Boys & Girls Clubs secure great future for Sun campers

By Brian Greenspun

Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015 | 2 a.m.

We are put on this earth to advance the cause of humanity. We do that one generation at a time.

That theme came through loud and clear at this past week’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas. Those seeking the presidency were at their best Tuesday night when they were talking about how their policies would make the United States a better country for our children and grandchildren.

All of that effort starts right here at home, at the local level. That is why I have some good news for the children and grandchildren of Southern Nevada.

In 1970, Charlotte Hill visited my father, Hank Greenspun, and the incomparable Ruthe Deskin to share an idea she had about sending needy Las Vegas children to summer camp. That is when the Las Vegas Sun Summer Camp Fund was born.

Since then more than 40,000 children from our community have been able to experience something other than a hot, summer street. The Camp Fund, thanks to the generosity of thousands of people and hundreds of businesses who donated the money necessary to send these kids to camps in our own and neighboring states, has enabled young people to dream and their imaginations to flourish as a result of a camping experience.

Every penny raised these past 45 years has paid for camperships. The Sun has paid all other expenses. Charlotte Hill’s idea has been the source of changed lives for almost half a century.

Charlotte and the board of directors of the Sun Summer Camp Fund have another idea, and that is to make sure the kids in our community will continue, hopefully for another 45 years, to benefit from a camping experience during the long, hot Las Vegas summers that will change their lives.

The Sun Summer Camp Fund has merged with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada, a nonprofit organization with exactly the same mission: to serve the youths of our community. The community still will be asked to provide the funds needed, and the kids will be the beneficiaries.

There will be one change. Charlotte and her tireless board members will be able to step back a little knowing that what they have done, the lives they have touched and changed and the impact they have had on our community will continue in very capable hands. And Brian Cram, Sheila Lee and Ruby Epps will know going forward that all of their hard work making camp happen every year will be in the capable hands of the Boys & Girls Clubs.

Ken Rubeli of the Boys & Girls Clubs Foundation said, “When the kids come back, their eyes light up when they talk about canoeing on the lake or learning how to shoot a bow and arrow or ride a horse. You can tell by the shine in their eyes that they are talking about things they’ve experienced for the first time.”

Ken gets it. The Sun Summer Camp directors get it. The Boys & Girls Clubs get it. And we know the people of Southern Nevada get it.

All of us at the Las Vegas Sun Summer Camp Fund are forever grateful to all of you who have made a difference in a child’s life. Greenspun Media and the Las Vegas Sun look forward to supporting the Boys & Girls Clubs for years to come in their mission to change the lives of the next generations.

That means we will continue to ask for your help. Some things never change.

Because it is always about the kids.

Brian Greenspun is owner, publisher and editor of the Sun.