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Meet Jop: Ready for the outdoors

By Celeste Smith
cesmith@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Friday, Nov. 20, 2009
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Jop Enuol and her mentor, Elizabeth Chaplin, who helped Jop apply for summer camp. ROBERT LAHSER - rlahser@charlotteobserver.com


With brand new hiking boots, and goals – “I really want to do the rock slide” -- 11-year-old Jop Enuol of Charlotte was all ready for Camp Celo.

But was Camp Celo ready for her?

Of course. At Camp Celo in Burnsville, in Yancey County about 2 1/2 hours west of Charlotte, campers spend a week or more at the farm for hiking, camping in the surrounding forest, and swimming in the South Toe River – and doing plenty of other outdoor activities.

And that's the point behind The Summer Camp Fund, which helped send Jop to camp last summer. The fund, an effort by The Charlotte Observer and the nonprofit Partners in Out-of-School Time, sends children from low-income families to camp, where they can be introduced to the outdoors in a safe, structured environment.

Celo campers get plenty of that, with nature appreciation a big part of the day: caring for animals on the farm, hiking to a waterfall, swimming in a pond and more.

"I'm excited," Jop said before her adventure. "I've never been outside that much. I'm usually inside. I have to watch my little brother. ... That's why I want to go to camp, to get away from the city."

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