OUR BACKGROUND

Camp Opportunity is a nonprofit organization comprised of volunteers committed to making a difference in the lives of children who have experienced abuse and neglect. Our organization started as a one-week overnight camp and has worked towards being a year-round resource for the children we serve.

LEARN ALL ABOUT CAMP OPPORTUNITY

While our campers are the main focus of Camp Opportunity, there are a lot of other people behind the scenes that make the magic happen! Take an inside look at what our campers, counselors, and other support staff experience when they attend camp!

OUR PROGRAM

SUMMER CAMP

Our current program includes an annual, week-long, overnight summer camp for up to 64 at-risk children, ages 8-11.

The most important tenet of our summer camp program is that each camper is assigned one counselor for the duration of the week. This allows for a strong bond to develop between camper-counselor pairs. The campers greatly benefit from having this positive individual attention, which many do not get at home.

Activities include an overnight camping trip, swimming, crafts, fishing, team building activities, capture the flag, campfires, archery, and canoeing.

In addition to these activities, daily classes focus on self-worth, self-awareness, and self-esteem. This combination helps campers:

  • Increase acceptance of others

  • Create a self image as a person of worth

  • Grow leadership qualities

  • Set and pursue positive goals

  • Improve the ability to handle stress

  • Develop problem solving and decision making skills

  • Establish the ability to trust

YEAR ROUND ACTIVITIES

After summer camp, counselors are encouraged to stay connected with their campers throughout the year and we help them do this with various interim events such as a winter bowling party and a spring picnic. We continue to build our program in order to offer more resources to the children throughout the year and after graduating from camp.

HISTORY

Camp Opportunity was founded in 1985 by a group of dedicated unpaid volunteers. To this day, it relies almost exclusively on a community of people whose only compensation is the satisfaction of making a difference in the lives of the special children that we work with. In the organization’s early days, the volunteers were primarily from the same community of Dundalk, Maryland and recruited campers from their neighborhoods. Now, our community of volunteers come from all over the country, and the world, including Africa and Australia!

One tenet of the camp program is that the incorporation of certain religious ideas may benefit the campers. As such, the idea of a God or Creator may be introduced into some lessons and each day ends with a prayer of thanks. Nevertheless, we do not proselytize and our community is truly multicultural, nondenominational, and are welcoming to ideas that encourage and inspire campers and staff.