Campowerment’s Top 10 Wildest Impact Stories

The Top 10 is an annual tradition ‘round these parts: an excuse, really, to look back at all that fit into 12 months in the way of change, growth, sisterhood and a lot of unexpected wow, in a world that doesn’t always lend itself to natural reminders of the power of good – without distraction.

Before there was the Milestone tradition here, there was the Top 10 tradition. But this year, since we closed a huge chapter – all the ones that have come before, really, following the last camp (as we know it at least) this past Fall, we’ve decided to widen this Top 10’s aperture. 

This one is an All-Time Top 10 – the chart-topping stories of Campowerment’s imprint on women’s lives, and then, in some cases, how that rippled outward. We got to dig deep into the memory bank for this one!

As such, the below is about celebration – of mutual awe, of how community fuels impact fuels personal empowerment fuels community and impact…and so on. Yes, it’s a showcase of that regenerative cycle that makes up the feel-good half of your social news feed…except with people you’re far fewer degrees from knowing, and being dear friends with! (two degrees, max, because we know them all, and you know us!)

Clear your calendar of 30 minutes and chew on this one slowly, digest it. It’s a beaut. Oh – and it’s in no particular order!

OK, let’s do it…

It was in one of Grandy’s Journaling Circles on identity where a 60-something Sharon Preston Folta shared the dirty lil’ secret she had been holding onto most of her life. As the closeted love child of Jazz legend Louis Armstrong, Sharon hadn’t ever been honest about her upbringing because of how it was veiled publicly…until she became empowered to share her truth, writing “Little Satchmo,” a raw and vulnerable memoir that ultimately turned this radio Sales Executive into an Emmy award-winning documentary Producer, in her late 60s!

Since, Sharon’s shared her story, with Little Satchmo, across the world, to audiences of all shapes and sizes. Her latest? She’s working on adapting the identity story into the Young Adult category, to inspire young people to embrace opportunities to step out of the shadows and seek belonging where it feels most honoring. Sharon: you make us very, very proud.

In 2022, like so many of us, Janice Katz came to camp with a lot on her plate, sharing with camp sisters that the clock was ticking for her husband Allan, who was on dialysis and on the waiting list for a new kidney.

Just days later, in that camp’s Closing Ceremony, Janice did something the likes of which she’s never done before: she got up on stage to ask her camp friends to help get her husband a kidney. 

Three months after that, Janice received a random message from a Campowerment camper, inquiring about the process of organ donation for the family of her young friend on life support following a horrible accident. Miraculously, that conversation led to a match! And Janice’s husband Allan is now alive, healthy and well with that man’s kidney – as he and Janice celebrate their 40th anniversary! (Can you believe?!)

In 2017, a family of three women came to Campowerment in the Poconos together – a mom, Marion – one of our more “mature” campers, rivaling Grandy as Village Elder at the time, who brought her youthful spirit; hilarious bag of one-liners to quietly share to the lucky folks who’d catch them; and her two daughters, Susan and Debbie.

Yes, Marion Renard (pictured as the scarecrow above) quickly became life of the party. The morning of day two at camp, despite her Parkinson’s Disease and the effect it had on her steady walking, Marion decided to give Walking Coach Michelle Stanten’s workshop a try,  bravely confessing that for years, her fear of falling kept her eyes peeled to the ground below her. 

By the end of that session, with lots of encouragement from the entire group, for the first time in a very long time, Marion found the chutzpah to take a good look around, if only for a second at first, to focus on the beauty of the trees in that forest. Then, she did it for longer. 

For all of us who got to witness this remarkable experience, it was clear this day would forever change the game for Marion, who has been walking differently – and regularly, with her head held high – ever since.

In the early 1970s, Tammi and Shelly Fisher met at summer camp (Camp Akiba) in the Poconos. They loved each other as kids, for sure; but living on different coasts, they lost touch over the years…until Shelly read about Campowerment in its early days on Facebook, enabling them to reconnect in their 50s and pick up right where they left off (but this time, with better hair!). 

These two camp-obsessed Boomers began dreaming of possibilities to create together, where power and playtime could intersect, just as it did when they were kids – to have an impact on those who may not know “camp’s magic,” like they do. 

In 2014 (a year after Campowerment was born), Shelly started the Herb it Forward Foundation in memory of her Dad (Herb Lotman), to help fund college tuition for exceptional Philadelphia students making a difference in the world. Shortly thereafter, Shelly came to Tammi, as she does as a dreamer, with a big, “what if,” and in six weeks, their two small teams spun up a camp-style weekend in the mountains for 30 scholars to learn, play, grow, connect and unburden themselves while they invested in their dreams and community. 

Ten years and many, many camp weekends later, witnessing the growth of these now-hundreds of young leaders in their own communities has been one of the greatest gifts of this whole journey, for all of us who got to be a part…

In 2008, long before social media influencers were known to us laypeople, Christina Farrell Lerchen was called “The Makeup Blogger,” one of the Internet’s first successful beauty influencers, with 500,000 followers…at a career high at the same time her childhood bestie was diagnosed with cancer…at 35.

