"There are really no words for how grateful I feel. Being able to travel to Portugal to represent YMCA of the USA was such an amazing honor. I’ve learned, taught, explored, shared, sang, ate, and laughed with some of the most genuine and passionate camp people that I’ve ever met.
Camps may look different all over the world, but the experiences we create and the commitment to building a better future for youth is exactly same. Each one of the people I met was focusing on developing programs where children could learn new things, meet new people, and feel safe in a shared community. These programs are changing lives; From every female camper sleeping in the same giant room so there’s no room to talk badly or hide from one another in Finland, to social responsibility activities and campers hosting the local government officials to show them how camp has affected their lives in Macedonia, to providing housing for refugees when their campsite isn’t being used in the off-season in Sweden, to protecting a state park and teaching environmental education in Portugal." – Lindsay Hutchinson, Frost Valley YMCA. USA
