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. What began as a one-week overnight camp has grown into a year-round resource, providing a safe and supportive space where kids are free to simply be kids.

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, hiking, team building activities, capture the flag, campfires, rock climbing, and canoeing.

In addition to these traditional camp activities, daily classes from our Journey program focus on self-worth, emotional regulation, 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. We help them do this with various interim events such as:

  • A spring graduation picnic

  • Holiday gift deliveries

  • Monthly virtual cabin times

    We are continuing to build our program in order to offer more resources to the children we serve throughout the year and after graduating from camp.

Meet the faces behind camp

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!

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.