Our Initiatives -Camp Challenge
Camp Challenge, offered by the North Carolina Bankers Association, is a summer camp experience for high-achieving, low-resource students who are entering the 6th, 7th and 8th grades. Communities In Schools of North Carolina has been granted three weeks at Camp Challenge in July with 100 students attending each week. Students from across the state are afforded this opportunity through a CISNC partnership with NCBA and Camp Challenge. Eligible students attend Camp at no cost to their families, thanks to the generosity of North Carolina banks, foundations and friends of the camp.
Camp Challenge kids learn age-appropriate personal finance skills, including recognizing the difference between wants and needs, how to operate checking and savings accounts and find alternatives to spending. While at Camp, students explore public speaking, entrepreneurship, personal development, citizenship responsibilities, conflict resolution and business concepts. Campers also enjoy traditional summer camp activities such as horseback riding, swimming and hiking. Camp Challenge is held during the summer months in week-long sessions at the Sertoma 4-H Educational Center in Stokes County near Hanging Rock State Park.
For more information about the CIS Weeks at Camp Challenge, please contact Christopher Capel.
Please note: All 3 weeks of Camp Challenge offered to our CIS students for Summer 2012 are now FULL! Applications are still being accepted to be placed on the waiting list. Click here for the 2012 Camp Challenge Application.
Want to know more? Check out the video we produced on Camp Challenge, part of our 2011 "Overcoming Obstacles: CIS Success Stories" video series.
"I can't thank you enough for all you do to make Camp Challenge available to our kids. It was as though I had a different group of kids on the bus going home to Mitchell County than I had coming to Camp Challenge. From the moment I picked them up on Friday they were full of enthusiasm, plans and goals and gratitude. None of them would have had a camp or enrichment experience this summer without Camp Challenge. You've given us something to build on with these kids in the school year ahead. I believe they will look back on Camp Challenge as a life-changing experience. Thank you for Camp Challenge.”
—Lori Gilcrist, Executive Director of CIS of Mitchell County
