My story with the YMCA began when I had only eight years of experience in this big thing we call, life. (I was eight years old)  

My weekdays in the Summer were spent with the Y’s Day Camp program where they had us engaged in indoor/outdoor activities at a school site in Downey. Every Friday the staff would take us on small outings in the community or for full day field trips. One day when my mom was signing both my sister and I out so that we could head home, a staff member approached us to chat about the camping services side of the YMCA where they offer sleep away camp for a week to the [centers] in the city.  

The staff member went on to talk about the activities they provide there, like horseback riding, rock climbing, hiking, banana boating on Big Bear Lake, sleeping in bunk beds, rooming with friends, and gathering around the fire every night, etc. It was then that my mind was flooded with pictures of the greenest trees, the clearest skies, and starry nights. My sister and I knew we had to go. Thankfully, my mom was brave enough to take that leap through the first of many doors the Y opened up for both my sister and I.  

My story with the YMCA continues, as I now have thirty years of experience in this complicated big thing we call, LIFE. (I’m thirty years old) To this day, I can proudly say that my summers are still spent with the Y through camping services. Almost every summer of mine since 2004 has been spent at Camp Whittle as a camper, then at Camp Round Meadow as a volunteer counselor/volunteer director and coming around full circle as a director for Camp Marcil at Round Meadow.  

The love I have for camp is rooted in eight-year-old Janel who wanted to be as impactful/“cool” as the counselors she had and as adventurous as the perm staff who led the activities on our little oasis of a mountain. The passion I have to create access to all things beautiful this life has to offer stems from teenage/young adult Janel, whose directors saw great things in her before she did herself. The imagination camp nurtured for me as a child has evolved into inspiration as an adult to commit my life to providing a service to leave places and people better than when we found and met them anywhere and everywhere I go. Thanks to camp, my weekdays now consist of teaching, shaping, and guiding young neurodivergent minds as a special education teacher with LAUSD. Thanks to camp, my summers consist of doing what I can to make camp just as impactful as it was for me for whomever steps foot on our campgrounds. Thanks to camp, I’ve had the manual for life that people claim doesn’t exist:  

“I would be true for there are those who trust me,  

I would be pure for there are those who care,  

I would be strong for there is much to suffer, 

I would be brave for there is much to dare, 

I would be friend to all, the foe, the friendless,  

I would be giving and forget the gift,  

I would be humble for I know my weakness, 

I would look up and laugh and love and lift.”  

(Raggers creed) 

To learn more about LA Y Camp and get involved, click here.