Posts Tagged ‘camp’

International track star Lolo Jones joined Citadel Corps day campers in a game of dodgeball when she paid a surprise visit yesterday. (Photo by Arvid Huisman)

International track star Lolo Jones paid a surprise visit to The Salvation Army’s Citadel Community Center (Corps) and Summer Day Camp in Des Moines, Iowa yesterday. Jones and an NBC television crew visited the center to help tell the story of how her family lived at The Salvation Army center during a time of homelessness when she was a child. Lolo was active in the Corps’ children’s ministries while she was growing up.

After playing an intense  game of dodgeball with the day camp children, Lolo encouraged them to reach for their goals. All the kids, and Lolo, had a blast!

The NBC crew captured video of Lolo Jones and the day campers in preparation for coverage of Lolo prior to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. The footage is expected to be broadcast in August 2012, but the film crew director said some of the video may be shown on NBC’s Today Show sooner.

Jones, an Olympic hurdler from Des Moines, is a two-time world indoor champion. She won her second outdoor national title in the 100-meter hurdles at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Des Moines on June 26 with a time of 12.69 seconds.

For more information about The Salvation Army’s work in Des Moines, visit their website at www.salvationarmy-desmoines.org.

Information provided by The Salvation Army’s Western Division.

The New Jersey Newsroom is running a four-part series on the New Jersey Salvation Army.

The third installment talks about Camp Tecumseh, a sprawling, 400-acre facility in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Entitled, “Camp Tecumseh Brings Salvation to New Jersey Kids,” the article follows the experience of a 19-year-old Newark man who believes the camp saved his life.

“I had just completed my first year of high school, and 29 of my classmates were killed that summer, murdered,” Darell Houseton said. “Most of it was gang-related. But some people were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, innocent bystanders. Twenty-nine is a lot. And I like to think that since I was at camp, I wasn’t No. 30, ‘cause some of these people were my friends.”

In addition to its youth camp, Tecumseh also opens its doors to veterans and seniors throughout the year for camp experiences catered to their needs.

Indeed, Camp Tecumseh is a respite that the Army endeavors to share with as many as possible.

We all need a break from time-to-time.  Stress at work, the neverending responsibilities of home, and all of the stuff in the middle can wear anyone down.  The monotony of routines.  The auto-pilot we often find ourselves working and living in.  Every now and then we all feel the need for a break.

Now what if – for whatever reason – there was no break to be had from your worries?  No vacation days.  No partner to pick up the slack.  No support system to help get you through rough times.  No moment to just slow down, take a minute and breathe.  Then what?

For so many – especially those who are able to enjoy Camp Tecumseh and the hundreds of similar Salvation Army camps across the country – there is no respite from their troubles.

The homeless, the disadvantaged, the neglected.

Through our youth camps, Kroc and recreation centers, veterans and senior programs, and Community Cares programs, The Salvation Army offers thousands of opportunities to escape, if only for a moment.  The services that we offer echo our belief that only once people have inner peace – no worries for food, shelter or immediate needs- can that peace be reflected in their lives.

For those very reasons the work that the Army does is so much more than saving souls.  Sometimes people just need to be saved from one nightmarish week, one day.  So while eternal salvation is our ultimate goal, salvation from isolation, despair, frustration and being overwhelmed are equally as important.