Experience

Coming Together Through Experience.

What encourages people to come together? What increases relatability, which in turn starts conversations and true relationships? Shared experiences promote feelings of unity that create common interests, build friendships and feelings of connectedness.

What if we felt more connected to those around us? What if, instead of looking at ourselves as ‘us’ and others as ‘them’, we started building the idea of ‘WE’? If we become involved with each other through shared experiences, similarities and differences may be celebrated and enjoyed. We begin to connect and relate to one another.

Becoming connected to the children of our community is the idea behind the new donor designated fund at the Hamilton Community Foundation called Experience.

“Children are our most valuable natural resource.”
- Herbert Hoover

Experience was founded to expose children from the Boys & Girls Club of Hamilton to activities they otherwise would not have the opportunity to enjoy, such as:
• going to camp
• archery
• canoeing
• exploring the wilderness
• zip lining
• horseback riding
• swimming
• sitting around a camp fire
• going to the theater
• taking a tennis lesson
• participating in an art class
• visiting the zoo
• going to watch a Reds or Bengals game
• walking on a college campus

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
- Nelson Mandela

Experience is the bridge between the Boys & Girls Club of Hamilton and organizations such as Fitton Center for Creative Arts, The Cincinnati Zoo, Brick Street Experience, and the Great Miami Valley YMCA. It can open up their world and show them things that they may never have had the opportunity to experience before. It can help them see themselves in a new light and make them aware of endless possibilities. The sky is the limit as far as what these children are able to accomplish.

Every child at the Boys & Girls Club of Hamilton can have the opportunity to earn their experience by:
• consistent attendance in after school
educational programs
• active participation in the
homework/reading club
• demonstrating positive behavior

Experience helps to provide funding and creates new adventures that plant seeds in the minds and hearts of children. We can all get involved with Experience by giving the gift of our time, talent, or donating to the Experience Fund through the Hamilton Community Foundation.

Experience will fund two separate day-into-night opportunities at the YMCA Camp Campbell Gard the Spring and Summer of 2016. In addition, Experience will make it possible for children of the Boys & Girls Club of Hamilton to enjoy a week-long overnight summer camp. Along with fun camp activities, the Great Miami YMCA staff will incorporate opportunities for the children to discuss important topics, such as spirituality, goal setting, and leadership.

Children will take several Sunday trips to Oxford where they will witness college life and interact with college students. They will ride through Miami University’s campus and journey to the fun and exciting festivities of Brick Street. Once there, the children will be greeted by Miami college student volunteers who will organize games, set up crafts, and help serve them lunch.

“Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.”
- Lady Bird Johnson

For opportunities in which you can connect by volunteering, call Karen Miller, Executive Director Boys & Girls Club of Hamilton
513-893-0071