Riverwoods Children Camp

by Jack VanNoord

Tissanie is 16 years old.  She is confident, composed and articulate.  This summer while most of her friends are back in Elgin hanging out or flipping burgers, Tissanie is a counselor at Riverwoods Camp in St. Charles. 

Riverwoods is a Christian Camp that will serve 700 six though twelve year olds this summer.  All 700 will come from disadvantaged neighborhoods in Carpentersville, Elgin and Aurora.  Campers spend their week swimming, canoeing, singing, learning about nature and going to chapel.  

Tissanie started attending Riverwoods camp when she was six.  When she was thirteen and too old to be a camper, the Riverwoods staff enrolled her in their Leaders in Training program.  When she completed that program, they made her a junior counselor.  Tissanie believes that being a counselor is a way to give back to the camp that has played such a big role in shaping who she is. 

 Campers frequently say that their week at Riverwoods is the best week of their year.  But, Riverwoods Camp is more than just a place where underprivileged kids get a one-week break form their difficult, urban lives.   

Riverwoods is as much a social service provider as it is a summer camp.  For example, older kids like Tissanie will tour area colleges.  The camp staff helps them fill out college applications and paperwork for grant money.   

Riverwoods has targeted 15 pockets of poverty in the Fox River Valley.  The camp has liaisons who work with local churches in these areas to develop tutoring, mentoring and after-school programs.  Advocates help to recruit the kids for the camp in the spring and follow up with them and their families throughout the year. 

Brian and Claudia are two such advocates.  They are both year-round staff with Riverwoods.  Recently married and  in their twenties, they will be taking their role as advocates one step further this fall.  On September 1st, they are moving into low-income housing in Foxview in Carpentersville in order to more successfully serve the families they wish to reach.  In Brian’s words “We want to live where they live so that we can experience what they experience.  When their power goes out, ours goes out.”   

Riverwoods is an incredibly effective outreach staffed with amazingly dedicated individuals.  It is exactly the kind of solution we need more of. 

Despite a large annual operating budget, Riverwoods chooses not to pursue government grants.  The Camp Program Director explains that doing so would compromise their ability to do ministry as they see fit.  They have chosen to operate almost exclusively on gifts from individuals and churches.  

Riverwoods realizes, as do so many other charitable organizations, that government money ALWAYS comes with strings attached.   

I appreciate the recent attention that President Bush has brought to faith-based social organizations.  But government does not need to get involved to make these faith-based solutions viable.  As Riverwoods demonstrates, they are doing quite well, thank you very much. 

It should come as no surprise that Bush the Politician wants to place government at the center of the vast network of faith-based social services.   His proposed legislation seeks to funnel our charitable dollars through the federal government and to the charities of his choice.    

If President Bush is serious about empowering faith-based organizations, he should keep government out of it.  It would be more effective to offer a bigger tax deduction for charitable giving.  Then you and I would have even more of our money to give to the charities of our choice.   

Soon, all of us will receive a $300 tax refund.  May I suggest that you use your $300 to demonstrate that we are capable of funding faith-based social programs without the government serving as middleman.   

For more information about Riverwoods go to RiverwoodsChristianCenter.org. 

07-16-2001

Written by Jack VanNoord - West Dundee.