Harlem kids brave the elements at Brave Camp in Upstate New York
NEW YORK - A group of Harlem kids got a first taste of the great outdoors this week at Brave Camp, where leaders are unlocking unlimited potential.
In the foothills of the Adirondacks, three dozen kids braved the elements for one week.
"When I saw people I already knew from school, I was kind of glad I wasn't going to be all around people I didn't know," said 11-year-old Tristan Johnson. "I thought that would probably be embarrassing."
"I get homesick really easily," admitted 12-year-old Lynette Brodie, who said she did not feel that way this time. "I'm having too much fun to be homesick!"
Brave Camp founder David Angelo taps into inner-city kids' inner nature. Angelo's success from his advertising agency David & Goliath allowed him to host Brave Camp for the first time in California last year through his nonprofit Today I'm Brave.
"We have social media, we have news, we have our peers," Angelo said, "and what nature enables us to do is let go of all of that."
At the Camp Stomping Ground campground in Middle Grove, equity and radical empathy are always top of mind.
"We do that by gathering, sorting through conflict together and trying to figure out how to take on the world from another's perspective as well as your own," said Camp Stomping Ground founder Laura Kriegel.
Fun activities make way for serious conversations. One mindfulness exercise turned into a focus on homelessness to teach empathy.
"The vibration of nature kind of took its toll. You got to see them open up and face some of their fears," said meditation facilitator Michael Carter.
Eleven-year-old camper Trinity Newton-Williams took the courageous step onto a stage, to perform a rap she wrote earlier in the day. Then, she forgot the lyrics.
"I felt so embarrassed because I felt like I got on that stage to be brave and to be ready, because I felt ready," Newton-Williams admitted.
New friends rallied, ready with love and support, encouraging Newton-Williams to try again. She succeeded.
"I felt like I could have this friendship forever," she said.
Through experiences like these, the kids learn they are brave enough. By the end of the week, they will have written their fears on rocks and thrown them into a lake to return home even stronger.
"It's been a really good experience being at the Brave Camp, but I don't want to leave," Brodie said.
Campers head back to Harlem at the end of the week, bringing with them life lessons and a bit of bravery, too.
Brave Camp aims to expand to other neighborhoods around the city in years to come.
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