A Small Candle
The Impact of Camp Everytown on our Lives
"These dynamic stories represent only a few of the thousands of young people who have been impacted by this unique leadership and self-development experience called Everytown."
--Richard Valenzuela, Program Director for Camp Everytown, Silicon Valley
For more information about Camp Everytown, please visit the SV FACES website. The site includes contact information as well as research showing the effectiveness of Camp Everytown.
$13.00 includes paperback book and shipping to US addresses.
About the Book
You’ve seen those kids who sit silently in a corner, all but invisible. And you’ve seen the natural leaders, sometimes leading others astray. You’ve heard, “That’s gay” too many times to count, and you’ve seen students at lunchtime clumped together by race. For twelve years, Camp Everytown has been a program that addresses these as well as many other issues that students face.
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In an effort to raise money for camp, and with a desire to capture the inspiring stories that I hear from camp participants year after year, I’ve written a book called A Small Candle: The Impact of Camp Everytown on our Lives. It contains stories about 15 students and staff who attended camp and experienced its power to positively shape their lives and bring an inspiring light to their community.
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You’ll hear about Chris who, after getting expelled from school for sexual harassment of a teacher, swears he’ll never again treat women in degrading ways. Though Preet has been in a wheelchair all her life, she doesn’t truly understand disabilities until she is blindfolded and helpless during the disability exercise. Billy, after years of isolation and estrangement in foster care, emerges from his shell to become a gregarious and warm young man. Phuong and Frances disclose their secrets about being raped and find strength in each other to transform their lives.
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At a time when we hear too many negative things about students or we hear about prejudice in our society or sexual harassment at the workplace, A Small Candle will instead inspire you with stories about people who are becoming part of the solution rather than part of the problem. As Dr. Barbara Clarke Mossberg, President Emerita Goddard College writes, “To read these stories by Kathy Gonzalez is to know something indispensable to our lives: in every person exists a desire to be good, to do good, to be a force of positive change for themselves and others.”