Both Southern Cross Kids Camps were AMAZING!!! The books a huge success, the buddies and staff thrilled with how they made their life at camp so much easier and left them feeling thrilled to gift the children with stunning books..
The first week was quite stressful as we had multiple technical problems with the computers and printers and I spent most of my time at them trying to either resolve the situation or proof the ever growing numbers of pictures.......The books were brilliant, the buddies loved how easy they were to create and i was relieved that my attention was able to stay on the photography side of things. At the Church were the parents and carers gathered to pick up the kids and hear a little concert, I saw many children proudly showing their parents how they had in fact climbed a 10m climbing wall, used a drill to create a wooden car or plane, dressed up as princesses for a spot of high tea or ridden the infamous tea cups at the birthday gala day, all of the stress of the week seemed to evaporate away at their pride.
The second week was as perfect as any of us could hope for, better for me as my two youngest were there as Cousins. I can't articulate the feeling of overwhelming pride I had in their 150% commitment and focus on the children we had in our care. The campers were a beautiful group of children, mostly homeless due to marital abuse and some due to financial difficulty, with only a few behavioural problem kids, so it was easy to pour love out onto them as they were like sponges ready to soak it up, forget their troubled realities and simply be kids. Thankfully, being assigned a photographer, i had the opportunity to be with them on all of their activities and I captured the first day the initial scared and tremulous looks when the arrived and continued with them daily to see them all open up and by Wednesday, huge smiles, triumphant high fives and faces bursting with pride and excitement filled the photos on my camera.
It was truly an awesome and privileged thing to experience being there to hear there excited giggles, their triumphant war cry when they over came obstacles they thought impossible, watch them discover the delight of simply playing and being children and best of all, watching them receive their books in an almost reverent way at the end of the week. I cant share their faces with you, but ALL were gazing in awe at the faces that shone back at them, the memories of their week captured in gorgeous keepsakes that you all helped create.
The combination of the children's reaction and the buddies overwhelming relief & gratefulness that the books they could give would be so very easy to make and yet be so incredibly beautiful had me wanting to email you all through the weeks to share with you the absolute success of our combined LO creations.
So THANKS AGAIN!!!! I can now say with utmost authority, YOU really made a difference, in a huge engine that is SCKC, as individuals, in all our different ways we came together to ensure 47 Children & their families or carers had the most amazingly memorable SCKC Camp!!!
Below are some picture collages of both camps buddies making the books and a collage of one of the weeks children's receiving theirs. I hope that in the future we can continue to work together to ensure we can impact more and more of these most deserving children, making sure they have days of sunshine to light up their entire year. I know that three SCKC converts now live in my house and we are already planning ideas for next years camps!!
Jules x
What a Blessing! Thank you so much for all the time you put into these pages. We loved them but the kids loved them so much more!
Deb
Posted by: Deborah | April 27, 2008 at 06:47 PM
Oh wow!!!! That's wonderful news, Julie. Thanks for letting us know. (I've got tears in my eyes)
Posted by: Marie Noske | April 27, 2008 at 07:14 PM
Amazing, inspiring and heartwarming Julie! Thank you for letting us all be a part of the journey too! Congratulations for making a difference in these childrens lives!
Posted by: Chris | April 27, 2008 at 08:31 PM
Amazing! My little heart is fluttering just thinking about those kids - look at them, so entranced!!! Wonderful, wonderful stuff!
Posted by: Petrina | April 27, 2008 at 08:36 PM
Thanks Julie so much for keeping us updated. The children certainly look so happy, you should be so proud.
Take Care,
Shelley.
www.scrapbooking4less.com.au
Check out our Forum!
Posted by: Shelley | April 27, 2008 at 08:42 PM
All I can say is ... Awesome!
Posted by: Debbie Y | April 27, 2008 at 08:48 PM
What a great feeling to have been a part of this - the photos are incredible. Yes - tears in eyes!
Posted by: Megan | April 27, 2008 at 09:33 PM
Thanks for sharing with us Julie .... what a wonderful sense of how good it feels to know that we made a difference !
Posted by: JULIE C | April 27, 2008 at 10:02 PM
Thank you so much for keeping us updated. It was a privilege to be able to help make these children smile. My toddler loves looking at my scrapbooks, so I can only imagine the joy that these children feel when they look at their very own books. I am sure they will all be loved and treasured.
Posted by: Cindy | April 27, 2008 at 11:52 PM
Thank you for sharing this with us...I am so proud of you and all the people that gave their time to these kids.
Posted by: Linda | April 28, 2008 at 08:49 AM
Thanks julie for all your hard work..I am so glad that these little peices of our work, gave such joy to the kids around Australia...thanks for letting us be involved in such a tiny way.
