Needs From: sjvolunteers

Looking for motivated adults who are willing to make a difference in a child's life.

For one week in August, children ages 7-17 from the New Jersey and Philadelphia area can attend Camp Bright Feathers.  Camp Bright Feathers is dedicated to serving children and teens affected by HIV/AIDS and/or violence through a nurturing overnight camp program that focuses on improving the health, well-being and self-sufficiency of all.   Camp Bright Feathers provides a stress-free, fun, recreational camp in the woods for these children that are dealing with an assortment of issues back at home.  It’s a chance for these children to be just kids.

The camp is held at YMCA of the Pines (Formerly known as Camp Ockanickon) which is located in Medford, New Jersey.  The camp sits on over 800 acres in the heart of the pine barons.   The camp has two man made lakes where the children can go swimming, boating, and fishing.  The campers also participate in land sports, arts and crafts, nature, horseback riding, hiking, tractor rides, campfires, talent show, a dance, and karaoke. The older campers get a chance to enjoy the climbing wall, and zip line.  Each dinner has a theme were the campers and staff dress up to win a prize.  Tuesday night the camp is treated to an outside entertainment. Wednesday evening the camp comes together for its talent show.  The camp comes together on Thursday for its special event and finishes the day with the traditional camp dance.  Then on Friday the campers and staff finish with some extra activities and a last meal together.  Volunteers get an opportunity to teach their talents to the campers and introduce some cools things to campers.  Another great things is that you get to do some cool activities with the campers.  Gives you an opportunity to not only teach but you get to enjoy cool activities.  Maybe even an activity you always wanted to try. 

The camp is run by a mixture of new and long time veteran counselors.   Almost all of the volunteers use personal vacation time to be at camp.  The staff go through several training (Giving up additional personal free time) to ensure that they can provide a fun and safe time for the campers.  Each individual brings their own individual talents and expertise to help provide a memorable experience for each child.  Now in our 34th year, Camp Bright Feathers has had the pleasure of providing a wonderful experience to over 3,200 campers and look forward to continuing this experience for many more years.

We hope to see you at camp this summer for a life changing event for both you and the campers.