RFK is coming to Sacramento!!!

Friends of Royal Family KIDS in the Sacramento Area

We have trained our first group from the Sacramento area and we are so excited to see that metropolitan area catch the RFK fever.

The trainees are young, energetic and all trained up ready to go, but their church size requires that they reach out to the community at large for volunteers, contacts and resources.

I’m going through my address book and providing some names and emails of some RFK friends who may be able to help the Roseville camp get launched. 

Sacramento could easily have 10 camps running and still not meet the need.  We pray that this camp will integrate into the community and rally many churches to get involved and maybe get new camps launched in the future.

You may or may not be able to volunteer yourselves, but maybe you can help open some doors for them to get Sacramento’s Foster children to camp next year!

Seriously, if you know Pastors, Foster Parents, Community leaders, Civic groups or others in the Sacramento area who may be good contacts for this new camp to get launched successfully, please let our Roseville group know about them.

The new Directors are:

Phil and Jody Ebsworth

Phil 916-626-0791 phil.ebsworth@gmail.com

Jody 916-626-0737 jodyhamric@gmail.com

Open House Church Roseville CA

Here's the group that I had the privilege to train this summer in Texas.  

Email from Social Worker about WV camp

Email from Camp Social Worker for the West Virginia Camp #233

From: Scott, William [mailto:wscott@RADFORD.EDU] 
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 2:00 PM
To: Linda Chenot


Dear Linda:

  

Prior to coming to Radford University, I worked with emotionally dysregulated children for years in various settings: Department of Social Services, Residential Care, Court Services (Juvenile Probation), and Family Service.  In the week that I was at camp, I did not witness any aggressive behavior between the children, I did not see or hear another child yell or raise his/her voice toward another child, and did not see another child push, hit or bully another child. 

That is pretty remarkable—hard to imagine based on my past experiences…  So what was special about camp? 

How could a camp staffed by paraprofessionals provide such a healing and safe environment when I have worked in residential settings with professional staff? 

I believe that RFKC has created a structure that invites and supports safety and healing. 

The training was very helpful and the design of the camp is well conceived and structured, and when staffed with loving people who share a vision of God’s love, then you have a recipe for success. 

My experience was remarkable and meaningful, and my respect for Johnda, the leadership team and the staff of the Huntington camp is high. 

  

I hope my comments are helpful to you.

Sincerely,

Wally Scott

(edited for length, no content was changed)

Social Worker Letter from Alaska

April 22, 2015

Email received from:

Rachel Olson, Camp Director

Royal Family KIDS - Mat-Su #310

matsu@royalfamilykids.org

I did want to tell you that I had an amazing experience last Friday! I had several cases transferred to me and I did a home visit with a sibling group of 2 (girls). The foster parent asked about their applications for Royal Family Kids and I told her I received them and the girls are on the list. The girls then started screaming out of excitement! They went and got their photo albums out (I recognized one of them from your slide show J) and one of them had to go put on her t-shirt. She also showed me her bible, which was in her bed with her! They just couldn’t stop talking about after it was brought up. So cute! I was told when they were dropped off at camp they were crying and scared and when they were picked up they started crying because they didn’t want to leave. It was so wonderful to see how happy they were!

Tara Jean Pickett, LBSW

Protective Services Specialist II

Mat-Su Adoption Caseload Worker

Mat-Su Alaska

(edited for length but not for content)

CCE Golf Benefiting RFK

Special thanks to Michael Dias, Mark Sheeley and Contra Costa Electric for supporting Royal Family KIDS with their company golf tournament.  

My former days as a CCE employee...

Family Vacation in Big Bear.

Before Jessica and Janae left for college, we were able to stay for a week up in Big Bear thanks to the gift of a Time share week.
We had a great time as a family with adventures, down time, games and family, family, family.

Kayaking to the Big Bear Dam

Hiking to Castle Rock

First time for Jet Skis

Pacific Crest Trail

Kids and Cousins

Hiking the Narrows

On the way to CO to drop off Jessica for school, we (Jessica Juhala andJonathan Juhala) stopped at Zion National Park to hike the "Narrows". 10 mile hike, 8 miles of that in the river / river bed. 50% of the time in the water, no higher than my waist. 75% of the time walking on rocks that were more the size of bowling balls than baseballs. Great fun and photos, but exhausting! We hit the trail at 10 am and were off the trail at 5:30. No bathrooms along the way, or should I say, all one bathroom along the way. Not for the tenderfoot or those with shy bladders.

Jon passing by House Rock

Jess and I in a side canyon

Widest part of the canyon is 1/4 mile, the most narrow is 22 feet.

Some parts were all shade and some parts sunshine.

When the Campers Go Home!

From the RFK Leadership fb page...  At the debriefing on friday right after the campers have left. A Counselor from our South Dallas camp grabbed these debriefing cards to express how she was feeling. She beautifully captured how we all feel at the end of the week - and beyond. 

"Sad" because I may never get to see my girls again. "Prayerful" because I will always be praying for my girls. "Unprepared" because it's always hard to say goodbye after 5 short days with them. "Humble" because I know that no matter how hard I think my life is, these children have been through so much worse. I am absolutely in love with this camp. I will be doing it every year for the rest of my life. This is my passion, this is my calling. I love all these sweet children with all of my heart and it never gets easier saying goodbye to them. Just 365 days til next camp!"