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When summer comes to a close, the world seems to move back into its regular routine. It’s a never-ending cycle that we experience every year. Families are finished with their vacations and settle back into the flow of jobs and chauffeuring children to after school activities.

As a child, I would attend camp for a couple weeks at a time. When I was in high school, I would literally travel across the country to work at camp. Even during college, I would spend my summers as a camp counselor playing games, eating less-than-haute cuisine, and helping kids to not feel homesick. Early in my career, I even had the opportunity to organize and lead camping programs.

The notion of childhood has changed greatly over the past number of years. In the past, children would spend hours outside after school, exploring, learning, and building friendships. Today, it seems that so many kids are preoccupied – their heads buried in their phones. Rather than exploring the great outdoors, they spend their time lost in the fantasy world of video games.

Keyvon is a fun-loving eleven year old jokester who loves to make people smile. Unlike most children his age, he likes to keep everything neat and tidy. He even maintains a to-do list for all of the things he wants to complete each day. Watching him with his friends, he seems like a typical, carefree kid. You would never know that his home life is anything but typical.

The summer of 2008 was the first in twelve years that I would not be spending at a camp. As a high school student, I began working at camps in British Columbia until I finally found my way south to Camp Walter Johnson in 2001. I accepted a position with The Salvation Army here that involved leadership at the summer music conservatory program.

The Jim and Cheryl Caldwell Foundation, Chris Paul’s CP3 Foundation and The Salvation Army proudly dedicated the grand opening of a new computer lab and learning center called the “Project Phoenix Learning Center” on January 22. Although Jim Caldwell and Chris Paul were unable to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony due to scheduling conflicts, each of their family was on hand.