For most kids, summertime is all about having fun with friends and enjoying the outdoors. But foster children don’t always have that opportunity.

For 28 years, however, a growing number of Alabama foster kids and their families have been given that opportunity at the Camp of Champions at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega.

Volunteers served as counselors for children at the Camp of Champions. (contributed)

Earlier this month, the camp welcomed about 1,000 children and their foster parents from across the state.

For the parents, the camp provides training and “opportunities for connection,” said Rod Marshall, president and CEO of the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries, which leads the initiative.

As for the children, “it’s an opportunity for them to just be kids, which is something a lot of them haven’t had an opportunity to do,” he said.

Members of the Southern and Miller APSO chapters worked behind the scenes. (contributed)

Members of the Southern and Miller APSO chapters worked behind the scenes. (Miller APSO)

Camp of Champions was established in 1993 and has been growing steadily. The first year the camp came to Shocco “we had about 75 people,” Marshall said. “It grew every year until we hit 1,000, and we’ve had to cap it there. We have a waiting list now.”

This year’s camp was sponsored by Hoover-based Entech Products Corp., Hunter Street Baptist Church, the Alabama Power Foundation and Shades Mountain Baptist Church; volunteers affiliated with all the sponsors were present during the camp weekend. In addition to providing volunteers, the sponsoring organizations also helped fund camp for families that might not have been able to afford it on their own.

“We were thrilled to have over 40 dedicated employee volunteers from our Plant Miller and Eastern Division Alabama Power Service Organization (APSO) chapters working together to support the Camp of Champions,” said Andrew Rhodes, APSO associate director. “Their efforts in setting up, taking down, and serving as a welcoming committee truly exemplified the spirit of community and compassion.

Those volunteers and Shocco Springs staff lined the entrance Friday afternoon and warmly greeted the incoming families with signs, shakers, pool noodles.

Volunteers were critical to the camp’s success. (contributed)

“Together, we created a memorable and uplifting experience for these children, allowing them to simply be kids and enjoy the joys of summertime,” Rhodes added.

For the parents, classes were taught by Washington-based neuropsychiatrist and author Curt Thompson; Sean Milner, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Children’s Village, which is where he grew up; and “Chef Kibbi,” a foster and adoptive father and professional chef in Ohio.

Marshall also led a class on “connecting with your kids in the kitchen.”

For the children, there were sports camps, an abbreviated vacation bible school and numerous opportunities to just have fun, including swimming in the pool and in a lake full of giant inflatables and a massive water slide; bouncy houses; a rock wall; a giant swing; a ropes course, paint ball and bazooka ball; food trucks and chances to connect with other children who are in situations similar to themselves.

“It was an honor to be part of an organization that values making a positive impact in the lives of foster children and their families,” Rhodes said.

For more information, visit https://www.alabamachild.org/camp.

A version of this story originally appeared in The Daily Home.