Youth Rally Seattle, WA. July 25-30, 2016

March 06, 2016
 
 
The Youth Rally is a summer camp that provides a non-threatening environment for kids between the ages of 11 and 17 with any sort of bowel or bladder dysfunction.  The Youth Rally is designed to help campers understand that everyone has the same opportunities to achieve their goals regardless of medical or physical differences. In short, that they are not alone.
 
 

Summer in Seattle – July 25-30!

You can start dreaming of summer in Seattle (yes it does stop raining here, for a few months) and get your applications in for Youth Rally 2016! We’re back in Seattle, WA at the University of WA for the second time. We had a blast in 2013, visiting the Experience Music Project, swimming and boating at Green Lake Park, visiting the University HUB for bowling and games, and fun fitness classes (archery!) at the University sports complex.

We’re in planning right now, but it’s guaranteed to be an educational and amazing Rally that you don’t want to miss.

Applications for campers, nurses, and counselors are all live on our Youth Rally website.Check out the Applications page here!

COUNSELOR/CIT, and NURSING APPLICATIONS are due March 31st!

CAMPER APPLICATIONS are due June 1st!

Note: back again this year is a request to inform of us your intent to attend. This one page form should be completed as soon as possible by campers.
 

Help Youth Rally 2016 Be a Week to Remember

At camp our goals include providing education about medical conditions and management techniques, promoting self-esteem and hygiene, and encouraging independent living in a way that shows participants the importance of setting goals and continuously working towards them. Programming, planning, and raising funds for Youth Rally never stops, and is something we can’t complete without your support. Here are some ideas for how you can help:

  • Set up your own fundraising page – Set up a personal fund-raising page and share it with family and friends, so they will also know about Youth Rally and have an opportunity to donate directly, via your page! The Youth Rally is already established with FirstGiving.
    Click here to create your own grassroots fundraising page.
  • Become a Youth Rally Community Partner. Click here to download the Youth Rally Community Partnership Packet and learn more about the various sponsorship opportunities.
  • Host a fundraiser (creativity is encouraged!) to support ongoing Youth Rally sponsorship and programming.
  • Contact Abby Ryan for brochures to distribute to local healthcare professionals; please indicate “brochure request” in the subject line. The 2016 Youth Rally brochure is also available on our website.
  • If your workplace matches contributions, take advantage of the opportunity to double your contribution!
  • Alumni: help recruit a camper – do you know other kids who would benefit from attending camp? Your camp experience can be a very powerful and inspirational message. Send friends and family information about Youth Rally or ask for help with funding. Or maybe you’re able to help “fund a camper” yourself or can band together with some friends to sponsor a camper? Creative ideas are encouraged.

More ideas are on our Volunteers page.
 
 

Interested in Sponsoring a Camper to Come to Rally?

Many of our campers and families face financial hardship related to medical expenses. The Youth Rally takes pride in the fact that no camper is ever turned away on account of inability to cover registration and/or travel costs. People like YOU make that possible each year!

There are numerous sponsorship opportunities available at:http://www.youthrally.org/donate/
Thank you for reading and for being a part of our incredible Rally family!
 
 

Boots on the Ground

This past January, Maggie McCaslin, hosted her sixth annual “Got Guts” volleyball tournament in an effort to increase awareness for Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, and people living with ostomies. Over 60 teams from all over Nebraska and Kansas showed up to compete in this two day tournament. Between concessions and registration dollars, Maggie and her supporters raised over $10,000!
 

 

Maggie was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis at age 4. Each year Maggie donates all the proceeds to organizations supporting those living with conditions like hers. This year, thanks to exposure from the United Ostomy Associations of America’s national conference in St. Louis (also a beneficiary of the event), Youth Rally was one of those groups!

“My heart strings were pulled when I attended the session on Youth Rally at the conference. I never realized there were so many people walking a similar journey – I went from Ulcerative Colitis, to the cancerous polyps, to an ileostomy. I want to help bless others with an opportunity to relate to someone else who is also trying to conquer the struggle. There is strength in numbers! God bless you all!”
~ Maggie Snyder McCaslin, Event Organizer

The Youth Rally would like to thank Maggie, and all those who supported the event, for all her hard work and dedication to her community. After 21 years and 19 surgeries, she is living a happy and healthy life with an ileostomy, and wouldn’t change that for anything!Special thanks also to the UOAA for their support in connecting us with Maggie!
 

 

For the first time ever, the Youth Rally participated at the Pediatric Colorectal, Motility, and Pelvic Reconstruction Conference.  Elliot Smith, Jenna Fisher, and Rory Bolser traveled to Columbus, OH for the three day conference. They made great new connections, attended sessions, and made quite an impression on the conference staff, who invited them to be back at this conference from now on!  We are so proud!
 

 

Getting to the far reaches of Rhode Island might be challenging for some, but not for Jacob Kehr, who made it there for the New England Regional WOCN Conference in November (he only had to drive about five hours).  Jacob was so excited to represent Youth Rally; he made new connections who will be receiving our Leak newsletter going forward, and helped sell raffle tickets raising money for Rally! Way to go Jacob!  He even ran into Sandy Quigley, one of our new WOCN’s from 2015.
Would you like to nominate an outstanding Youth Rally volunteer to be recognized here? Please email info@youthrally.org to submit a counselor or nurse or camper whom you think embodies the Youth Rally spirit.
 
 

A NOTE FROM OUR CEO, PAUL HASTINGS

Each year on my birthday I make a wish – a wish that every child wishing to attend the Youth Rally has the financial means to do so and that, once they get there, they have a once-in-a-lifetime experience that keeps them coming back year after year.  It is the best way I know how to honor the thousands of campers and counselors whose lives have been touched by the Youth Rally in its 38 years of existence.

Year after year, thanks to the recruitment efforts of our tireless volunteers, we host campers and counselors from all over the US and Canada, and from as far as the UK, Belgium, and Russia! We are all about “You are not alone.” We offer supportive programming that boosts self-esteem and gives these teens the tools they need to be independent and thrive in a world that embraces their diversity and celebrates their accomplishments both as campers at Youth Rally but also as adult counselors at the very place that served them as campers.

Please join me in helping a kid attend this year’s Youth Rally at the University of Washington, Seattle, for our 38th year! The cost for tuition for one participant is $425.00 – now add travel expenses and the price for one child can quickly exceed $1200.00!

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/PaulHastingsBirthdayWish/2016

Words alone can never express the gratitude I feel for your generosity when looking into the eyes of a child who is realizing, perhaps for the first time, that they are not alone in this world – that the very thing that makes them “different” makes them AMAZING!!!!!

THANK YOU so much for your help and support of our very special rally.  With Love and Respect and Gratitude for what you do to give to our kids,

All the best,
Paul J Hastings
Chairman & CEO, Youth Rally Committee, Inc.
Diagnosis: Crohn’s Disease with ileostomy

Contact Us!

We are a small group of dedicated volunteers who believe in the Rally experience and have seen over and over the positive effect camp can have on young people.

We are friendly, we do not bite, and our door is always open to anyone who wants more information, wants to get involved, knows a kid who might like to know more about camp, or wants to either donate or help develop ways to raise money!

You can connect with us using the social media links below, or email a member of the Youth Rally Leadership Team at mailto:info@youthrally.org.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!
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