News/Events
Email me at CampDirector@utahroyalkids.org for more information about camp.
Michelle Throndsen, Utah Royal Kids Camp Director
“This is your year to volunteer, you know how you always say "I want to volunteer but...." say no more. You can volunteer for activities before, during or after camp.
Camp Volunteer training
June 8th, 9am-4pm
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
8575 South 700 East, Sandy, Utah 84070
(online training also available)
2024 Royal Family KIDS Camp
July 29th -August 2nd
Utah Royal Kids is a one-week camp designed for foster kids ages 7-11. It is specifically designed to help heal the emotional scars of abuse in a fun and safe environment. There are a variety of fun activities of crafts, woodwork, singing, and games that we do. RFK fosters resiliency, self-esteem, hope and positive memories. The camp curriculum and activities are woven through the modality of Trust-Based Relational Intervention to ensure our children are experiencing truly life-giving activities throughout the 5- day experience. Our volunteers are interviewed, trained, and background checked at level 3. Safety is top priority for the kids with rules of two deep, where no one is ever alone with a child, no personal information or photos exchanged, and name tags always worn to identify the royal team.
Message From Our Board
Please support our KIDS!
Thank you for your past support. We could not provide our services without the support of our local community. Utah Royal KIDS provides a 5 day Summer Camp in our beautiful Wasatch Mountains and a school year Mentoring Club for children in the Utah foster care system. These children are victims of abuse and neglect. At camp the kids are surrounded by a loving and well-trained Utah Royal KIDS volunteer staff, who demonstrate through their words and actions, that they matter and that they are loved.
Utah Royal KIDS, formerly known as Royal Family KIDS of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, has wrapped God’s love around these young children at Camp since 2003 and at the Mentoring Club since 2011. This mentoring program keeps them connected with camp staff and friends throughout the school year, bringing some continuity to what is typically a chaotic life cycle of being uprooted from one foster family and placed in another on an average of 7 times before they are 18 years old. Your generosity is helping to break that cycle.
Our vision is that a Royal Family KIDS Camp will be established to serve children in foster care that are ages 7-11 in all of Utah’s counties.
Sandy Journal February 2022 Article
Sandy Journal published an article about our efforts to help foster kids locally. We hope the community as a whole can learn more about our programs and help more foster kids know that God loves them.
“Kids in foster care are living in survival mode most of the time. Here they are loved, cherished and told how great they are for a week—something that many of them have never heard. It does them a lot of good. I heard from a therapist who worked with our kids that a week of summer camp is equal to a year of therapy,”
Read complete article HERE.
Burlington Stores Foundation Supports Foster Children
(Sandy, UT) February 3, 2022 Utah Royal Kids, formerly known as Royal Family Kids of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, is pleased to announce a generous donation from the private non-profit organization, Burlington Stores Foundation. The foundation is made possible by Burlington Stores, the national off-price retailer. It focuses on providing funds to qualifying 501 (c) (3) organizations that are nominated by Burlington associates nationwide. The $5,000 donation will help Utah Royal Kids carry out its mission of sending abused, neglected and abandoned children to summer camp. Royal Family Kids Camp is held every July in the beautiful mountains outside of Park City. Foster children ages seven to eleven, are treated to a wonderful traditional summer camp experience, where they enjoy positive, life-changing moments with peers and a dedicated staff of trained volunteers. For most of these children, camp is the best week of the year, a chance to simply be a kid. Utah Royal Kids chairperson Karen DeSmet says, “We’re thankful Burlington Stores Foundation has joined with us in helping our foster care community. Approximately 2,700 children are in the Utah foster care system. Our camp gives these children the opportunity to connect with other foster kids that have similar life stories. It’s exciting to see the difference that takes place in these children between day one and the end of the week. None of this would be possible without the support of the community and businesses like Burlington. Donations like this make a huge difference in these children’s lives.” In addition to summer camp, Utah Royal Kids offers a mentoring club program throughout the school year. For more information about any of these programs, contact Brooke May, Utah Royal Kids Media Director at (801) 857-4869 or utahroyalkids@gmail.com.
Royal Family KIDS is now part of “For the Children”
For 30 years, volunteers, churches, businesses, local municipal partners and Royal Family Kids staff have dedicated their time, talent and treasures to help transform the lives of vulnerable children across the US, and world.
While RFK has formally overseen our camps and mentoring programs, the breadth of our work has evolved far beyond these two programs. Today we provide direct trauma intervention, advocacy, fostering, adoption, support to parents, and other crucial wraparound services.
While we acknowledge the expansion of our work across our 252 chapters, COVID-19 has profoundly increased the needs of children and families. Extreme gaps in fulfilling these needs cannot be overstated.
In order to address the systemic issues surrounding child welfare today, our organization must respond.
Consequently, as of November 2020, Royal Family KIDS, will officially be renamed For The Children. This transition will bring clarity to new opportunities, from providing laptops and shoes to needy children, to assisting overburdened social workers, to providing temporary shelter.
The teaching and example of Jesus in caring for “the least of these” will remain our motivation. As For The Children, we are also eager to focus on the systemic issues facing children, around the globe.
To learn more visit: https://www.forthechildren.org/