By: Tiffany Jeanminette, Give Her Camp scholarship recipient, 2021
“You need more fun in your life.” That’s what one of my best friends and business partner, Tamatha Thomas-Haase, told me three years ago when she nominated me for a Give Her Camp scholarship to Campowerment.
At that time — in fall of 2021 — I was newly single (after 17 years of marriage), with four kids, and moving back to my Louisiana hometown. I felt, pressingly, like I needed to hit the RESTART button.
By nominating me for a scholarship to Campowerment, my friend presented me with a gift that she told me, “keeps on giving.” Of course, I couldn’t have understood what that would come to mean, until I did.
I got that scholarship — funded by members of this community, like you and now, me; attended my first retreat; and really felt how Campowerment helped me to catapult into a new life.
I can clearly see a clear distinction in my “before” and “after” camp story.
That first camp, I had no clue what to expect, but I loved taking a long-weekend break from single-parenting four kids, a stressful workload and all that I carried in my everyday life. I remember on day 1 in the opening Circle conversation, when asked what brought me to Campowerment, being suddenly overcome with emotions from the long, sad story that I had inside. I had hardly realized all that was bottled up in me: from my father’s unexpected death to emergency surgery on my stomach. I tried hard to fight back the tears – but that moment helped me release instead of further bottle it up.
With space made, I could be totally open to what would happen next. Immediately after that first session, the other women in the Circle embraced me and — sometimes literally, other times proverbially — held my hand for the rest of the weekend, and as it turns out: all the way to today. Session after session of that camp, I was moved by the diversity of life experiences among the other campers and felt like I was following little golden breadcrumbs that would undoubtedly lead to something magnificent.
On the flight home, I remember writing in my journal the names of 25 new friends, and the special contributions they made to me at camp. I was amazed by how connected I felt to them. I knew that this was just the beginning of the chapter of my life where I had an army of female warriors beside me.
The strength I felt from Campowerment allowed me to make several monumental changes in my life, internally (with my personal healing) and professionally. I continued to work with the camp experts via Campowerment.com and in one-on-one sessions. I really leaned into that gift that kept on giving — using it as a jumping-off point to make a concerted effort to invest in my own growth — and a few months later, I took the leap to start my own consulting business, leaving a 16-year Public Health career of having a steady “9-to-5” job with benefits. And things from here started to get so crazy-good it almost sounds bizarre to recount.
Upon that decision (about a week later), I was offered a part-time position as an adjunct professor at the University of New Orleans, solidifying my credibility and expertise in my field. I’ve recently celebrated one year in business, successfully being able to feed my kids and pay my bills SOLO!
Personally, I’ve grown and healed my heart with the love and support from the women of Campowerment through regular phone call check-ins to weekly virtual sessions. Through laughter, tears, and looking for daily magical moments – my trauma has transmuted into triumph.
In the last few months, I’ve had two daughters graduate from high school with one leaving home to attend a great HBCU in Washington, DC. And I am now a “T-T” with a new baby grandson. And I am exploring a new dream job idea with someone I recently met at my camp #3! I can go on and on with camp stories and what I’ve gained…because I have been living in magic since attending my first Campowerment. My life is constantly transforming and I am loving living inside every second of it.
My world is different, for the intensely better, since becoming a camper, which was all made possible by the generous donations of those who are now my sisters (and brothers!) in the Campowerment community. Those who see the value of investing in women who are on a treadmill — of routine success, or hardship, or any other thing that keeps us from our greatness.
If you see the value, please consider donating to Give Her Camp, here
Generous people like you who support Give Her Camp are truly changing the world, one woman at a time, because when you support women, you transform entire families and their communities. When one supports Give Her Camp, one is providing a gift that can keep unfolding through that woman’s journey in life.
I can’t quite put to words the deep meaning this experience has had, and continues to have on me, so please, suffice it to say: Thank you, to my friend Tamatha who gave me that gift of a nomination, and before that: to each and every one of you, who chooses to make scholarships like the one I got possible, for another woman like me…or maybe a woman nothing like me!…who doesn’t even realize how close she is to transforming her life so exquisitely.
Donate to Give Her Camp, and Change a Woman’s World
– Tiffany