PSST…DID YOU HEAR THE GOOD NEWS?!

We are thrilled to announce that Camp Felix Putnam Valley will be returning to our regularly scheduled IN-PERSON program this August! In all of our 15 years of Camp Felix, summer 2020 was the first time that we didn’t go to Putnam Valley. We are taking every precaution necessary to ensure that our kids have a safe and healthy Camp Felix experience, and we can’t wait to see our kids back in action; It’s going to be awesome! From the minute those buses pull up to the camp-site, to the minute they depart, we are looking forward to every second of their return to Camp Felix!

Here’s an update of our 2021 summer programs:

Camp Felix Putnam Valley - We’re so happy to be back in-person with our partners The New York Foundling this summer; We hope to serve between 150-200 kids, as we do each year!

Camp Felix West is back in-person as well! Along with our partner Happy Trails for Kids, we will be serving 100 kids in Los Angeles for one week! This year’s camp theme is Lanakila which in Hawaiian means “to overcome”.

The Camp Felix Garden Program is back again this summer with Land to Learn and our new partner agency, Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie. Gardening has so many benefits both physical and social-emotional: In addition to encouraging healthy eating and providing exercise, it builds confidence, relieves stress, improves focus and positively impacts mood & wellbeing. Stay tuned for another summer of creating a safe and beautiful outdoor space to help our kids unwind and enjoy the beauty of nature.

The Camp Felix Road Trips program is back again too! We are looking forward to an amazing variety of new destinations, including: Bannerman Castle Island, the Catskill mountains, and a beautiful sail on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater with the youth of Good Shepherds.

In addition to Camp…

Our website has a new Youth Opportunities page -- This webpage is dedicated to sharing job opportunities, free workshops, events, and much more with our kids! For access to this page head over to our website and look for “Youth Opportunities” under the “Programs” tab!

Beyond Camp has expanded! Beyond Camp is our mini-grants program which grants funding to youth in foster care for extracurricular activities throughout the year. One of our 2021 goals was to expand our reach with Beyond Camp, and take it nationwide! We’re seeing success as we have fulfilled two grants to send two youth in Texas to basketball and art lessons!

Level Up is a virtual one-day conference for foster youth on Saturday, December 11, 2021. This inspirational conference will include a Keynote Speaker, Panel Discussion, Workshops, and more! We are inviting 1,000 foster youth from across the country to participate. The workshops will be led by professionals, some of whom are former foster youth.

Stay tuned for more information on Level Up and our other ongoing programs!

We want to give a huge THANK YOU to our community of friends, family, donors, volunteers, partners, and so many more for their support! From the bottom of our hearts, we appreciate you for helping us continuously create fun, innovative, and special experiences to support our kids.

A Look Back on 2020….

We can all agree that 2020 was one for the books: from the COVID-19 lockdown to going almost completely virtual, it was a challenging time. But through it all, the Felix mission to support children in the foster care system has remained unscathed and continues moving full steam ahead.

We were forced to act quickly and made the difficult decision to cancel our overnight camps in 2020, but that didn’t stop us from meeting the challenge to uplift our kids! We provided several innovative virtual and pop-up programs to bring the outdoors, sunshine, and community spirit of camp to our kids through this hard time.

Here’s a short recap of our 2020 summer programs:

Through our Camp Felix Garden program, 20 teen girls residing in one of our partner organization’s foster care group homes in New Windsor, New York, built a 10’ x 30’ garden on-site at their St. Christopher’s residence.

The Camp Felix Road Trips program gave 20 teen girls living in a New York City foster care residence the opportunity to enjoy time outdoors this summer, seeing spectacular views of the mountains and the Hudson, surrounded by trees and fresh air.

In partnership with the New York Foundling, our Camp Felix Putnam Valley campers enjoyed four weeks of virtual camp, with everything from dance to yoga, acting to breathwork, and visits from Broadway stars! We also provided meals to those who needed it.

The Bryan Jacobson Foundation sponsored 25 boys in foster care for Bryan’s Camp Felix At Home, where they participated in activities to keep them engaged and energized including theater games, animation, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) workshops, music production, and a drumming wo

It costs $500 to send a child in foster care to Camp Felix for one life-changing week. Please donate here and give a child a magical summer!