Christina was ready to walk away from all of it to help care for Nikki, and while at camp, she found the courage to ask for what she wanted – out loud…so she told almost every one of 100 of the campers at that retreat that she was determined to sell her burgeoning business. 

She didn’t think anything came of it (especially because she didn’t know who anyone was outside of camp – what they did, what they were connected to, etc). Until two months later, Campowerment expert Business Coach Dawn Andrews met a Hollywood Makeup artist with a huge dream: to create a makeup blog – and start with an audience. And that’s how the magic happened…30 days later. Dawn facilitated a deal between the two women – Christina sold her business and was able to care for Nikki ‘til she took her last breath. 

When Karen came to camp from Dayton, Ohio, her husband of 15 years had just been convicted…for the double murder of his girlfriend (yes – you read this all right) and her nine-year-old son. 

Back then, Karen, an EMT, was still standing by her man, supporting him with weekly jail visits and financial support. By the time Karen came back to camp the following year, she found strength and clarity, filed for divorce, and took the next step on her journey, excitedly walking towards new beginnings – at 54! Read the full story here.

Karen is the walking example of how understanding your own worth can set you free. (Karen: you’re amazing. We know you know, but we’re saying it again, OK?!)

Laurie White was only 28 when she lost her right leg after being shot in the line of duty. In 2014, at 40-something, she came to Campowerment, jumping into a world of possibilities when she climbed up a 34-foot pole, before an emotionally-charged, cheering crowd below. 

A decade later (this last Fall), following invasive surgery to remove melanoma in her “good leg,” Laurie came back to camp not yet knowing if the cancer had spread, enveloped in love by her people. She climbed the ropes course’s pole once again – as, of course, her crowd went wild.

The support continued when, four days after camp, Laurie broke the femur on her amputated leg, prompting her to spend the last few months in a wheelchair and on fumbly crutches. Slowly healing, her camp friends in her corner every step of the way, we were so excited to celebrate Laurie in our monthly digital gathering (Monthly Milestone Circle) after she recently got the news that her cancer did not spread, and that she’s on the up-and-up. Laurie: u da best.

November 2018 was to be our first-ever sold out camp in Malibu, California, but as we excitedly set up camp for the 168 campers set to arrive the next day, the threat of an impending fire became dangerously real. As our core team powered down that mountain, with intense winds fueling the fire barreling towards us, it quickly became clear that we weren’t coming back for that camp. 

So we split up and hit the phones, cancelling camp just hours before the place burned to the ground in 200-ft flames, taking with it everything Campowerment physically owned. 

We thought this meant we may have to be done doing business, but within two weeks, hundreds of love notes and donations came in, from our people (you!) who came together to help resuscitate us, raising $75,000 through a powerfully emotional Go Fund Me campaign, giving us just enough to reschedule that camp at another California retreat canter, and begin to rebuild; but most importantly, reminding us that there isn’t much we can’t do, as long as we’re in it together. 

Raquel aka Rocky Lima was one of our OG Campowerment sisters – a Malibu camper who found her people in the 2013 Bunk 4 crew, women aged 21 to 60-something, who each came to camp solo and who, in four days, became lifelong friends. They called themselves the Bug Juice Bitchezzzz (the BJBs, for short). 

The BJBs were there for each other, ‘til death do them part, and beyond. In the early years, they’d return to camp when they could, together, and leave with a plan for their next reunion, which included planting seeds, pooling resources, and organizing nominations, to create the very first, Bunk 4-funded “scholarship” to Campowerment.

In 2016, three years after Campowerment began and the BJBs first found each other, cancer took Rocky from this Earth, at 52, with her “Bitchezzzz” by her bedside.

The group’s commitment to their scholarship, and their true embodiment of what we created Campowerment to be, inspired us to formally create Give Her Camp, Campowerment’s sister 501(c)(3), non-profit to send extraordinary women to camp who could otherwise not get there. Over the past 8 years, through the generous donations of our campers and friends, we’ve been able to send 150 superbly brave, dynamic, deserving women to camp, fully funded! Thank you for kicking us off, Bitchezzzz! 

It was at Rae Coleman’s first camp in 2023, on a morning Wisdom Walk with Meryl Russo and a few dozen other early risers, when her lightbulb moment arrived, disguised in crippling fear that nearly took her down. 

As the group walked the shaky dock towards the camp lake, a trembling Rae, escorted on both sides, was brought to her knees, sharing the story of her near-drowning as a little girl, and feeling invisible when no one knew she was missing or heard her cries for help. 

It was quite a moment, we’re told, when the group, led by Meryl, enveloped Rae and quietly held the loving space for her to finally feel seen and completely supported, until she broke down and let all that abandonment shit go!!! 

Never underestimate the power of community, my friends…no one is coming to save us. Except ourselves and each other!