I’d like to start off by telling you about the camp and what I hope to accomplish this summer for the Santa Barbara Community. Last year, I founded Lobster Jo’s Beach Camp. In the spring of 2021 I signed a contract with the City of Santa Barbara, bringing my idea of an ocean oriented, educational, and most importantly FUN beach camp to life. Fortunately, we did not start small and were able to enroll around four hundred fifty kids for our maiden summer. This inaugural year taught me an innumerable amount about kids, parents, business, public appeal and, what I found most important:social discrepancies.
During last summer’s camp, I was able to meet a variety of children. With these introductions came many confessions; kids love to spill their guts whether it be good or bad. I learned about their home lives, personal interests , and the degrees of opportunity this wide array of children were offered. I couldn’t help but notice that by the third week of camp, the kids who were on scholarship had a noticeable appreciation for everything we were providing and were very vocal about how much they enjoyed going to camp only once a year. Here’s a story that really stuck with me.
“On a Monday morning I was speaking with a mom with her three kids and invited all the kids to join the play as everyone has the first day of camp nervousness. She hastily responded with a slight embarrassment that only one son was able to join us this week as he was given a scholarship and they did not have enough scholarships for the other two kids. This made my stomach churn all day and I wished that the other two siblings could be joining in on the fun their brother was having.”
This prompted me to look into the scholarship process and I then learned about the large discrepancy between the number of applications filled out and scholarships awarded.
Not anyone can be scholar-shipped. The Police Activities League (PAL) is the agency who has been facilitating the selection of applicants in addition to transport if necessary. They work in coordination with the Parks and Recreation Community Foundation and send this demographic of children to camps. As you can now see, the problem is obvious. We have all the agencies, foundations, and camps set up for these childrens’ lives to be enriched and granted the same leisures that their more fortunate peers experience here in the Santa Barbara Community. All that is missing adequate funding. That’s why I am reaching out to you today. Would you or company be so gracious as to send a child to camp this summer? May I be considered in the grant applications? My goal is to scholarship 25% of the children enrolled in camp this year. To sponsor a week of children it costs $5000. This sends 20 campers and 2 junior counselors to camp and will also purchase them a towel or hat. Similarly, the cost per camper to sponsor is $240.
Please inquire if you are interested in donating, facilitating connections, or for any other reason.
Best,
Lobster Jo
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