Every year, as the tourists roll into San Diego and school gets out, A Bridge for Kids fills its calendar with opportunities for our students to connect, stay active, and try something new. But this summer was unlike any A Bridge for Kids has seen before.

With a record number of activities packed into just a few months, including surfing lessons, hiking, camping on Catalina Island, rock climbing, bowling, ceramics, beach cleanups, and plenty more, our students had no shortage of opportunities to find new hobbies, meet new people, and stretch a little outside of their comfort zones. That is, after all, exactly what our Health & Wellness Program is supposed to be about.

And then there was perhaps the biggest adventure of them all: Seven weeks… Away from home… In New Hampshire… At Camps Kenwood & Evergreen.

Camps Kenwood & Evergreen is a sleepaway summer camp in Wilmot, New Hampshire, where campers trade phones and screens for more than six weeks of being outside, living with friends, trying new things, and, whether they realize it in the moment or not, growing up quite a bit along the way. Campers spend their days swimming and waterskiing on the lake, wakeboarding, kayaking, mountain biking, climbing, taking on the high ropes course, playing sports, learning archery, making ceramics, woodworking, cooking, creating art, and choosing from dozens of other activities.

And this summer, two brave young men from A Bridge for Kids decided to give it a shot. Gavin and Hernan, both rising freshmen in high school, packed their bags and headed across the country for seven weeks at camp. It was the first time either of them had ever been on an airplane. For one of them, it was the first time he had ever left San Diego.

Think about that for a second. At 14 years old, they went from home in San Diego to living in a bunk nearly 3,000 miles away, surrounded almost entirely by people they had never met. No parents, no familiarity, no usual routine. And, perhaps the most terrifying thing to a teenager, no phone.

This was also an extraordinary opportunity financially. Full-summer tuition at Kenwood & Evergreen for 2026 was $16,750, and that is before considering flights, equipment, clothing, shipping, and everything else required to send two students across the country fully prepared for nearly two months away from home.

Through the generosity of Camps Kenwood & Evergreen and Nonprofit Mickey’s Kids, Gavin and Hernan were able to experience something that otherwise would never have been possible for them. And they did not simply make it through seven weeks. They thrived.

They made friends. They tried things they had never done before. They learned how to live with people very different from themselves. They became more independent. More confident. More willing to step into something unfamiliar without knowing exactly how it would turn out. They came home with stories, inside jokes, new friendships, probably a few pieces of clothing that will never be clean again, and a much bigger idea of what they are capable of.

For that opportunity, we are incredibly grateful to Camps Kenwood & Evergreen.

But there is one more part of this story.

And for this part, I need to explain a little bit more about camp.

Camp culture is filled with quirks, ridiculous traditions, songs that make absolutely no sense to anyone outside of camp (some of them even in a made-up language), and rituals that become incredibly meaningful when you have been part of them long enough.

At Kenwood, one of the most important traditions is the Shield of Honor.

The Shield of Honor is the highest recognition a Kenwood camper can receive. It is not awarded to the fastest athlete, the most talented camper, or the loudest personality in the room. It recognizes the camper who best represents the values of brotherhood and integrity. Someone others can count on, someone who lifts up the people around him, and someone whose character stands out within the camp community.

Each summer, during opening campfire, the Shield is unearthed and introduced to the camp. At the end of the summer, new names are added to a new Shield for that particular year. The Shields all hang in the dining hall for generations of campers to see, permanently marking the legacy of the people who left their imprint on the community.

And this summer, one of those names was: Hernan. Our Hernan.

In his first summer ever at camp. We have always known our students are remarkable. We see it in their classrooms, their families, their schools, and their communities. We see students who work hard, care deeply, overcome difficult circumstances, and continually find ways to show up for the people around them.

But there was something pretty special about seeing a community nearly 3,000 miles away recognize those same qualities.

Hernan arrived knowing almost nobody. Seven weeks later, his name was permanently etched into one of the most meaningful traditions that camp has. And believe me when I say that is a tremendous achievement. Many campers spend seven, eight, or even nine summers at camp without ever having their name placed on the Shield. To receive that recognition during your very first summer says quite a bit about the impression Hernan made on the people around him.

If you have made it this far and are wondering why the person writing an A Bridge for Kids article seems to know an oddly specific amount about a summer camp in rural New Hampshire, there is a reason…

My name is Alex (yes, ABFK’s Alex), and I attended Camp Kenwood myself. I arrived there as a little boy in 2008 and spent my summers at camp through 2014. Some of the friendships I made there are friendships I still have today. These summers will live rent-free in my mind as the best summers of my life. I can personally and confidently say that camp played a hugely impactful role in shaping the person I am today. It taught me a ton about independence, it made me more comfortable walking into and embracing the unknown, it helped me improve my ability to connect with people, and it gave me an unwavering appetite for adventure.

Camp also introduced me to many mentors I still admire and friends who have been part of my life for well over a decade. So, admittedly, this article and opportunity were very personal for me. I’m blessed to have grown up with Scott Brody, the former owner of Camp Kenwood and Evergreen, as a role model to follow. Scott used to always tell a story about the owner before him, Arthur, and his ability to make the person he was talking to feel like the most important person in the world, and I think Scott has achieved that to a higher level than even Arthur himself (although I never had the privilage of knowing Arthur, I can’t imagine someone possessing this quality to a greater extent than Scott himself). In addition, Scott has always led with an overflowing abundance of kindness, compassion, and positivity. Needless to say, whenever I think about how I want to improve myself to be a better person, I almost always think of Scott first.

Back to the boys - getting to watch Gavin and Hernan experience this place for the first time was a trip down memory lane. I had such a blast following along and seeing the boys do all the fun things I did as a kid. More importantly, seeing the smiles on their faces in these pictures was so fulfilling for me. Watching Hernan earn one of the highest honors camp can give was incredibly special. In a small way, I got to experience camp all over again this summer. Only this time, I got to watch two of my students discover what I had been fortunate enough to discover years ago.

Our Health & Wellness Program was designed not only to get students outside but also to fill their summer calendars with lots of fun and amazing activities. It is just as much about that as it is about putting a student in a place they have never been, around people they have never met, doing something they have never tried, and giving them the chance to discover a part of themselves they may not have known was there. Sometimes that happens while checking off a summer bucket list item while learning to surf with ABFK in San Diego. Sometimes it happens halfway up a rock wall at Vertical Hold. And sometimes it happens 3,000 miles from home, around a campfire in the woods of New Hampshire, surrounded by your new brothers.

We could not be prouder of Gavin and Hernan fully embracing and embodying everything it means to be in A Bridge for Kids this summer.

And, Hernan, somewhere in a dining hall in Wilmot, New Hampshire, in the middle of the woods by a lake, your name now hangs on a Shield for generations of campers to see.

I bet both you boys can hardly wait for next summer at your new home on Eagle Pond Road…

P.S. More camp stories and articles to come!