From top: Children ride horses—often for the first time—at Troy Camp. For many kids, camp is a chance to trade the noise of the city for mountain air and dandelions.
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Funds are raised by students through an annual gala, grant applications to initiatives like USC’s Good Neighbors Campaign and donations during football games—the “Pass the Can” effort known to so many USC fans. Other than a couple of faculty and alumni advisors, the program is still managed by USC students, matching Healy’s original vision. “We wanted to keep it 100% student run,” he says. “No paid employees of any kind.” It has stayed true to its roots. Last year, the event’s campsite was within a mile of Jenks Lake, the location of Healy’s original gathering. When Healy brought the first group of campers—about 60 boys—into the forest a few hours east of Los Angeles, he was joined by seven or eight other counselors.
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A PL ACE TO PL AY Healy and a few other visitors watch as dozens of kids don life vests and clamber into metal canoes on Jenks Lake. Some stare warily over the sides, clutching their paddle to their chest until a camp counselor in the stern persuades them to swipe cautiously at the water. Others show no fear. Along the shore, other children gather for a hike around the lake. Some splash watercolor paints on bright white paper. Later, after a special barbecue lunch, the children head into the trees to practice yoga or play soccer. During a quick break in the shade, 9-year-olds Janet Guerra and Leah Popoca talk about their adventures. “What I like about Troy Camp is how much fun I’m having and how many friends I have made and how we can all get along,” says Janet, a student from Menlo Avenue Elementary School. “My favorite part is arts and crafts, because I get to express myself. I made a dreamcatcher, and I think tomorrow we get to paint our little vases.” Leah likes taking a dip in the heated pool, a luxury during chilly mornings before the fog burns off. “Some of the pools up here are cold, but ours at Troy Camp is actually pretty warm,” she says. “And there are lots of toys to play with.” Today she’s a student at Magnolia Avenue Elementary School, but Leah is already dreaming about coming back to the camp as a counselor one day. “The counselors here make me feel like I’m at home and that I want to stay here longer,” she says. “I want some of the kids to feel the same way about me in a few years.” In addition to more than 11,000 students who have gone through Troy Camp, thousands more have benefited from support offered throughout the year in schools around USC. In elementary school, students get help with homework and participate in activities from music to creative writing. By middle school, they’re taking part in community service projects. Troy Camp volunteers also hold workshops for local high school students on topics like college applications, interviewing and
HISTORIC PHOTOS COURTESY OF TROY CAMP; 2018 PHOTOS BY ERIC LINDBERG
Now more than 80 counselors and volunteers, each of whom is known by a quirky nickname like “FireCat” or “Lunchbox,” lead the festivities. The camp is open to girls and boys, and 200 kids participate each year. They spend six nights in bunkhouses divided by age and gender. For many of the young campers, it is their first time away from their parents for more than a day or two, and their first time out in nature. They stare up at the night sky full of stars and marvel at the massive evergreens surrounding the campsite. “It’s so clear that they are so happy to be here, and there are always a few kids who say things that just melt your heart—like ‘I don’t ever want to leave, this is so fun, I just want my home to be Troy Camp,’” says Megan “Narwhal” Linderman ’17, MA ’18, who served as one of the group’s co-executive directors as she was finishing her master’s in occupational therapy. “It’s tiring, it’s demanding, but it is a blast and full of the most genuine joy.”
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