Hartford's Camp Courant

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:29):
Slash podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Welcome to Pulse of the Region, brought to you by
the Metro Hertford Alliance. The Metro Heartford Alliance collaborates with
investors and partners to elevate the Hartford region through economic
development work, convening the community around shared challenges, and providing
local chamber support. Learn more about their mission and how
to get involved at Metrohartford dot com. Pulse of the
Region is produced in partnership with Oakhill. O'kill was originally

(00:53):
founded as a school for the blind in eighteen ninety three.
Okhill has provided holistic, person centered services for individuals with
disabilities for over one hundred.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
And thirty years.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
With empowerment and independence as its guiding principles. OKILL works
in partnership with the individuals it serves to provide residential, educational,
and enrichment opportunities. Learn more at okillct dot org. Now
here's your host for Pulse of the Region, KATEE. Balman.

Speaker 5 (01:19):
Hello, and welcome to Pulse of the Region, the show
where every single week we get to highlight some of
the incredible things happening here throughout our greater Hertford business community.
I'm your host, Kate Alman, and as always thrilled to
have you join us here today. We're here in the
studio recording, which I always love because I have people
smiling back at me, which is so great. With our
two guests here today are So We're in the Candy

(01:40):
Cane Building in downtown Hartford, our capital city, and today
we are getting the pulse about Hertford's Camp Current from
its one hundred and thirty year long history to its
impact here on our community today. A lot of wonderful
things to talk about and to wonderful guests joining the show.
So without further ado, I will introduce them. Both are
from Hartford's Camp Current First is their CEO. It is

(02:02):
Corey Anne Chappello. Coreyanne, welcome back to Pulse.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Of the Region. Thank you so much, of course.

Speaker 5 (02:07):
Well, it's wonderful to have you today, wonderful to be here, fantastic.
And next joining her from Hartford's Camp Current is Sam Tapper.
He is their mission Engagement coordinator. So Sam, welcome back
to the show to you. Thrilled to be backape fantastic. Well,
I'm glad we didn't start it's frightening you guys off
last year. I think last year we were at Korean
you were about to give birth, so I think we
were actually more frightened Sam and I potentially, but oh.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, that was any minute at that point.

Speaker 5 (02:30):
It really was. So that's our So baby's doing well,
baby's doing great.

Speaker 6 (02:34):
Yep, hitting all the milestones earlier than expected, which is
just I'm not ready for it.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
But it's good.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
I was gonna say, so good news, but yeah, yeah,
so fantastic. Well, glad to have you guys here today.
And I'm sure for many of our listeners Hartford's Camp Current,
you know, such a staple here in the community, but
Korean if you don't mind touching just a reminder refresher
for those who may not be familiar or who haven't
heard about the camp in a little bit.

Speaker 6 (02:56):
So Camp Current is one hundred and thirty years old.
Like you said today, we are the oldest largest free
day camp in the entire country. We yes, we serve
as seven hundred and fifty children every single day with
an array of different programs and activities.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
I think we're up to fifteen now.

Speaker 6 (03:13):
Sam will fact check me if I'm giving you any
inaccurate information you're doing for We have two meals a day,
breakfast and lunch, and we have nutritious snacks aout the day,
as well as free transportation to and from camp. So
we try to make sure that every single piece is
covered for our parents and that the kids get to
come to camp and essentially just be a kid. They
get to choose fun things that they want to do

(03:34):
every single day, whether it's swimming or yoga or stem
or nature.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
I mean, you name it, we have it. It's incredible.

Speaker 6 (03:41):
The team of people I am surrounded by every single
day at camp, and the longevity within that team is
the wealth of knowledge and the passion I mean that
makes people want to go to work every single day
and it makes the kids want to come back season after.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
Season definitely, and that's you know, the key word, their passion.
And you know, I know both of you and I
have the pleasure of working with you know often, and
I think we see each other at events. If I
don't see you at a week, I'm a little off.
So I'm glad we're able to record us today because
I haven't seen you yet this week. But certainly passionate
for both of you, and you know seem if you
could talk a little bit about your role within the organization, Yeah.

