TEXAS LIONS CAMP INC

Our goal is to create an atmosphere wherein children with special medical conditions, type-1 diabetes, down syndrome and cancer will be allowed to achieve maximum personal growth and self-esteem.

Our strategy is to bring kids together in an environment that encourages team work, healthy risk-taking, adventure, hard work and play.

We utilize a format called "Challenge by Choice" and present children with a challenge, which they are free to accept or reject. Staff members are trained to encourage, facilitate and modify if needed, but to encourage independent action. We want kids to have the chance to experience activities they have not done before, including cleaning their bunkhouse and making their own beds.

We encourage kids to help kids and to work as a team because not only can kids speak to kids as peers, but kids achieve a higher level of self-esteem when they help someone else achieve their goal.

At the State level, there are over 25,500 Lions in the state of Texas who regularly fund Texas Lions Camp through dues, annual gifts and giving programs. TLC's Board of Directors is comprised of 92 voting members and over 300 volunteers serving on 10 standing committees. At the staff level, TLC has 17 professional staff members, who are joined by over 175 seasonal staff members and volunteers each summer. TLC has an infirmary that is staffed 24 hours per day, 6 days per week and is generally only 5 minutes from emergency services and medical care in nearby Kerrville.

The campus of TLC is over 515 acres in the Texas Hill Country, which is surrounded and protected behind an 8 foot fence with two entrance/exit gates. Over 15 core activity areas are positioned around 8 bunkhouses and a Dining Hall that can comfortably seat 400 people at one time.

TLC has provided services to more than 70,000 children since its founding in 1949 and is now 68 years old. We have been through a number of evolutions from serving children who were suffering the after affects of polio, to children who have general physical disabilities. In the late 70's, a program for children with type-1 diabetes was added and during the mid-90's a robust program to offer facilities to other non-profits where TLC could share its world-class facility and expertise was added.

Also during the 1990's, an investment policy was adopted and a balanced portfolio to manage investments came online. By 2003, TLC had completed its largest capital campaign in its history and wrapped up the majority of elements contained in its first Master Plan. By the mid 2000's, TLC added a program for children who have Down Syndrome and opened an Endowment Campaign to raise $10,000,000 in its first phase.

TLC is now considering a new Master Plan to guide new facilities and growth beyond 2020 which will be phased and implemented through a new capital campaign known as Vision 2020.