Summer of 2022
The Orange County Peace Camp was founded in 1993 and teaches children the importance peace, non-violence, and social justice. The summer of 2022 was our first year volunteering at OC Peace Camp, and it made a powerful impact on us.
We participate in this week-long camp as youth leaders. With our roles being youth leaders, we are responsible for leading activities and supervising campers. Throughout this experience, we emphasized the importance of anti-bias education – making sure that everyone was able to participate in activities and express their feelings freely
One of our approaches to achieving a bias-free environment was providing opportunities to include children who may not have access to certain forms of education. Therefore, we spoke with the Thomas House Family Shelter to arrange for children living in the shelter to have a chance to participate at camp. In 2022 we raised $2000 to bring ten children from Thomas House Family Shelter to OC Peace Camp. In the following years, we also raised money to support children from Thomas House Family Shelter in attending camp.
In 2024, Carina created seven oil pastel pieces to sell at the camp’s annual Family Night – a Thursday evening for campers’ families to gather to celebrate what their children have learned throughout the week-long camp. Raising over $400, all proceeds were used to ensure that camp could run regularly in future years.