Speaker 7 (04:11):
My role is doing things like this, spread spreading the mission,
spreading the good word, right. You know, we do so
many incredible things at CAM Current over a dozen programs,
like you said, and it's really important that we capture
the really special moments to share with the community, just
with our parents of what really are their kids getting
into every day and doing and learning for the community,
for donors, partners, just to see where the impact they

(04:34):
are making for us is going and to pull it
the heartstrings a little bit. So managing social media, getting
really creative with our collateral like newsletters and things like that,
just doing anything we can, just being out in the
community with you guys.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
Just spreading the good word. It's I love it.

Speaker 5 (04:48):
And a lot of good word to spread. And especially
one hundred and thirty years. We need to talk more
about this, which is I mean, talk about a milestone.
And throughout the entire year of twenty twenty four Korean
you've been celebrating. So you talk a little bit just
first off, high level overview and what's the celebration looked
like so far?

Speaker 2 (05:04):
It's been great.

Speaker 6 (05:05):
I mean we've encompassed every single aspect our years almost
up right, we're in fourth quarters, yes, right, arcam season.
Throughout our events, we've really been celebrating around it. And
I know that I defer to Sam and he's going
to hate me for this, but he does have our
history facts and I think it's really cool when he
put it in perspective of how many things Camp has
stood through the time.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Give us some quick little bullet.

Speaker 7 (05:28):
Well, I mean it's one hundred and thirty eighteen ninety four.
You think about who was president at the time, let's
start there. I think that might have been William McKinley
or even before.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
I that's off the top of my head.

Speaker 5 (05:37):
I don't remember, but I'm impressive even had it.

Speaker 4 (05:40):
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (05:40):
You know, we're just going to go for that snow
Live fact checkers here, McKinley. But also two World Wars,
not one, not two. Two pandemics. You know, we went
through twenty twenty together, but you know, we had the
flu in the nineteen twenties.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
It's overcome so much.

Speaker 7 (05:55):
You know, there was a gas shortage for buses during
World War Two that we had to really adapt this.
This whole thing started with trolley and steamboat excursions and
now we have what we have in Patterson Park now.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
So it's it's overcome.

Speaker 7 (06:07):
A lot, and it's thriving and it's thriving and we're
still moving forward and progressing. There's still more we can
do for our kids. There's still more we can do
for our families. And you know, while we are there
in the summer to keep being that space, you know,
we are here year round and our goal first and
foremost is to be there for the community, be there
for our kids.

Speaker 6 (06:25):
Thriving through that one hundred and thirty and we're definitely
looking forward to the next one hundred and thirty. So
even though we've been celebrating hence fourth quarter, I'm like, oh,
it's almost up.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
We're never done celebrating now.

Speaker 6 (06:34):
I mean, our joy of what we do is apparent
every single day. It's surround us and make sure that
we stay relative, relative, and relevant to what we're doing
every day.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Our kids they speak to us.

Speaker 6 (06:46):
They tell us what they want, what they need to see,
Our parents tell us what they need is and we
tried our best to continue and adapt to what that
looks like. Yes, it's been one hundred and thirty years.
Yes we've done a summer camp, but now we do
so much more than that, and we're going to get
to need to do that.

Speaker 5 (07:00):
Yes, and can you talk more about that, because I
think that's something. Over the last several years, there have
been a lot of incredible changes and if you could
highlight some of those off the top, I.

Speaker 6 (07:10):
Mean, I get made fun of constantly because I don't
know how to walk. I run, and that's fine, going
we commend you for it. But you know, I hit
the ground running right when I came into this role,
and it was in the height of the pandemic in
twenty twenty, and we've had so much change within that
time period that people almost forget, like We were in
the Harpercurrent building not too long ago, and we have

(07:30):
transformed our entire building.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
We have added heat and resources to be there full time.

Speaker 6 (07:35):
We have staffed our team up, we have added additional programming,
we have added additional community partners and resources, and we
have built up our Junior Leader program. I mean, we
have done and accomplished so many things that when you
look back to reflect, it's like hard to not take
it to other and be like wow.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
But then I look at all.

Speaker 6 (07:53):
That we have left that we can continue to keep doing,
and the world and the landscape has been changing, especially
in the last couple of years where it's harder right.
So we keep wanting to grow and meet these needs,
but to fill it is it's getting more challenging. Between
costs for normal things that we've been paying for forever,
bussing for example, like that it's one of our highest expenses,

(08:14):
and food changing that landscape.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
We did our entire kitchen to have a.

