There’s something about summer camp that stays with you.
The crunch of gravel under your shoes. The shock of cold lake water. Campfire songs sung off-key but full of joy. Inside jokes that still make you laugh years later. That’s what Camp POSTCARD is.
For three best friends, Tyler, Venus, and Sofia, Camp POSTCARD wasn’t just a summer escape. It was the place where they met, grew up together, and discovered the paths that would shape their futures.
Created for 5th and 6th graders across the Denver and Aurora metro area, Camp POSTCARD is a free, week-long escape for kids who show promise and potential, but might not otherwise get the chance to feel what a summer in the mountains can do. And it does a lot.
It gives them time away from devices and pressure. A chance to ride a horse for the first time, belt out a chant during color wars, or sit shoulder-to-shoulder with someone totally new and realize they have more in common than they thought. And all the while, they’re forming deep bonds with their counselors: trusted adults who guide, laugh, and listen. What the kids don’t know until the very last day is that many of these mentors are actually members of law enforcement and emergency response teams. That surprise? It matters. It turns fear into trust. And strangers into role models.
Discovering that the people they’ve grown to admire wear a badge breaks down barriers. It reshapes perceptions. It turns fear into understanding. And for many, it becomes the moment everything begins to shift.
That’s what happened to Tyler. At first, this recent high school graduate didn’t want to go to camp. He was only in sixth grade at the time. He was anxious, homesick, and unsure he’d fit in. But by the second day, he was laughing around the campfire. And when he found out his favorite counselor was a police officer?
“It made me confused,” he said. “Before camp, I didn’t have a good relationship with the police. But my counselor changed that.”
He kept coming back. He led with compassion, knowing how it felt to be the kid who didn’t want to get off the bus.
His experience empowered him to walk away from negative influences. He joined JROTC and started modeling. Camp helped him rewrite the story he thought he was destined to live and showed him he had the power to choose a new one. Tyler began dreaming bigger. Today, he is considering a career in the military, and because camp taught him he could.
Venus’ story is just as powerful…and empowering! She was just 10 when she first came to camp, shy and unsure. She left with new friends, new confidence, and a new understanding of what it means to lead. She came back year after year, as a camper and then as a junior counselor, and found joy in helping younger campers feel seen and safe. It was there that she realized her purpose.
“Camp helped me learn how to talk to new people and be a leader,” Venus says. “That’s when I knew I wanted to help kids as a nurse.”
Today, she is thriving at Metropolitan State University in Denver on a full-ride scholarship, studying pediatric nursing, and is a cheerleader.
Venus’ cousin, Sofia, is also a proud Camp POSTCARD graduate. Now 18, she still remembers falling in love with camp from the very first day. As a junior counselor, what stood out most was the opportunity to be deeply involved with the younger kids.
“Being a part of something bigger,” she said, “was so important to me.”
Through her time at camp, Sofia developed a strong sense of leadership and learned how to be a role model. She gained valuable skills in communication, problem-solving, and peacemaking, lessons that shaped who she is today.
Later this year, Sofia will head to Colorado State University on a full-ride scholarship. She’s already made her mark; she was named Female Wrestler of the Year by the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and a state runner-up in track. Camp may have been just one chapter in her journey, but it helped lay the foundation for everything that followed.
Camp POSTCARD is a VOA Colorado program with heart. Like most summer camp experiences, it offers memories. But it is so much more than that; it offers moments of transformation. It gives kids the chance to be silly and strong, nervous and brave, homesick and hopeful, all in the same week.
Camp POSTCARD isn’t just a place where memories are made. It’s where confidence is born, character is strengthened, and possibility takes root. When kids return home, they carry more than stories; they carry belief. In themselves. In their future. And in the idea that their life can be something extraordinary.
