Jonathan says, “YES!”

Jonathan was just nine years old when he first came to DRMM’s summer camp—at the insistence of his big sister. She had seen friends and neighbors pay a high price for giving in to peer pressure and saying yes to what someone else thought was cool.

“I was just staying in my room all summer, waiting for school to start,” Jonathan says. “My sister said, ‘Go to camp, it’s the best place ever.’”

Jonathan knows now that his sister was right—Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries’ (DRMM) summer camp is truly life-changing! “Someone who doesn’t come to camp might jump into drugs or drinking. Here at camp they make you more responsible,” he says.

Now a teenager, Jonathan recently completed leadership training so he can serve as a camp counselor this summer, providing a quality role model for other children who need to know they have value, opportunities, and God’s love.

“Camp made me a better big brother, a better person, a better friend, a better family member,” Jonathan says. “I believe in God now. He saved me. He changed me.”

For three decades, support from caring friends and donors has made it possible for children whose everyday lives are filled with poverty, hunger, and hardship to experience camp . . .

If you’d like to make a lasting difference in the life of an at-risk child now and put them on the right path this summer—and in life—then give them the gift of summer camp.

Don’t wait because summer is just around the corner, and with it comes long days when school is out and the children in your community are most at risk. Thank you for following your heart to give children in your community guidance, hope for the future, and confidence at DRMM’s summer camp!