Speaker 6 (08:21):
Higher standard for our kids to make sure that they
were getting hot meals for breakfast and lunch, and that
was a huge undertaking and that keeps changing.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Food costs keep going up.

Speaker 6 (08:29):
I mean, so we're trying to meet these needs, but
we're getting hit at the same time with real world
around us.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Things aren't going to be the same.

Speaker 6 (08:35):
So how do we adjust and make sure we're thriving
and growing while still maintaining the great program we have
for those seven hundred and fifty kids. So I think
that's our daily struggle and our daily challenge. But we
do want to continue to keep expanding and growing, and
there's so much more we can do. I mean, it's
wild how many things we can do. We brainstorm on
our team. I'm like, that's amazing. How are we going
to do it? Right?

Speaker 5 (08:56):
Yeah, I love this idea. So and with that, you know,
some big expansions into this year. And you touched on
the kitchen, but really the facility itself and if you
could touch a little bit. I don't know who wants
to take this question, but I'm really two. You guys
are now able to offer different types of opportunities as
an event space, which I'm not sure maybe there's some
in our business community that maybe don't aren't aware of
that yet.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
So please come see us.

Speaker 6 (09:16):
One of the things that we're trying to do to
offset the costs for our mission is we launch a
social enterprise accelerated through the Harvard Fundation of Public Giving,
and we are doing rentals at our campsite. We have
a thirty six acre gorgeous campsite that we maintain all
year round.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
It has indoor and outdoor space.

Speaker 6 (09:32):
It's great for parties, get togethers, corporate retreats, team building exercises,
just getting out of the office and having new scenery.
There's so many ways to utilize our space, and we
have great community partners that have done so even before.
I think that's what kind of sparked this idea. So
we have people who are in our world that love Camp.
But if you don't know camp or you haven't seen Camp,

(09:54):
I don't think that we're top of that list. Sam
will tell you that people he has brought to Camp
has networking groups and things that when people come in
for the first time, the expression is always like, oh
my gosh, I didn't I didn't realize this is what
camp was.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
I think everyone has a notion.

Speaker 7 (10:09):
It's either that or it's I live like two minutes
away from here, had had no idea this was here.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
It's usually one of those two.

Speaker 7 (10:15):
And again going back to what Korean said about our
space is seven weeks out of the year we have
camp programming. Okay, the remainder of the forty five, we
have our thirty six acres to keep up. So you know,
please come out and see it, Please utilize it, because
by you utilizing it, that helps us. And you don't
get that with just any space, you know, hosting a
board retreat. I mean I've hosted a board retreat at

(10:36):
camp before. It's you know, just by doing that, you
are supporting our city and our kids.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
And it's simple and it's great.

Speaker 6 (10:44):
And people often think, Okay, yeah, seven fifty kids, that's
a lot, so you must have a ton of staff
and in the summer.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yeah, we do, right, I was going to year round.

Speaker 6 (10:52):
We have six six people who make sure that these
kids get the funding we need one hundred dollars per
day per trial to come to our camp and keep
the costs free for our parents and to be able
to say when we went to this, we just got
off the plane from DC at a national Summer Learning conference.
We didn't meet one other camp there that's free, not
one really, and like thousands of guests, so that shows

(11:16):
you how special this is. We knew we were the
oldest and the largest in the whole country. But really
being in that room with like minded individuals for doing
exactly what we're doing, and knowing that none of them
were free. The challenge that we face every day of
keeping that and maintaining it, it's insane, and especially for
six people with the fundraising that has to happen all

(11:37):
year round. So keeping us in the forefront of your
mind of oh, I can rent, I can come to
an event. Oh they're asking for money in this way
or that way.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
We need it.

Speaker 6 (11:46):
We wouldn't be asking if we didn't need it. And
it really keeps us doing what we're doing. I mean,
you're not building an endowment for us, You're not putting
something in a black hole. You were making sure that
I'm going to give a camper one camper, or two
campers or three campers. It gets to go to summer camp,
gets to experience that gets to walk off a bus

(12:06):
and have a safe and fun environment around them for
six weeks seven if they come in the spring. But
you go in there, yes, you know you are paying
for a child to have that experience that so many
people have had. I mean, I know I never got
to go to camp as a kid, but I wish
I did. I mean I always wish I had gone
to camp. And then when you meet people in adulthood,

(12:27):
they're like, I loved going to camp.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
I loved that experience. You are offering that to somebody else.

