Now is your chance to send a child to camp.

Your support today provides camp scholarship for 20 children this summer - families who might otherwise sit on our waiting list and children who might otherwise be turned away from our scholarship. But your support today enables us to embrace them into our JFS family.

For many of us, when we hear summer camp mentioned, it brings back fond memories of playing outdoors, nature hikes, and splashing in a pool with new friends. But for too many families in our area, allowing their children to attend summer camp is just not an option as most programs cost well beyond their means.

 

It is hard to believe that summer camp is a luxury for many families in our area - but that truth exists for more than you know.  In today's economic environment the request from families for financial support continues to grow while at the same time private and local funding is being reduced. An experience that most children take for granted is a far-fetched dream for those who walk through the doors of JFS.

With your help, JFS can reach its goal of providing aid to 20 children this summer. Your support will provide the opportunity for these children to attend Jewish outdoor camping programs.

 

Financial assistance is available for eligible families from the greater Stamford, Darien, New Canaan, Westport, Weston, Wilton and Norwalk area who are looking for rewarding Jewish summer experiences for their children.

 

Research has shown attendance at Jewish camps helps to strengthen youngsters’ Jewish identities and involvement in Jewish communities, now and into the future.  By providing our parents with the assistance they desperately need, we are enabling them to turn their hopes and dreams for their children ideas into a meaningful reality. 

As a result of the JFS Camp Scholarship program, more than fifty-five children were able to attend Jewish summer camp last year. This year, our goal is to increase that number to 75 children - enabling us to encourage more parents to consider Jewish camps for their family.

 

“Thank you for your generous scholarship for my son to go to camp. He loves spending his summers there and without your help I wouldn’t be able to send him for the entire session.”

--- parent of one of our grateful recipients

What is the JFS Camp Scholarship Campaign?

 

This is an exciting time for JFS, a time for us to tell not only our story as an organization, but the stories of the campers and families who have received a JFS Camp Scholarship. Maybe it is the immigrant Russian family who is using our scholarship award as their opportunity to send their child to a Jewish camp for the first time in their lives. Perhaps it is the family who just recently experienced loss of employment and had no means to provide a summer camp experience for their three elementary-aged children. It might be the single mom working two job to provide for her son and still needing that extra support to make his summer dreams a financial reality.

These are the stories of JFS. These are the families who benefit from our support. Your neighbors right here in your own backyard. 

This JFS Camp Scholarship Campaign is our attempt toward making the community more aware of this critical service that we provide, one that demonstrates our commitment to serving families and children and assisting them in the areas they need most. 

 

What will be the impact of my support?

 

Your support will enable us to increase the number of families who receive our support, as well as have the opportunity to increase our level of support.  When you donate to the camp scholarship fund, we are able to increase the level of support we provide to our families, thereby enabling us to assist more children each summer. 

 

100% of your donation to JFS goes directly to the camp scholarship fund. That means more families served, more children touched, and more lives enriched.

 

What can I do now?

Pledge your support - large or small - it’s about the gesture more than it is the size of your gift.

 

Your support today provides camp scholarship for 20 additional families this summer - families who might otherwise sit on our waiting list and children who might otherwise be turned away from our scholarship. But your support today enables us to embrace them into our JFS family.

 

If you’d like to get involved in our community as a volunteer, mentor or supporter in some other capacity, email us. 

 

Jewish Family Service is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit. All gifts are tax deductible.

 

Learn more at www.ctjfs.org