Derby Kids Camp
Derby Kids' Camp are an entirely volunteer-run charity providing free holidays for over 300 young children every year. The kids are nominated for a holiday by their schools, and are in real need of a break from challenges including bereavement, financial difficulties, social interaction challenges, being a young carer and more.
Project Overview
Local schools nominate over300 young children each year to receive a break. Historically, these children have come from Derby city, and that's still where the majority live. In recent years, we have also branched out to work with a number of schools across Derbyshire, including in Ripley, Chesterfield, Alfreton and Belper.
The children who come to Derby Kids' Camp are aged from 8 to 11 years. For many of these children, it's their first time away from home. The breaks give children space away from their challenges (and a break from electronics!) and chance to explore the great outdoors and make new friends.
During the week, we see the children grow in confidence, try new activities, try new foods and make new friends. Following the breaks, we hear regularly from parents and schools not only just how much the children have enjoyed their week away, but also how it's helped build their independence and confidence.
We celebrated our 50thanniversary last year, with an estimated 16,000 local children having benefitted from a Derby Kids' Camp holiday to date.
Why are we crowdfunding?
As a charity, we own all our own equipment to create a fully-functioning 'canvas village' that houses around 500 children and volunteers each summer. This includes a dozen children's tents, each of which cater for 6-7 children during their week-long holiday. These tents are kitted out with camp beds, duvets, pillows and snuggly blankets - all to make the environment as cosy as possible for children who often haven't camped before.
Many of our kids tents are now quite old, and we're starting a tent replacement program to ensure that the children's home for the week is as warm, waterproof and cosy as possible for the children staying there.
How we’ll spend the money raised
The money raised will help to kickstart our tent replacement programme and update our children's tents, ready to provide many more years of amazing holiday memories!
A children's tent costs in the region of £1,400, and with around a dozen tents to replace, it's a big outlay for us to fund.
Our current collection of children's tents have been in service for many years, and are starting to need replacement. We are looking to start replacing these on a rolling basis, so that we always have enough reliable, well maintained tents for the children to stay in during their holiday.
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