Speaker 6 (12:32):
So if you are someone who has experienced camp in
any shape or the form, you know, and even someone
who hasn't, as myself, I wanted that.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
So I want to be able to give that to
somebody else.

Speaker 7 (12:42):
I tell people that part of my job, that my
job is I just go to summer camp in the summer,
that that's my job.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
It usually gets a few eyebrows.

Speaker 7 (12:48):
And the other thing I slip in when i'm mass
five kids, I said, yep, seven hundred and fifty.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
And that's the one where it's like, what are you
talking about? So let me tell you about Hartford's Camp.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Parents.

Speaker 7 (12:54):
You want to talk about mission engagement, really grab their attention.

Speaker 5 (12:59):
That's great and wonderful. Opportunity to donate to get involved
is coming up where we have giving Tuesday Tuesday coming up,
and you guys have a lot of and planned for that.
I know I checked out your website and so I
won't see it looked very fun. So I don't know
Corey and Sam who.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
I'll let Sam take that one.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
I feel like I've been owning the conversation.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
No Korean.

Speaker 7 (13:15):
Please tell us what we can get involved with for
Giving Tuesday and I will follow up.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
All right, they're pitching it back to me.

Speaker 6 (13:22):
So we have Giving Tuesday, which is the global day
of giving. So everyone has Giving Tuesday. And why I
support Camp? I guess it's really what it comes down to,
and for all the reasons I just.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Said, we need your help.

Speaker 6 (13:33):
We need you to help us get each kid across
the finish line and come to camp.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
That cost funding that cost.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Did you know that most vitamin D three supplements come
from sheeps? Well, I'm Kat, founder of Ritual. We're making
traceability the new standard for the supplement industry. When I
was pregnant, I couldn't find a multi vitamin I could trust.
So created my own. Ours is made traceable, third party
tested and clean labeled projects certified. Oh hand our vitamin

(14:00):
D three. It comes from sustainably harvested lichen from England.

Speaker 5 (14:04):
Not cheap.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
Trace for yourself with twenty five percent off at ritual
dot com. Slash podcast.

Speaker 6 (14:10):
Is It three thousand a summer yep, three thousand dollars
per child.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
For the summer. And that's just summer, that's not spring.

Speaker 6 (14:16):
So if we want to continue doing this for seven
hundred and fifty kids or plus, I mean we need
the help. So we are asking desperately on Giving Tuesday
or before that. I mean, any gift of any kind,
any significance to you, makes an impact to our children.
And so if you are able to find some money
lying around that maybe you skip your coffee, or you

(14:37):
go to a family party coming up, or you help
really just fund a child to go to camp. Every
single penny makes a difference. We are not federally funded.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
We are not.

Speaker 6 (14:48):
We have a few state grants, but very very small, okay,
so we are individually run.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
I mean, these donations make an impact to our kids.
Driven yes, definitely.

Speaker 5 (14:59):
And you guys are doing something with hurts.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
I saw on your website.

Speaker 7 (15:02):
So yeah, So if you'd like to make a gift
from now until Giving Tuesday through Giving Tuesday, we have
what we call a wall of love. I think that's
what it's called the Wall of love. And you can
leave a donation of any amount and you can leave
a little note. You can leave your name, you can
be anonymous, any you can say why you love Camp.
Just an interactive way to kind of get us all together.
And once it the grid or the wall is filled,

(15:25):
that will live on our website throughout the rest of
the year. So everybody's message, everybody's involvement kind of gets
displayed in their own little little way on our website
because we do want to make sure that you know,
you know, the Camp Current family is, you know, the
greater Hartford community. Everybody who has any sort of involvement
is part of the Camp Current family and we.

Speaker 4 (15:42):
Want that to keep growing.

Speaker 7 (15:43):
So howdy can you help us on Giving Tuesday? You know,
come get involved with us, Come see the facility and
how maybe you could utilize it. Follow us on social media.
We have a I'm giving myself a shameless plug here,
but like we have a lot of content coming out,
some in collaboration with the Alliance Forgive Today.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
It's really just a show.

