"A LIGHT BULB MOMENT"
“A light bulb moment!”
It all began when Camilla was 17 years
old, she was just an ordinary teenage girl living in Dallas, in 1971, reading a
newspaper article about the troubles in Northern Ireland; she didn’t know that
there was trouble - she didn’t know anything. Little did she know, this was the
day that was going to change her life, it was a turning point. According to
Camilla, “it seared her heart,” she was broken and frantic to help, she wanted
to make a difference, but she thought to herself, “what can you do? You are a teenager
with no passport, no money, you won’t make a difference.” She told me that it
took her three days to figure out that she could pray for peace, but this was
all that she thought she could ever do.
Stepping stones
25 years later… First Presbyterian Church,
in Dallas, were given a financial gift to go into the youth programme, Camilla
was told to think global. She told me that, “without hesitance, I bolted
upright in my chair and exclaimed NORTHERN IRELAND.” Every 3 years, they have a
major mission project outside of the Dallas area, she met a young woman who was
Irish called Ellen and it was her that she expressed her concerns to, “Ellen, I
don’t even know where to begin.” Through mutual connections Camilla met Jean
Kelly whom was involved in environmental education. Within a year, Camilla got
a passport, flew to Northern Ireland to meet Jean who was the founding director of the youth environmental education project at Speedwell Trust, Dungannon. Camilla fell in love with Northern
Ireland, “it is home,” she said.
At the time, it felt to the church in
Dallas that they faced an impossible task, that a youth project in Northern
Ireland would prove to be too risky and unachievable. Camilla thought, “that’s
it, we are done. We will just stick with prayer and maybe we can help in some
other ways.”
10 years later, as part of a major
mission project, Camilla returned to the Speedwell Trust, Dungannon, but this
time with a group of almost 50 to volunteer and they had a great week, but
still they were struggling with direction. In 2011, Camilla was unsure of what
they should do next, but her great friend Harold felt they still could make a
difference, “I don’t think our work is done…” Camilla was unsure because it was
too expensive, but Harold insisted that they at least tried. Netta Blanchard (whom she met
at the original meeting in 1996) then introduced Brian Small who is the
fundraising manager at the Integrated Education Fund in Northern Ireland and he
pointed Camilla towards Olwen who at the time was Principal at Blackwater
Integrated College. In Autumn 2011, they met for research, Camilla described
this meeting as, “FABULOUS! We just hit it off, we are both very different in
how we approach things- I am a theatre girl and she is a maths girls, but we
both have equal passion and drive. I just sat down, ‘so where do we start?’
Olwen insisted that Camilla came to Northern Ireland next summer to teach
drama.
Mid-week approached and Olwen’s students
were coming to her saying, “guess what? We are going to Dallas next summer,
they have invited us and Camilla is okay. “Camilla’s students were coming to
her saying, “guess what? The Blackwater kids are coming to visit, Olwen says
that it’s okay.” It all seemed a little suspicious, so Olwen and Camilla met
for coffee, they died laughing because it was the sweetest joke and they were
so unbelievably glad that the kids connected. Camilla told me during our
interview, “Katie, I can’t tell you how it happened, but it did. 40 people came
to Dallas for a Texas Cultural exchange and students and staff stayed with
families. Later Camilla met with Jenn Giles (who later became Camp Camilla’s dance
director) and Jess Skinner (Camp Camilla’s co-ordinator for soccer) for coffee
with Camilla stressing that they believed there was work for them to do. In
2013, they came over for research- they spoke to ministers, teachers, students
etc. Olwen shared that there were many integrated schools already, but no
connections, they were all little islands and Olwen had a vision of bringing
kids from integrated schools together to highlight that they were going in the
same direction. Jess and Jenn had the idea for an American style camp- Jenn had her own
dance studio and Jess is an award-winning soccer player, they were ‘high as the
moon’ at the idea of stepping towards their dream according to Camilla. The
question of course was, “how were two young woman in their 20s with full
careers going to pull it off?” Harold once again met with Camilla and urged
that they helped them, otherwise it might never happen. Camilla sees Harold as the "driving force" behind return projects to Northern Ireland.
Camilla along with Olwen and Harold approached Amanda McNamee,
Principal of Lagan College and through her passion, enthusiasm and sheer
determination convinced Amanda that Lagan College would be the perfect place to
stage an American-style Summer Day Camp. So, it all began… Olwen loved working
with Camilla and the other Americans, she said, “I love your can-do spirit,
optimism, belief that anything is possible, your energy is infectious- when our
children and young people are exposed to that they will begin to think, why not
me too? The sky will be the limit and they will believe that they can go higher
than they ever imagined. “
There was one thing everyone involved
wanted, integrated leadership- half of the team to be from America and half
from Northern Ireland. Last year saw Camp Camilla move into its next phase as
they began to recruit their own staff, separating it from the church and
creating its own entity. One of the women from the US team who was part of the
2015 project decided she wanted to be a part of it all- so she created a
leadership initiative to run alongside Camp Camilla to give young people the
opportunity to learn skills to become world class leaders. They would apply
through school and go on a residential while completing Camp Camilla and in the
evenings, they would do their own activities that were focused on building a
positive future. They were named the Kelly Campers to honour Jean Kelly ( the very first person Camilla met in Northern Ireland).
The plan
One thing I particularly loved about
interviewing Camilla was her love for teenagers. Camilla is a great leader- she
has a gift for inspiring people, she doesn’t believe that she could ever teach
college students, or do advanced studies, but she can open doors and show young
people the path ahead. She told me, “Katie, I just want to get them started.
Their life is an open door, they believe such good things are possible even in
today’s world that is full of pain and suffering. I love working with that
energy and passion- it is so much fun.
It’s in your heart
Camilla
remembers herself as a 17-year-old girl, sitting in the den in her house, she
sees the newspaper that she was holding, she sees herself crying as she thought
she couldn’t do anything. She remembers giving herself a nudge and saying,
“Camilla guess what? You have no idea what you are going to get to be a part
of, you have no idea the difference you will get to make in other people’s
lives.” At that stage of her life, she could never have predicted what she
would go on to accomplish. Today, she has life-long friends in Northern
Ireland. Camilla is so thankful for all the people who have opened the doors for her to work here! She believes, “that’s it” is a phrase of the past, if you just follow your heart.
For more information please refer to the official site www.youthintegration.com . Also, please check out our social media on Facebook www.facebook.com/CampCamilla00 and Instagram www.instagram.com/camp_camilla_
Kind regards,
Assistant Director for media production,
Katie Graden Spence
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