That inspiration point in the hills
Christian Barahona was an angry kid -- and understandably so. After being shuffled from one foster family to the next, the young boy was disgruntled and failing nearly all his classes.
He was in dire straits and in need of some serious inspiration. Enter 230 acres of pinyons and junipers, stretched across the San Bernardino Mountains.
During his stay at YMCA Camp Oakes, Christian said, “I just forgot about all the bad stuff.” From 150 to 400 low-income kids, ages 8 to 17, travel to the grounds weekly each summer.
“I mean, that was, like, the best summer I ever had,” Christian said of his time at camp, which he was granted by Los Angeles Team Mentoring, the organization that also provided him a mentor in the form of an L.A. public school teacher. “Usually, most of the time in the summer we just go to the beach or hang around with your friends, but camp was so exciting.”
Camp Oakes aims to develop character while fostering social growth in a natural setting. Here is a space where kids can ogle the planets during astronomy or make their way across a rope suspended 30 feet above ground, meeting the challenges put before them.
“It’s a place where the playing field is leveled,” said Martin Chandler, executive director of camping services at Camp Oakes. “Everybody comes in on an equal basis, and there aren’t any preconceptions.”
Chandler added that the program aspires to help campers like Christian identify personal challenges that they can work on at home later.
“Like they’ll say, ‘I’d like to work on being more helpful at home with my mom,’ or ‘I want to work at being better at school,’ ” Chandler said. “And we’ll give them a physical symbol of the goal -- a rag or a scarf to remind them of that inward thing they set for themselves.”
Of his daily personal reminder, Christian said, “They talked to me and told me I shouldn’t be doing some stuff, like behaving bad or talking about teachers.”
Today, the eighth-grader, who said he’s lived with 10 foster families, has finally settled into a more permanent home.
“They treat me the same as their other kids,” Christian said of the Pacoima family he’s lived with for the last two years. “It’s like they’re my real parents.”
Los Angeles Team Mentoring is one of 60 organizations receiving financial support this year through the Los Angeles Times Summer Camp Campaign. More than 8,000 underprivileged children will go to camp this summer, thanks to $1.5 million raised last year. The annual fundraising campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match the first $1.1 million in contributions at 50 cents on the dollar.
Donations are tax-deductible. For more information, call (213) 237-5771. To make donations by credit card, go to latimes.com/summercamp. To send a check, use the attached coupon. Do not send cash. Unless requested otherwise, gifts of $50 or more will be acknowledged in The Times.
