Partner Spotlight: Inheritance of Hope
By Allie Hylton
January 26, 2024
In the past, we have talked a little about the partnerships we do here at Camp to serve different communities. And many of our Victory Junction Partnerships have served communities that work with families who have children with various diagnoses. For the first time this year, we got to work with a unique organization- Inheritance of Hope- that meets the needs of their families in a different way.
Inheritance of Hope is an organization that serves families who have a parent facing ALS, cancer, or another life-threatening illness. Their core belief is that “no one should feel robbed of time with loved ones” so they work to “build community for young families affected” by these terrible illnesses. Where a diagnosis often robs moments from a family, Inheritance of Hope works to create meaningful, lasting memories for each family they serve.
Inheritance of Hope provides many resources and opportunities to their families, but here at Victory Junction we were honored to host one of their Legacy Retreats. Our VJ Team worked with their Legacy Retreat Program Manager, Kara, and Legacy Retreats Development & Programming Coordinator, Olivia, to hand-design a weekend experience for these families. Inheritance of Hope Legacy Retreats are “destination experiences where families create lifelong memories and receive the tools to navigate the challenges of terminal illness.” Collaborating with this program allowed us to work together and combine the best traditions of Inheritance of Hope and the best traditions of Victory Junction to create a truly unique and special family weekend experience.
This weekend retreat hosted 16 families and dozens of Inheritance of Hope volunteers who donated their time and money to help facilitate the weekend. The Inheritance of Hope of model creates intentional programming throughout the day, which allows group time, where individuals get to spend time and talk with others who “get it” and understand what they are going through. Throughout these sessions, Inheritance of Hope offers resources and tools to cope with the challenges that come with their circumstances. One of their core beliefs is that families going through this type of life-threatening diagnosis often feel so alone, but they are not, and the Inheritance of Hope wants to demonstrate that.
In addition to the intentional programming and resources set up by Inheritance of Hope, families were of course given the opportunity to dive into some Victory Junction camp magic. Families were able to participate in all of our typical camp programming, including a special evening zip line experience for teenagers and special children’s programming, while parents were given private time for a “date night”. Inheritance of Hope volunteers and team were able to travel around with families to experience archery, boating & fishing, animal adventure, bowling, arts & crafts, and other various program areas.
Both the Victory Junction and Inheritance of Hope teams agree that the weekend was truly special. The combination of their mission to build community for these families, and our mission to create camp fun for families resulted in an impactful weekend. Because of the success of the first program, we are already working with Inheritance of Hope to plan future Legacy Retreats for their families.