Speaker 7 (16:01):
Like you know, Coreyan and I can talk about Camp
all we want, but until you really see it, the
message just doesn't hit as hard. And again, it's it's November,
it's fourth quarter, We're a little ways off from summer.
But we do have a lot of stuff that's getting
prepared to come out from this summer of campers giving
that first hand note of why that place is so

(16:21):
special to them. So I highly encourage you all to
give that a watch. Our social medias are at Camp Current,
Hartford's Camp Current, on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
Engage with us. We would love to hear from you.

Speaker 7 (16:32):
We would love you to keep sharing what it is
we do because we can't keep growing without everyone's support, right.

Speaker 5 (16:38):
I would say that without the community around you, and
you know you touched on kind of some of hearing
some of the highlights from camp this summer. I'm going
to ask each of you if you could each here
kind of just some of your own personal highlights from
experience this summer. I want to Korean. I'll throw that
to you first.

Speaker 6 (16:51):
So most days I tried to blend in Okay at camp,
I do I'm in the uniform everyone else is in.
I'm in a score, I'm in you know, my polo.
But the days I always say dressed for the day
you have, and those days I have to dress up.
And one of my favorite things about it now is
the kids know who I am. I've been there long
enough where there are so many different age groups who

(17:14):
know Miss Korean, and that lights up my day, the
fact that not only do they know who I am,
they don't be by name.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
They come up they ask me how I am.

Speaker 4 (17:21):
I get to talk to them, I saying happy birthday
to you on the intercom.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
It does happen.

Speaker 6 (17:25):
Yes, my birthday is in the summer, so I'm one
of the lucky few. But it's just such a sense
of community. And I haven't been there thirty years like
some of our staff, but I feel that I have
been there for thirty years and the kids make that
a special place, and so does the team that is
surrounding me.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
So I am very grateful that.

Speaker 6 (17:42):
I think that would be one of my favorite highlights
is just knowing I work for somewhere that is incredible.
And it's every single person that is in touch with
us in any way, shape or form, whether you're a donor,
a staff member, a board member, a camper, you make
Camp what it is. And I am grateful every day
to be able to say that I am the CEO
of this organization and I this is what I get

(18:03):
to do for work.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
It's wild. I love it. I love it.

Speaker 5 (18:05):
And you can see we're audio only here, but it's
you see just the passion, the love excitement on.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Your face, which is so wonderful.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
This is my excited face.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
I'm seeing it now.

Speaker 5 (18:15):
So in Sam, what would you say kind of a
couple of highlights that come to mind for you from
this past summer?

Speaker 4 (18:19):
Okay, you good? You said a couple. I was like,
do I have to pick just one? I'm never put
you under that pressure.

Speaker 6 (18:24):
And foremost, he's gonna say, because I have a few
of my favorite Sam moments, I'm gonna see what he.

Speaker 7 (18:28):
Touches that is not that is not for this broadcast, Corean,
and now you just threw off my trains. And foremost,
Law Enforcement Day is one of the most spectacular days
we have. And I do have to shout out police
departments from all across the state. The Police Chiefs Association
Pam Hayes share Les sees what that is. It's we
bring in police departments of all units, all kinds, from

(18:50):
across the state and it's just educating, showing kids what
it is we do. What it is the industry looks
like you know that comes from looking at this equipment
to going on a TV rides, you know, getting on
the motorcycles or watching the dive.

Speaker 4 (19:02):
Team go in the pool.

Speaker 7 (19:03):
You know, it's a really really high impact and high
relationship building day.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
At camp between campers and law enforcement.

Speaker 7 (19:10):
It's really really special and that wouldn't be able to
happen without all the support of folks in that industry.
Another highlight. This is personal to me because I manage
our social media. So throughout the six weeks, I am
just kind of out and about. I'll be in you know,
Healthy Choices for an hour, doing some stuff here with kids.
I'll be in the nature program, you know, filming them
hike over there. Nobody ever really knows where I am.

(19:32):
That's why I have a walkie talkie, which a lot
of the staff resents.

