, I pick up any piece of plastic I see in the gutter now because I know where it’s going.”
Kazumi’s crew team has a strict prohibition against plastic bottles and is working to reduce trash at their boathouse. They volunteer to help clean the smaller streams that flow into the Anacostia and plant trees, which help catch trash and filter stormwater runoff.
Her experiences on the Anacostia sparked Kazumi’s curiosity in conservation paired with human-centered environmental justice. She interns with the OneNature Institute, which “links holistic community well-being and wildlife stewardship.” And she’s also inspired by her mom, Shizuka’s, work with air quality.
Next year, she’ll be going to Bates College (beside the much cleaner Androscoggin River) where she’s going to double major in environmental studies and biology. She’s particularly interested in giraffes, whales and whale sharks — big animals, in contrast to the tiny nematodes her dad studies. She credits Camp Fire for introducing her to that initial spark for conservation and a more everyday connection to nature.
“Camp Fire changed my perspective; it took me from loving animals to wanting to save them,” said Kazumi. “But also Camp Fire helps people just take a breather. Camp Fires helped me and the other kids in our troop see that if you take a second to be outdoors and be at peace, it definitely helps.”
Eric echoes the importance of understanding the natural systems we live in. “It’s around you all the time if you open your ears to it,” he said, citing neighborhood organizations doing grassroots environmental work, the vast educational resources at state parks, and scientists like Jason Munshi-South, who study wildlife in urban environments.
“In Kazumi’s generation, there’s been a groundswell of interest in trying to reverse some of the harm that our modern human world has created for the planet,” said Eric. “There’s opportunities everywhere. In every city, in every county in the United States, there are people concerned about some environmental aspects.”
This Earth Day, if you’re overwhelmed by the scale of our planet’s environmental problems or struck by waves of climate grief, try going back to basics: Go outside. Look around. Learn one thing about the ecosystem surrounding and supporting you.
“Just walking outside, even if it’s in your neighborhood, helps you get nature in your life,” said Kazumi.
The desire for connection is something we all feel, but there is an inherent vulnerability tied to it. To connect, we must put ourselves out there in one way or another. Connection doesn’t just happen, and it doesn’t happen “to” us passively — we must take an active role — no matter who we are. Connecting to ourselves, others, and the outdoors takes courage and openness.
Camp Fire aims to be a safe place for all. It is only when that safety exists and youth can “simply be” that real connection and growth is possible (see our holisitic definition of thriving). This is our mission. Over the past program year (Sept. 2022-Aug. 2023), we’ve brought our mission to life through more than 94 in-school and afterschool programs, 79 environmental and outdoor programs, 32 teen leadership programs, forged innovative partnerships, and continued to prioritize and equity and youth voice.
You’ll find in this report the many ways that we continued to learn and grow as an organization. Advancing equity will remain a priority as we move forward as a values-led organization and strive to be relevant to today’s youth and families, meeting the current moment we all find ourselves in.
Our 46 affiliates in 24 states served more than 713,000 youth, adults and families across 5,100+ program sites over the past eight years. Numbers are important, but what really matters are the individual stories of impact at the local level.
We share the following snapshot of Camp Fire’s impact across the country to connect you with the work you make possible. Thank you for being with us on this journey.
Wishing you more courage for more connection,
Greg Zweber, CEO | Camp Fire National Headquarters
Absolutely Incredible Kid Day® is right around the corner (third Thursday in March)! If you find yourself running a little low on creativity, here are some ideas to help get you started writing/telling a kid in your life why they are absolutely incredible:
+ Try using a different word than incredible: Is your kid amazing? Wonderful? Inspiring? Spectacular? Impressive? Great? Marvelous? Fantastic? What about a more specific characteristic? Is your kid creative? Passionate? Generous? Caring? Determined? Confident? Compassionate? Do they make you smile? Laugh? Proud? Excited? Challenged to think in a different way? Inspired? Energized? There are thousands of ways to express how incredible your kid is. Don’t feel that you have to settle for one word!
+ Use the platform they respond to the most! For a lot of kids, that is social media. Do they love Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, email, or text messages? If you’re on social media, post a photo of the kid you want to praise, and try a caption like this for your post!
I’m always so impressed by how hard you work! Your passion inspires me and you teach me how to enjoy life. I am so thankful for you. #KidDay #AIKD
You make me proud, not just today, but EVERYDAY! I am so fortunate that you are in my life. Keep being you, because who you are is #incredible! Happy #KidDay! #AIKD
+ An absolutely incredible kids doesn’t have to be your kid. Don’t have kids of your own? Today is still for you! Are you a teacher who knows an incredible student? Are you a volunteer that has been inspired by the generosity of a kiddo you work with? Are you a social worker? A coach? A neighbor? A sibling? Aunt or uncle? How you know your kiddo isn’t important – it’s how they have impacted your life! Let them know you are honored to know them!
+ Stick a note in their lunch box, on their pillow, in their car, or put your AIKD letter/postcard in the mail for them!
That’s not all!
Here are examples that our National Youth Advisory Cabinet put together a few ideas for how to send an encouraging note on #KidDay!
Dear Shiloh,
I think that you are an absolutely incredible kid. You were such a fantastic help as my counselor-in-training last summer. I really admire how hard you worked to make sure that all of our campers learned and had fun. I was especially impressed by how much you grew as a leader during camp. You were great in the beginning, but by the end of camp, you were absolutely fantastic. All of the campers really admired you, and I do too! Keep working hard, and you will continue to accomplish great things. I can’t wait to work with you again next summer!
All the best,
Hey Zach!
