Sabrina serves as a volunteer member of the R.M. Pyles Boys Camp Board of Directors
My annual summer road trip to Pyles Boys Camp may take more than seven hours one way, but you’ll never hear a complaint about it from me. My journey to Pyles pales in comparison to the roads our campers have traveled to get there.
Many of our boys have dodged gang members and drug dealers to and from school each day, worried about how their family will get their next meal, stepped in as parents to their siblings when they’re still children themselves, or escaped abuse by a trusted adult.
For two weeks each summer, our campers can temporarily push aside those unimaginable challenges and take on new adventures leading them toward self-transformation. Campers have told me that they remember the first time in their entire lives that someone has ever told them they did a good job and it was at Pyles Camp.
That’s the magic of Pyles: helping young men who are at a crossroads in life understand that they are more than the sum of their circumstances. Our boys learn that they are worthy, they are capable, and that they are loved.
We don’t just leave the boys at the end of summer and tell them we’ll see them next year. Pyles provides year-long mentoring to help our boys stay on track. We further help them on their pathway to success with scholarships, where many have gone on to become the first college graduates in their family.
Many of our campers return summer after summer as counselors or volunteers, once again reaffirming the power of Pyles. Our campers want to continue to give back to something that has given them so much opportunity.
Each board meeting starts with a visit from a former camper who shares his Pyles experience. These powerful testimonies set the tone for the meeting and remind us of what’s our highest priority and what serves as the basis of every board action: the Pyles campers.
As the mother of a young teenager, I feel a kindred connection to the Pyles boys. Nothing makes me tear up faster than one of the campers telling me that they want to be a better son, that the only place that feels like home is camp, and that this was the best summer of their life. Remembering those boys’ faces and how their eyes light up when they talk about Pyles are why I volunteer my time to ensure more campers have the same life-changing experience.
Since its beginning more than 70 years ago, Pyles Boys Camp has served nearly 29,000 boys. Those boys have grown up to be men that have lifted the communities around them. Pyles Boys Camp reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.”