Speaker 4 (19:35):
But I do have a walkie talking night.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, he likes to talk. If you didn't, so the
walkie talking was to all staff.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
So the kids seem today's the day You're not going
to have it, So.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
The kids do try.

Speaker 7 (19:47):
I dare you to take it away. So the kids
do know me, is my point. Because I'm out and about.
But you know, I'm a very I'm a background character
in my opinion. You know I'm behind the camera for
a reason. But at this year's Junior Leader graduation, we
had a bit done which shout out after the concept.
They did a great job producing it, and all of
a sudden, Coreyanne and I and like all of our
staff were getting like named by name shout outs of

(20:09):
you know, the impact really we all had on them,
and that you know, I'm not an educator, I'm not
a teacher. You know, I work with campers at the
degree only to which I do. But it was a
really feel good moment for me because again it speaks
to not only camp as the place of the difference
we're making for children, but Camp the people, because every

(20:30):
staff member has a relationship with these campers and they
remember them for years on end.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
So that's kind of my own little I love that.

Speaker 7 (20:38):
And the last one then I'll stop talking, glad Ate
Koreyan is when we hosted Senator Murphy and the National
Summer Learning Association at Camp in late July. It was
part of the Senator's big unveiling for his Summer for
All Bill, which is a big federal investment potentially for
summer programs. And what that was again was, you know,
we had some of our campers and junior leaders getting

(20:59):
in on the podium, you know, following the senator and
the governor, talking about why camp matters, why camp is
so special to them, not just you know camp current, yes,
because that's what they know, but the impact nationally summer
camp can have. And it's you know, again, it wasn't
us talking about that, you know, that was coming from
our kids on the same stage as you know, our
our dignitaries, our elected officials.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
It was really special to see.

Speaker 7 (21:20):
It was powerful to see kind of the the youth
and the adult have one conjoined voice for such an
important message, and it was it was.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
Just great to see be a.

Speaker 7 (21:29):
Part of and know that it's something bigger than yourself
that we can all have handed.

Speaker 5 (21:34):
Definitely all right now, Corey, in your favorite thoughts on.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
AM, Yeah, the summer.

Speaker 8 (21:41):
I don't have to answer that question, but wow, he
gets very creative, which is good, and he levels with
the kids and sometimes we get to put fun with
that for his experiences throughout that process.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
I've dressed up in a few costumes in my day.

Speaker 5 (21:54):
That's what I had heard, so that's what I didn't know.
If a costume was going to get brought up. I'll
be honest.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Now he's really vetoed mine this year.

Speaker 7 (21:59):
No, I was. I would like the record to show
I was a cowboy for our kids spring.

Speaker 6 (22:05):
He enjoyed that one too much, though. I have to
find something good for the holidays. There we go, maybe
a gingerbread. I don't know what we were, snowman one,
so I have to you know, the tree would be
too like he's tall, so that would be it'd be yeah,
too obvious.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
I have to think of something better than that.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
All right, we'll keep us posted.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
Well, yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 7 (22:26):
Yeah, I manage a social media so everybody will see
what they say.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
He does get.

Speaker 6 (22:30):
Involved in our programming, which was what I was going
to say. Whether it's like Carnival day of my favorite
day of the year. Small little plug there, but our
dunk tank has experience.

Speaker 7 (22:39):
Okay, tank Carnival days Korean's favorite day. Part of the
reason because we can have a dunk tank. And it's
not because she gets into it's because she makes me
get into it.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
So that's like I.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
Went into it.

Speaker 6 (22:50):
It's more of this is available to you want, yes,
and it's like, yeah, I.

Speaker 7 (22:55):
Had to get my face painted before I went into
that dunk tank one time and I came out of
it looking like the joker.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
That might be my favorite memory.

Speaker 6 (23:02):
Yeah, but he was telling me he didn't have any
of these childhood memories, and it's like, well, we're gonna
make some today.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Really was just doing a service to you.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
It's always a life at camp, which is I was gonna.

Speaker 5 (23:12):
Say, that's something there.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
I love it.

Speaker 8 (23:15):
Well.