I just wanted to take the time to point out what an absolutely incredible kid you are! You are pawsitively a joy to be around with your bright personality and sense of humor. And with your hard work and compassion, you will continue to amaze those around you. Take time to sniff out your spark and learn what makes you the wonderful person you are. It would be catastrophic for you to not to be recognized on absolutely incredible kid day and all other days for your unique spark. Stay positive and enjoy what amazing things are coming your way!
Connor,
Thank you for being an absolutely incredible kid! Being able to teach you swim lessons this summer was a blast. Seeing you grow and become a better swimmer made it all worthwhile. I hope to see you this summer again. Keep your school work up and have an amazing year.
See you later!
Still need more ideas?
Maybe words aren’t your thing. That’s okay! Paint a picture. Take a photo. Kick a soccer ball around. Choreograph a dance. Program a computer game. Learn something together.
On March 21st, tell your kiddo they are incredible in a way that is truly YOU.
Here at Camp Fire, every day is about helping kids thrive. But we wanted to take one day a year to really do it BIG. That’s why we started Absolutely Incredible Kid Day® in 1997. Every year on the third Thursday of March, thousands of adults across the country join Camp Fire in lifting up young people…with the power of words.
Yep, words. On March 21, we’re asking for your voice. A few simple words can change the way kids see themselves, their strengths and even their futures.
Here are five ways you can make a big impact this Absolutely Incredible Kid Day®:
Match the medium to the kid. Know a YouTube connoisseur? Make a video. A little artist? Draw a picture. An emoji prodigy? Send a text. An enthusiastic conversationalist? Make that phone call. A lover of the written word? Write a letter. Even if it means getting out of your own comfort zone, choose a format that fits the age, habits, and communication style of kid you’re encouraging.
Go beyond incredible. Admirable. Amazing. Astonishing. Astounding. Awe-inspiring. Brilliant. Extraordinary. Formidable. Gifted. Impressive. Inventive. Marvelous. Notable. Outstanding. Remarkable. Splendid. Stunning. Super. Talented. Unreal. Wonderful. It doesn’t have to be “incredible.” Send a message that’s as unique as the kid you’re encouraging. And highlight more of who they ARE, not just what they do.
Be specific about why they are incredible. Sure, it’s nice to be told you’re incredible. But it’s even better to know the details. Remember that we help kids develop a growth mindset when we praise their effort, strategies and progress. Instead of just saying “You’re incredible,” we can say, “You work really hard to make everyone in your class feel included.” Or “Your diligence in practicing the piano inspires me to keep practicing my own skills, too.” The more specific you are, the more encouragement you’ll give.
Make it personal. Why do they matter to you? What difference do they make in your life? What have you learned from them? Is there something you wish someone would have told you at their age that you can pass on? Put some of your own story in the message, and it will mean twice as much.
Keep it up. You don’t need to wait for next year to make a kid’s day. Put a reminder on your calendar to follow up on the message you sent in a week or a month. Support from caring adults is a key factor in helping kids thrive. Those few simple words of encouragement on a regular basis can literally change a young person’s life.
Learn more about #KidDay and join the celebration!
Our partners at On Our Sleeves are experts on youth mental health, so we asked them what advice they have for adults who want to encourage young people for Absolutely Incredible Kid Day® on March 21st.
Every year, millions of people write/tell a young person in their life why they matter and what makes them amazing. Camp Fire founded this holiday in 1997 to encourage and inspire young people nationwide. Learn more at campfire.org/kidday.
Your words are powerful. Encourage a young person. Make an impact.
We have talked quite a bit about SEL over the years. This #SELday, Sr. Director of Program Effectiveness, Nikki Roe Cropp, shares more about how we use SEL in our programs and why it is essential to the work we do.
We know that kids who have a certain set of competencies and skills are better able to navigate through challenging times and cope with adversity. The process in which youth gain these necessary skills and competencies is called social-emotional learning or SEL. Social-emotional learning is nothing new—teachers, counselors, coaches, and youth workers have been modeling and teaching social and emotional development strategies for a long time. There are decades of research that illustrates the benefits of SEL for kids both in and out of the classroom. SEL is infused into Camp Fire’s program framework, making it a cornerstone of the Camp Fire experience.
SEL has changed over the years. It was changing before the pandemic as folks implementing it started recognizing that this process of building social and emotional skills needs to be contextualized to different cultures, norms, and priorities. Just as regular teaching has evolved over the years to include more culturally responsive practices, so has SEL. And then during and after the pandemic and racial unrest in our country, SEL had to evolve again—as kids’ needs changed during that time.
Transformative SEL was born in response to us finally acknowledging the disparities in education and opportunities based on a kid’s socioeconomic status, race, zip code, home language, disability status, and other factors. “Transformative SEL” is a form of SEL implementation where young people and adults build strong, respectful, and lasting relationships to engage in co-learning. It facilitates critical examination of individual and contextual factors that contribute to inequities and calls for collaborative solutions that lead to personal, community, and societal well-being. It recognizes that youth can be a part of creating just environments now and for the future.
Today’s young people are primed for Transformative SEL. Search Institute recently reported that youth are more invested today in caring, equality and social justice, cultural competence, and valuing diversity than they were in 2016.
Graph to the right: Internal comparison of trends between 2020 and 2022 Attitudes & Behaviors Survey aggregate data
We know that empathy and compassion are not enough to advance equity. At Camp Fire, we employ practices and programming that center humanity, honor identity, promote healing and liberation, and build skills needed to act and advocate for social justice. This is Transformative SEL in action!
![“We try to be really clear [with leadership.] The youth are here to help you make decisions. Come ready.” - Julia Fleenor Bejarano](jpg/random-24-1024x1024.jpg)
