Space Change

13Jun11

About 7 years ago, I was nominated and selected for a two-week long summer program called the Wartburg Youth Leadership School. My home community sponsored me, as the school was about $500 and the plane ticket was another $300, and to them, I’m indebted as they provided the possibility for what has so entirely changed my life.

At WYLS, the first week included lessons, games, an outdoor movie theater in the middle of a cornfield and 3-days on a high ropes course. The second week included traveling from Dubuque, Iowa to Atlanta, Georgia, and volunteering at the National Youth Convention at the High Ropes Course. We harnessed and belayed long lines of people for 10 hours a day. The experience included turning 16, my first time flying, my first time to be out of the South, and my first real time away from my parents and everything I knew. In ways beyond the ability to describe, this experience challenged me and changed me. I went without knowing why I was going, or what I was going to find there. I came back with a bigger picture for the world and a thirst to act with integrity and curiosity into experiencing the big world.

Camps have the power to change reality. It’s a space where youth are outside of any social constraints, and are placed into an environment of absolute community, where anything is freely possible. It’s a safe place and a place where youth find hope and feel the challenge to act within their world. I was a quiet, over-thinking kid, overwhelmed with everything, and did not feel like I belonged at all. Camp, for me, taught me that I could be funny, and could act now with what I felt so passionate about – living into a reality where people can live into the space and opportunity of self-transformation. That’s what camp did for me, and I’m an American, where there are so many resources and opportunities already available.

Spaces, like camp, where youth feel safe and inspired are especially important in their middle and high school years. Now, imagine, that we take the idea of camp, and put it into an environment, like Ukraine. Ukraine is a developing country on almost every level possible, and youth are the social group most at stake in the transition. For Ukrainian youth, the reality is that camp becomes exponentially powerful and exponentially life-changing.

Ukrainian youth, who attend camps such as MASCOT Camp, gain hope and leadership skills that can never be taken away. They are equipped with knowledge, skills, and a challenge to take what they learn at camp and then implement projects in their own community. This, I believe, is one of the best ways to cause social change: to equip youth with skills to initiate and create positive change in their communities.

My friend Kolya and I, along with 30 other  Ukrainians and Americans are preparing for a 10-day camp called MASCOT Camp. We believe that through the combination of creativity and civic leadership, it becomes possible and exciting for Ukrainian youth to take the initiative to cause change in their own lives and in the lives of their home communities.

By having an equal partnership between Ukrainian and American staff, we are living into the reality that social change is a global event and takes everyone. I, Kolya, the 30 staff, and 100 Ukrainian campers are in need of your help. By donating to the partnership project, you are becoming part of the MASCOT community. You become one of those people, who creates possibilities for others to have a life-ratifying experience.

It happened to me, now please, let’s make it happen on a much larger scale, with a much larger impact. I promise you, it is absolutely worth donating to this project and your money has a huge impact.

Please, whatever you can – even if it’s $5 – donate to our project, and donate as soon as you can. The dates for camp are soon approaching and we are in need of the project being fully funded within the next few weeks. Please make space in your budget to donate to MASCOT Camp.

Thank you.

-iea

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