Speaker 5 (23:15):
Looking ahead, I do want to talk a little bit
kind of the vision for what. I don't want to
say what's nextca that sounds like something change is changing tomorrow,
but there's so much ahead and so Corey and if
you could touch a little bit and just kind of
what's that future vision.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Our future vision is to keep meeting our family's needs,
which you know, continue to evolve, whether that's adding additional programming,
you know, expanding the program we have.

Speaker 6 (23:36):
There's a lot going on with Batterson Park, and you know,
I've been in conjunction with Riverfront on what that's looking
like for the future.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
So we used to use Patterson Park back in the day.

Speaker 6 (23:47):
Okay, not maybe very recently, yeah, not that too, not
so long in our future, our history, but we used
it for expanded programming.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
I mean there's things that.

Speaker 6 (23:56):
We could do there that we can't do at our facility,
like cushing or canoeing or you know, there we have
a nature trail when they have other trails. So if
we had the nature program doing pond studies and things
of that capacity of different areas. So the future is
looking promising for that. And you know, with more space
comes more kids, and you know, the more opportunity that
we are able to offer. And you know, we really

(24:16):
fine tune our spring our Spring Camp that you know
happens every year during their April break.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
From school, and so you know, what else can we do?

Speaker 6 (24:24):
You know, we've had a few different groups through leadership
Creator Harford and their Quest program that have done studies
on things that we can expand upon or do better.
And so we're getting all these ideas and feedback and
ways that we can make sure that not only do
we stay relevant in the minds of this is what
we are, we are Summer Camp, but what else care?

Speaker 2 (24:43):
Like, what else can we do for you?

Speaker 7 (24:44):
Right?

Speaker 2 (24:45):
And We're going to keep changing And I don't think
any dream has ever been too much.

Speaker 6 (24:49):
I seem to like to run with it. My team
hates parts of that about me.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
But it's all good because you know, at the end
of the day, you get to.

Speaker 6 (24:57):
Say you've done this and you've changed a child life
for the better. And it's I am not camp. Camp
is not Koreane, It's not a person.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
It is the whole.

Speaker 6 (25:07):
Being of what we value, what we preach, the experience
our kids have. So you're not funding Korean or believing
in Koreanne, which is yeah, I'm associated on part of it.
Technically the face you are believing in our kids. You
are supporting our kids. You are making sure that they
have the life that they deserve and get to experience

(25:28):
as many things as possible. I do know coming this
summer we will have new programming that we've never had,
especially in sports.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
We've expanded some of that.

Speaker 6 (25:36):
We had a wonderful young lady who had us as
her gift recipient for her bab Mitzvah, which was unbelievable,
and she collected so many supplies and things that we
need in the summer. So I know that you know
we're saying fourth quarter summer camp seems so far away.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
No, this is.

Speaker 4 (25:55):
It's never that far.

Speaker 5 (25:56):
And with the Chilli morning. I was thinking summer today,
so you know, I feel I can't wait.

Speaker 6 (26:00):
That's yeah, exactly, So that's something you know we in
the near future I know for sure is happening. But again,
stabilizing us, I think for this year is one of
the things I need to make sure that we're okay with.
We need to not only be completely stabilized, we need
to find ways to remain sustainable in the future. You know,
we have one big donor that goes away.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
We're in trouble.

Speaker 6 (26:21):
We have one giant grant that leaves. We're in trouble.
So we need the help of every individual. We need
to make sure that Camp is here for a long time.
As people have taken care of Camp to date. You know,
people have left us in their will which is unbelievable,
and people who have had an impact at Camp, or
have worked at Camp or seen the mission. There's so

(26:41):
many ways to get involved, even if you can't do
it right now. Financially, we need volunteers. We need thousands
of volunteers. Between our land, our grounds to thirty six
acres to up keep for six people.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
That's a lot.

Speaker 6 (26:55):
We have a lot of trees, so you can imagine
the leaves alone. Right now. I have to give a
prop star our maintenance team of two part time people
who kill it. They make sure that everyone is safe
and everything is restored. But yeah, Jose and Willy, they
have been shot up forever. Yeah, and they're the best.
But they need help too, So getting volunteers and groups

(27:16):
out there. There's just so many ways to help. And
I know when you think when someone's asking for that
and means I need money, Yes, I do need money,
but I also need so many other things. We need
people coming out and working with our kids, reading to
our kids. Cutting down summer learning loss is one of
the main pillars we stand on, and literacy is entwined
in every single program. We have even Arts and Crafts
this year intertwined literacy with arts and crafts projects, which incredible,

(27:40):
you know, and the kids don't realize that they're learning
throughout the entire process. But because we have great community partners,
great community leaders, organizations, individuals. We have people who come
and directly work with camp and do science projects, and
we have a board member who comes and does an
entire recycling day so the kids learn how to and
what to recy and.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Oh, funny.

