by Angie Ibarra Miller
Founder & Executive Director of Generations United
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This year, we started as every year does. We assessed our 2022, prayed, met as a staff, and mapped out our year. As we began to look towards summer, something just caused me to pause. I had a sense that summer would look different in 2023. We put some dates in the calendar, but it was only for a few weeks. We knew we would do our VBS with our partner, the Salvation Army, but we needed to figure out how the other weeks would empower children; we weren’t entirely sure. We did as we always do, jumped into action, and looked at grants, volunteers, and staff necessary for summer camp funding. We began preparing our grant requests and praying about what we would do. There were so many children to consider and families genuinely struggling to determine how they could work, but children needed care.
April 2023 – We decided not to have our joint summer camp with w/another church in San Mateo. We realized that we couldn’t pull it off. Staffing in Silicon Valley has been challenging. When young people can make $27 @ In and Out…why work at a small nonprofit? Our precious and dedicated volunteers wanted to take summer breaks. After all, it was the first summer where families felt they could travel freely.
The door that opened was with Peninsula Covenant Church (PCC). Someone advised us that they had space at SACC. We devised a plan for a small discount off the costly rate and frantically contacted our funders.
We worked with Executive Director Dione and set in motion our plan to serve as many children as possible during the 8-week timeframe. North Fair Oaks (NFO) children had never been able to swim in a pool, run on a spacious lawn, learn bible songs daily, do woodwork, do cooking class, have water fun, and enjoy weekly field trips. This option was a blessing as families didn’t have to worry about their children staying home alone, playing in their carports unattended, or zoning out on video games. God had provided.
We are so thankful that after 15 years of partnership with PCC, we saw our children having such a fantastic summer on my church campus. I’m thinking of a student who lost an aunty in a horrible car accident and had so many friends to enjoy summer with. A family of 3 children who joined us, with three more at home, faced terrible circumstances this year when their father lost his job. Another family lives in a mobile park, and our sweet student is now in middle school and unsure if she wants to go. She smiled every day and said that bible time was her favorite time!
We launched with a prayer team covering all children, staff, and facilities! https://generations-united.com/summer-prayer-partners/
We pray this will be the first of many blessings as we bridge the communities of North Fair Oaks and PCC. They are only 3.8 miles from one another, and they are worlds apart. May our church look more like heaven in the days to come!
There are many stories from this summer that we’d love to share with you! Please stop by our center in September, or consider volunteering! https://generations-united.com/volunteer/
Thank you for a stellar summer! <– Click to view our video recap of this amazing summer!