A Rejuvenated Spirit

Over the last two weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on the past year at our beloved Home Away from Home in Utica, MS. In many ways 2021 helped to rejuvenate the Jacobs Magic and the incredible spirit of the Jacobs Camp Family. 

Certainly, the centerpiece of the monumental year was the tremendous return of over 600 campers and staff through the iconic gates on Morrison Road ready to experience another summer of a lifetime. Summer 2021 was Jacobs Camp at its most special because the fundamental aspects of a Jacobs Camp experience were on full display. 

Welcome Home Hospitality – We say “Welcome Home” and we mean it! Everyone is welcome at Jacobs Camp. We worked extremely hard to ensure that camp was a safe and fun place for campers and staff to return to for Summer 2021. And thanks to our generous donors in 2021, we were able to meet every request for scholarship assistance we received – awarding over $150,000 in scholarship assistance to deserving families. 

Making New Friends and Community – This summer our campers needed interaction, and there’s no better place for that than Jacobs Camp. At HSJ, the amazing counselors and staff help facilitate friendships through cabin time, fun programs, and other unstructured free time! The boundless friendships help to create a strong sense of community at camp that then transfers outside of the gates during the school year. Through generous donations, we were able to support our amazing staff’s mental and emotional health during a challenging summer so they could facilitate friendship making and community building. 

Lifelong Connections – Throughout the entire year, the Jacobs Camp family supported camp tremendously. We felt the commitment and love for Jacobs Camp from our loyal alumni, committed donors, and broader community stakeholders from all corners of the country and globe! We are so thankful for all of the phone calls, texts, emails, and zoom calls that shared words of encouragement.

FUN – Jacobs Camp is a place where kids can just be kids! They should be able to run through sprinklers, eat cake for breakfast, and be silly for no reason at all! The Jacobs Camp team created an atmosphere for Summer 2021 where our campers could break from the pressures at home, school, and the real world, be a place where they could find their joy, and relax and recharge with their friends. This was possible through the donations that supported the staff experience and provided creative and fun program supplies for evening programs and bunk nights!

Now that we have turned the page into a new year with a rejuvenated spirit, we are encouraged by the financial support that we received from our amazing donors in 2021 that will ensure another amazing summer at camp! Your generosity has set the stage for another transformative Summer of welcoming new community members, making new friends, building lifelong connections and ,of course, having TONS of fun! Thank you!