Speaker 7 (28:01):
There's a whole reel about that on our social media.
So there's like a whole relay race where the kids
are putting like the trash and the trash and the
recycle and the recycle.

Speaker 4 (28:09):
It's the whole. It's I had so much fun filming that.
You have no idea, but please go watch it.

Speaker 6 (28:13):
So go to I'm another board member who's come and done,
like the bottle bottle rockets.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
Yeah, and the kids, Brett and Whitney, they're learning, you.

Speaker 6 (28:20):
Know, physics, and they're like they're learning by doing something
fun and interesting to them, and that all can't happen
with the stuff we have. It needs to help. We
need people, We need the support in any way that
you're willing to give it. So nothing is too small.
I know every wants someone to be like I only
have ten dollars. That ten dollars makes a big deal
to us. So every single gift is valued appreciated. And

(28:42):
know that you were putting it towards a camper.

Speaker 5 (28:45):
I was gonna say it's going directly to good use. Yeah,
one other thing. We only have about a minute left,
but I do just want to touch on quickly your
events because you host a couple big key pillar events,
not only from a fundraising perspective, but also from a
very fun perspective. So if you guys could just kind
of highlight what's upcoming.

Speaker 7 (28:59):
And so we're going to kick things off with our
annual Art Street fundraiser right here downtown Art Street Tavern.

Speaker 4 (29:06):
It's going to be great.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Nice.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
Remind me of the date, Korean.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
I don't think we've picked it yet.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
We have not. We got to call our we got
to call our friend.

Speaker 7 (29:12):
Yeah, all right, son, But we always have Buddy Bash,
which is our biggest gal I say the air quotes.
It's a big party at camp every September. It's our
post camp celebration. So every every September lookout for that
as well as our charity walks with our friends from
Johnson Berneti.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
So that's a new annual thing.

Speaker 5 (29:32):
Okay, fantastic.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
That might look a little different next year.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
We'll see, we shall see. Stay tuned.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Fun conversations around that one. Very nice.

Speaker 5 (29:38):
So to close it out, Korean in a brief overview,
is really companies you've touched on a couple of ways,
but really, how else can they get involved? You've touched volunteering,
you know, donations. Is there anything else that comes top
to mind? You're looking at me like you have an answer.

Speaker 6 (29:54):
I'm all eayers, I'm always time and treasure. I mean
what you value, what is significant to you? It is
important to us, uh and we are grateful for any
way you can help Camp. I know visiting our website,
which is my current of part year, is going to
make sure I.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
Say, yeah, that's not where my mind is going. Thank
you for doing that.

Speaker 5 (30:10):
Yeah, say one more time, campcurrent dot org.

Speaker 6 (30:13):
Our current is spelt like the Hartford Current, so I
think that always needs to be reference.

Speaker 7 (30:17):
But yeah, like everything we have said so far, you
know we mean that, but it starts by engaging with us,
seeing it for yourself.

Speaker 4 (30:23):
So please reach out, come for a tour.

Speaker 7 (30:25):
We would love to have you, and there is here
you know, if you obtain nothing else from this, there's
so much we.

Speaker 4 (30:30):
Can do together for our kids.

Speaker 7 (30:32):
And you know, Camp is kind of the epitome of
that with you know how small our staff is or
how many kids we serve, but there is so much
more we can do together.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
Love it well. We will close on that. So thank
you both for fixing so much. So It was so
great having you guys on today, and again, thank you
so much for what you're doing for our community, because
it truly is making a difference for our youth and families.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
Thank you, thanks for having us Kate.

Speaker 5 (30:52):
Of course, for all the details about today's show, you
can visit Pulse Offtheregion dot com. A big thank you
to our show partner, Okhill, and of course thanks you
for listening. I'm Kate Allman. Go out and make today
a good day here in Connecticut.