Camp Winnarainbow's Grace & Joy Scholarship Fund allows young people, ages 7-14, from disadvantaged backgrounds (homelessness, foster care, incarcerated parents, very low income, etc.) to experience the joy of a truly unique 501(c)3 non-profit summer camp. Camp Winnarainbow uses circus and performing arts to promote personal empowerment, self-expression and leadership development.
While there are many excellent programs that work exclusively with "inner city" or other categories of children at risk, Camp Winnarainbow seeks to do something different. Camp tries to nurture and develop a community that reflects the world children will grow up in, and do so by intentionally drawing campers from a variety of backgrounds. While campers benefit from an extremely wide array of fun and stimulating activity choices (trapeze, drama, nature hikes, hip-hop dance, stilts, poetry and conflict resolution training just to name a few), they also gain an appreciation for differences as they live among kids who come from all kinds of backgrounds. It is Winnarainbow's conviction that they can then become the catalysts for social change and have a positive effect on the future.
Camp Winnarainbow provides children a truly unique and deeply empowering environment in which they discover their own strengths and learn to appreciate those of others, thus gaining important perspectives necessary for effective leadership. As Camp Co-Founder Wavy Gravy likes to say, "Kids learn timing and balance. I call it survival in the 21 st century or how to duck with a sense of humor and a little compassion."
Please join Camp Winnarainbow in its mission to teach, entertain, educate and empower children through the arts by giving us your financial support. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to the Grace & Joy Scholarship Fund, please send a check payable to: The Grace & Joy Scholarship Fund 1301 Henry Street Berkeley, CA 94709 For information on how to apply for a scholarship, click here
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Camp Winnarainbow is extremely proud to have touched the lives of thousands of young people through its scholarship fund. Perhaps the best way to understand Winnarainbow's impact comes from the words of one scholarship recipient, Grace W. who in fact was the very first one, after whom (along with her sister Joy), the Scholarship Fund is named. Grace and Joy first came to camp from a very difficult situation. They later became supervisors at camp.
Over twenty years ago, I arrived at Winnarainbow a very sad, scared, confused and at times angry eleven year old child. I had been separated from my siblings and placed into foster care three years before and remnants of the physical abuse I endured in my early years still lingered with me. Three years in foster care had only compounded my fears and confusion. I had been placed in a home absent of love - no kisses, no hugs, and no reassurance. I will never forget my first day at camp...my two sisters and I were reunited not just for a couple of hours, but a time where we would spend a whole month together - day and night. In that next month I stopped expecting the worst and instead, for the first time in my life, I felt free to be a child. Besides learning to swim, stilt walk and juggle, I also picked up life skills without even realizing it...how to channel my feelings of frustration and anger into more positive avenues...I learned to feel a connection not only to the Earth but to all who live on it... from stilt walking. juggling and African dance classes...I learned about trust and friendship...I learned how to let down my protective walls and just be a child having fun. Help
a economically disadvantaged child come to camp by making a tax-deductible
donation
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