Salvation Army Seeks Funds for Summer Day Camp

Jesus Palacios first read about the Salvation Army in a letter from his wife, Elizabeth, on a bunk in the South Texas Immigration Detention Facility.

Palacios’s absence took a toll on his significant other, who worked round the clock to provide food for their children and finance her husband’s legal battles. His children were rebelling in school and treating Palacios as a stranger—acting coldly during phone conversations and not wishing to write him.

“In the first few months, [my children] were taking on strange attitudes, acting as if they weren’t mine,” recalls Palacios, who migrated from Mexico to White Plains 11 years ago with his wife. “They were becoming rebellious and weren’t learning much. The Salvation Army accepted my children into their program, and they changed greatly.”

Elizabeth Palacios first approached the Salvation Army of Greater New York to seek help caring for her children while she raised money to cover her husband’s legal fees.

The Salvation Army welcomed the Palacios family with open arms, enrolling their daughter, 10, and son, 6, in both the summer day camp and after school programs.

“The professionals at the Salvation Army explained to my children why I wasn’t there, and helped console both them and my wife,” said Palacios, whose run-in with immigration officers stemmed from an expired work permit.

Today, Palacios is a legal U.S. resident and is reunited with his family in White Plains.

“[The Salvation Army] welcomed me when I was released,” said Palacios. “They invited me to a talent show they were putting on with the children from the after school program, and just observing the looks on their faces was both beautiful and emotional. I recalled my relative lack of happy childhood memories.”

Therefore, it’s only natural that the Palacios were distressed upon catching wind of the Army’s economic woes, and have pledged to continue helping the Salvation Army by volunteering for soup kitchens and rushing to emergency sites to distribute water and other first aid materials. However, like many of the families helped by the Salvation Army in White Plains—the Palacios can’t offer much direct financial support.

Captain Antonio Rosamilia, who directs the Salvation Army’s Church and Community Center on Sterling Avenue, is afraid that over 200 children won’t have a place to go this summer while parents are putting in long hours at work.

In short, the Army needs $30,000 to fund their annual summer day camp, or $25 a day per child.

“Every year for the past decade or so, the White Plains Youth Bureau has supplied us with camp counselors as part of a government program to help non-profits,” said Rosamilia. “But because of budget cuts at every level—they’re now limited to only helping other government programs, leaving organizations like ours and the Slater Center without much needed labor.”

Frank Williams, Executive Director of the White Plains Youth Bureau, is regretful that there are “no resources to be as helpful as we have been in the past.”

Rosamilia is asking the community for help in raising funds to maintain the summer day camp, after school and music programs that comprise the youth department. The most recent staffing blow comes just two years after the organization lost $100,000 in federal funding.

“Our other challenge is that White Plains Public Schools had to cut their elementary school summer programs [due to budget concerns],” said Rosamilia. “Therefore, if we have to shut down the program, where will these kids go?”

In addition to asking the community for donations and conducting bell-ringing campaigns throughout the year, Rosamilia and his team have come up with various initiatives to help raise funds for the Salvation Army’s youth department.

Last weekend, White Plains restaurants like UNO Chicago Grill, Panera Bread and Papa John’s in Greenburgh donated a certain percentage of patrons’ bills to the cause. The restaurants plan to hold additional fundraisers for the Salvation Army in the near future.

“My philosophy is that as long as kids are getting to attend these programs, I’m willing to risk going over this fiscal year’s budget rather than have hungry and unsupervised kids out there,” said Rosamilia, echoing sentiments that families like the Palacios admire most about the organization.

To make a contribution to the Salvation Army summer day camp, checks should be made out to The Salvation Army, 16 Sterling Avenue, White Plains, NY 10606.

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