As a child, I lived for the two months each year I spent at a sleepaway sports camp in the Catskill Mountains. I loved everything about camp: the people from all over the world, the sports instruction by college coaches and professional athletes, and the independence of living away from home for the summer.
In 2010, when I started working for Playworks Washington, D.C. as a Program Coordinator, I fell in love with the students at my school. I began thinking about the impact that a summer at camp would have on these children. So many of them were in charge of taking care of their little brothers and sisters, and aside from recess, they rarely had time to just be kids. They do laundry, make dinner, and get everyone in bed while their parents work long hours.
Many of my students had never left Washington, D.C. and knew very little about life outside the nation’s capital. One student in particular was always getting into trouble because of the friends she hung around, but she was inherently sweet and good-natured. I wondered how she would respond if we got her outside of her environment.
I contacted the Director of Kutsher’s Sports Academy, the camp I went to as a child and still work for each summer. He offered to take two students for a fraction of the normal cost, so I began raising the money to send two of my students to camp. Through an e-mail appeal and a fundraising happy hour, my family and friends helped pay for camp, buy the girls the clothes and supplies they needed, and pay for transportation to get them to camp and back.
Watching the girls interact with their new friends and act like children was an incredible experience for me. One of the girls became much more outgoing and confident, while the other relaxed and became less defensive. When the girls got back to school in the fall, the change in them was evident to everyone. I thought if camp could have this positive an impact on two students, why not try to send as many great kids as possible to camp the next summer?
The wonderful experience the girls had that first summer was the beginning of what is now a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization called Just Imagine. My colleague and Co-Founder Rick Rush and I choose students based on four factors: great effort in school, good character, positive relationships with peers and teachers, and a combined family income of $50,000 or less. This past summer we sent 11 students to three different sleep-away camps on the East Coast.
If it weren’t for my time with Playworks, the idea for Just Imagine would never have occurred to me. My year of service not only changed my life, but will help me continue to change the lives of great D.C. Public School children for years to come.
Abby Sondak graduated from the University of Maryland in 2009, where she was a Manager for the National and ACC Championship Women’s Basketball Team. She worked with Playworks as a Program Coordinator in DC Public Schools in 2010. Currently, she teaches Physical Education at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., and is pursuing a Master’s in Elementary Education.
