From the Classroom to Camp Jenny: Who are our Campers?

Camp Jenny Campers - We can't have Camp Jenny without them! Who are they, and how do they earn the opportunity to come to Camp ?

Since its inception, the mission of Camp Jenny has always been to provide an overnight summer camp experience to those who could not otherwise afford it. In the early years, campers came from the Fowler Street School, an elementary school built in the midst of the Techwood and Clark Howell housing projects in downtown Atlanta. Our relationship with Fowler lasted through the spring of 1995, when the school was demolished in order to build housing for the 1996 Olympics. After that, we worked for a few years with students from Emmaus House, an after-school program in Peoplestown on Atlanta's south side, before returning to our elementary school roots, joining forces with Walter Francis White Elementary School. Finally, when the Atlanta Public School District reorganized in 2012, we began our current partnership with F.L. Stanton Elementary School, serving economically impoverished students from Atlanta's historic Mozley Park neighborhood.

It is important to the school community that Camp Jenny not be a "freebie." Campers earn their seat on the bus through the acronym "CAMP" - Come to School, Awesome Attitude and Actions, Make an Effort (not necessarily good grades), and People (parents and other guardians) Participation. Campers are recognized throughout the year for all of these behaviors by teachers and school staff, and Camp Jenny provides attendance incentives during the spring semester to help students keep their "eye on the prize." Ultimately, classroom teachers and the school administration work together with Judy Limor, Camp Jenny School Liaison, to enable campers to apply to attend Camp Jenny and ensure that parents have the information needed for kids to participate. 

Camp Jenny's engagement with F.L. Stanton is not limited to Memorial Day Weekend. Visits over the course of the year include the annual Camp Jenny theme launch, monthly motivational assemblies, and parent informational meetings leading up to Camp in May. Additionally, Atlanta-area synagogues and other Camp Jenny partners help provide food donations for students over school holidays. Over the years, Camp Jenny has also supported the school population with after-school and weekend tutoring, clothing donations, various b-Mitzvah efforts, and painted murals on the school walls. School principal, Dr. Qualyn McIntyre, remarks, "[We] truly appreciate [Camp Jenny's] support."