When you donate to Youth Leadership Camp Alumni Foundation, you contribute to our endowment that will support Deaf Youth and the camp operations.

The monetary support from the endowment will enable underrepresented and underprivileged Deaf Youth to attend Youth Leadership Camp. The endowment will also ensure the continued success of our Youth Leadership Camp, one of Deaf America’s best kept secrets!

During our reunion in 2019, we will launch our Alumni & Supporters Clubs. If you want to be recognized as a Charter Club member, you can give $10,000 by 2019. Check out which club you want to join and make plans to donate TODAY.

• YOUTH LEADERSHIP CAMP ALUMNI FOUNDATION CHARTER CLUB $1000 for 10 years or $10,000

• PINE LAKE CLUB $1000 to $9,999

• SWAN LAKE CLUB $500 to $999

• DAILY DRUM CLUB $250 to $499

• CAMPFIRE CLUB $100 to $249

• FRIEND OF YLCAF Up to $99

Although we are primarily an alumni founsdation that aims to set up an endowment, we will happily accept gifts from:

• Alumni • Parents of Alumni • Supporters of YLC • Friends of Deaf Youth • Organizations/Corporations

Contact President Marla Hatrak at president@ylcafoundation.org

Our YLC alumni include the following: ~ campers ~ staff ~ volunteers ~ guest speakers

and we have a very special place for supporters who include the following:

~ spouses and children of alumni ~ parents of alumni ~ advocates for Deaf Youth ~ organizations ~ corporations

Back in Year 1969, all of four Hatrak sisters arrived at Pine Lake for the first-ever Youth Leadership Camp with their parents. Daphne worked as Camp Counselor/Interpreter. Linda was Camp Secretary. Kay and Marla were campers from Indiana; they joined 40 other pioneer campers for four weeks at Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. The 1969 YLC schedule included calisthenics, leadership workshops, and campfires presentations by vibrant 60′s – 70′s Deaf leaders along with awe-inspiring field trips to New York City, Atlantic City, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. Linda spent four more summers as recreational & evening program director. Kay spent the following summer as a junior counselor. Marla was the camp secretary for six years. She was also the Daily Drum advisor. Their parents, Eugene and Beatrice, would spend their vacations to visit with their children at the camp program. Eugene helped with construction, specifically roofing and painting, while Beatrice volunteered in the kitchen and wherever help was needed. The times at YLC were very memorable and joyful for the Hatrak Family.

During the summer of 2011, Marla went to pick up her daughter from 2011 YLC. She could feel the excitement as she entered the campgrounds. The campers and staff were much younger, and she is much older. But the effect remained the same. Even though it had been 41 years since Marla and her sisters attended the 1969 program, Marla could see the indescribable impact that it had on her daughter and her peers. Marla spoke briefly at their banquet program, and in sharing her thoughts, she realized we are nine years away from celebrating our 50th anniversary. Marla has always thought YLC deserves more recognition and support from its alumni. It does not matter whether you have attended YLC either as a camper, staffer, guest speaker, or as a visitor. You came and left a changed and hopeful person.

What a special tribute it would be to establish an endowment of $1,000,000, so that, through the interest garnered from the endowment, we could support the YLC programs and needy deaf youth to attend a very special place.

Absolutely! There are thousands ways to raise funds for YLCAF. Roger Claussen, ’69 has been doing SuperBowl Pools each year. We had Steve McInerney, ’75 who did Wine Tasting. Mike Finneran, ’71 hosted his own Retirement Party and gave all his monetary gifts to YLCAF. Cindy O’Grady Farnady, ’75 chaired a Bocce Tournament. S. Kay Hatrak Vincent, ’69 had a fundraising campaign in honor of Marla’s 60th Birthday and their mother’s 90th birthday.

So there are many different ways to raise funds. You can bring together all alumni in your area, and host an event. Contact us for further information.

An idea is for you to contact each camper in your camp group to give a specified amount of $ and give the total amount as a group.

For example, YLC ‘69 has 42 campers and 12 staff members for a total of 54 YLC ‘69 alumni. If each of the 54 alumni give $20, we would have a total $1080 from YLC ‘69. If your group prefers to give $25, the amount would be $1350. It would be up to your group to decide amount.

You may want to ask your parents if they would like to give to a worthy cause for deaf youth. You could also contact your employer to see if they would like to help as well?

These are some of the thousand ways to raise funds for YLCAF.