Using extravagant love to transform the lives of youth

Every year we take our kids on a summer retreat to Michigan. This year we started off our retreat with two nights at Great Wolf Lodge, an exciting water resort. The kids will also experience fun and unique activities at the ranch house including an arcade, a swimming pool, a pantry stocked with snacks and candy, a giant playground, golf carts, bikes and electric scooters, and more. 

On past trips we’ve taken the kids to Mackinac Island, to the Creation Museum, to play laser tag, to the movies, and more. On this trip we plan to take the kids to see an Amish farm, a baseball game, a children’s museum, and Barnes and Noble where we plan to buy them each books. 

A lot of our activities are educational, but most of them are just fun stuff that they wouldn’t have the opportunity to experience otherwise. Our kids grow up in the inner city of Chicago, surrounded by drug use, gang violence, and the cycle of interrupted education. 

We make it our goal to not only provide them with educational experiences, but  also with entertaining, multi-cultural activities that they will remember for the rest of their lives. We want our kids to know that they are loved, they are valued, and that we enjoy spending time with them. 

Why is that important? In this post here we talk about the epidemic of fatherlessness and how our program aims to combat some of its effects. Our kids desperately need both a broader experience of the world, outside of their sometimes toxic environment, and they need to feel secure in both the parental and friend-type relationships an extended outing experience like our summer retreat provides. 

If you are interested in supporting our program so that we can provide more of these experiences to at-risk youth in Chicago, you can donate at PayPal.me/starfishchicago. Make a note that it is for our Outings and Events Program. Together we can transform the hearts and minds of the inner city youth of Chicago.