Posted by: Wendy Smith | April 28, 2008 at 09:34 AM
Hi, I just wanted to thank all the lovely peoples who helped make those wonderful memory books for the SCKC 2008. I was a buddy at the camp for the first time this year. During our spare time we headed off to the secret cabin5 room and worked on our scrapbooks. I really wanted to thank you all soooooo much, because you took the time out to help us with the books I could take that extra time to be with the children who had been loaned too me for the week. Thank you thank you soooooo much it meant that i didnt have to spend countless hours starting from scratch. My time was used up for the children. The album i chose were so lovingly crafted i fealt really proud to put my little fingerprint on it. I know both my girls were in awe when they received their books!!! Than k again. It was priceless what you did.
Posted by: Sharin | April 28, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Oh you made me cry. Thankyou for organising this. I am so delighted that the books were so well received. It was a very fulfilling experience being part of this.
Posted by: Carolyn | April 28, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou to all those wonderful people who made scrapbook pages!!! As a buddy on camp it was an amazing blessing to have the pages done for us. The scrapbooks we were able to give the kids were the best ever. They will be treasured for years to come.
Posted by: Christine | April 28, 2008 at 03:48 PM
you guys are amazing! I was a buddy on camp for the 3rd time this year and am pretty sure i have never been to bed so early on the final night before! It is normally all taken up with crazy last minute page building and creating! You saved us an amazing amount of work and stress by the fantastic pages that you all created for us, Thank you soooo much!
Posted by: Rachel | April 28, 2008 at 05:34 PM
thank you to all the scrapbookers from all over the world... the books were all spectacular and all unique it made our job on camp so much easier we even got to get to bed at 1.00 on the last night knowing that all the books were finished and ready for the kids. thankyou thankyou thankyou times a milloion
Posted by: Robyn | April 28, 2008 at 06:18 PM
Jules that is such an amazing effort on the part of you and your team.
Congrats on everything you have done to help the little children.
Love,
Lee :)
Posted by: lalalee | April 28, 2008 at 06:55 PM
Jules...this is beautiful. Thanks so much for the update. I love that there is a camp like this ..and i love that the kids get to smile. ..and thanks for letting us be a part of it all...xxooo
Posted by: Deb Godley | April 28, 2008 at 07:28 PM
Julie, Thank you for sharing this info' with us, it really is such a wonderful camp and I am so glad that I could help. Keep up the great work Julie,you truly are an angel and a big congrats to all the team on SCKC !!!! Great job...
Posted by: Julie M | April 28, 2008 at 08:42 PM
to all those wonderfully creative people who made amazing pages for the photo albums/memory books for us buddys to use at this years SCKC you have absolutely no idea how grateful i am to you. i love working with these kids, but i dont have a creative bone in my body. this is the 6th camp i have done and in the past making these precious memory albums has been a bit of a stress to me.....i know how much the children love receiving them, and compare...this year not only did i have all my photos in albums and was up to date on day 3, but they looked absolutely fantastic.....i kept showing off to everyone how creative i had been by placing a photo on the page....we used to use glue but Julie has taught us that is a no no!!!!!
i dont think i can quite stress how grateful i am to all you creative people for making those pages and making camp so much easier for me and providing such fantastic, appealing and tactile pages for the children of SCKC, who by the way just get so much from those memory albums...
so thank you again and again and again.....thanks Julie for your passion for this too. thanks heaps too to Sarah who helped me heaps.
hopefully will work with you again in making a difference in these childrens lives.
Leia
Posted by: leia | April 28, 2008 at 10:01 PM
As the Director of one of the camps, I just want to say a BIG thankyou for all the people that made the pages for our camp. The leaders were so excited to see all the hard work done for them, they were so excited about their books looking so professional and the kids were over come with joy to see such a beautiful memory that was created just for them. I can garantee that the children will treasure these books for years to come and that they will be a anchor of love and hope for them during the difficult challenges they may face. You have all played such a key role in that and for that I thank you.
Tammy Tolman
(SCKC Camp Director)
Posted by: Tammy Tolman | April 30, 2008 at 05:23 PM
Oh Jules I've got all teary reading your update!
How wonderful that the camps and the memory books were such a hit...I feel privileged to be able to play some small part in their success.
Congrats to you Jules for all your fantastic effort in making these books a reality for the kids!!
Posted by: Julie Takacs | April 30, 2008 at 07:09 PM
Just reading those comments from the buddies and seeing the pics of the kids with their books - man this is such a worthwhile thing to do!! I'll be adding some for the next lot for sure!
Posted by: kelly | May 03, 2008 at 07:05 AM
way to make me cry Julie! I'm so happy the kids and carers loved the pages.
Posted by: LisaW | May 08, 2008 at 04:29 PM
WOW!!! What a wonderful, wonderful gift you all gave to those kids- the whole experience sounds just amazing, & I'd love to be a part of the next one, contributing whatever I can. For someone who's only just become aware of the project, I can't wait to find out more details, & get started for next year!!!Congratulations to you all- job well done!
Posted by: MargS | August 13, 2008 at 10:25 AM