Adventure Awaits

When Alejandra was a child, camp was a weeklong escape. She’d save all the notes and mementos she collected to remind herself how loved and carefree she felt.

She was in foster care at the time, and too young to understand why camp felt so good. But she does now.

“Camp allowed me to just be a kid – to have fun and feel like I didn’t have worries. A weight was lifted off me.”

Alejandra is 20 now – long since adopted, along with two siblings – but she remembers her younger self and how she felt. And her heart holds a big soft spot for kids in the foster care system.

She volunteered this summer as a counselor at the camp of her childhood – Royal Family Kids – run exclusively for kids in foster care.

It was bittersweet to watch the campers as they arrived – closed off at first, like she’d been, she says. “But by the second day they were up and dancing, smiling more – and their personalities were coming out. You could see how they were relaxing without the worry of having to take care of somebody else’s feelings or take care of siblings. They could just be themselves.”

Alejandra wants a career helping foster children as a social worker. She earned an associate degree in 2022 and worked with autistic children as an applied behavioral analysis therapist. Last fall she started on her bachelor’s degree at Western Carolina University.

“Of course I love all kids,” she says. “But I love even more the kids who’ve gone through things and need that extra encouragement, love, and support.”