CAMP LAUGH A LOT

Camp Laugh A Lot is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization dedicated to providing active outdoors nature-study and animal-related learning opportunities for children from underserved, economically impoverished areas where a disconnect has often happened between children and the natural environment and where, despite strong historical cultural connections with animals, present day human-animal connections and care has suffered.

Camp Laugh A Lot helps to reconnect children to nature and to enhance their awareness and compassion for animals. Accompanying children by providing them with these educational and fun opportunities throughout their school years and even beyond, we help to prepare the next generation of leaders to eventually work in and assume leadership responsibilities in animal and nature-related fields. In this way, Camp strives to impact not only individuals but also the societies in which we live, bringing about positive change in the relationship we as humans have with animals and with nature.

Our effort began and is still primarily focused on the Pine Ridge Lakota Sioux Indian Reservation, one of the most economically impoverished places in the United States. Children who may not otherwise have the opportunity to spend time in the Black Hills (the ancestral sacred land of the Lakota but no longer part of the Reservation), benefit from the nurturing environment at Camp while engaging in fun, active times outdoors, nature study and appreciation, learning indigenous and other knowledge about the natural world, enhancing awareness and compassion for animals (both domestic and wild), building positive relations with others (of all species), and understanding that every individual has something special to give and that everyone can and does make a difference. The difference we make as individuals can be a positive one. Camp is one important step in that direction!

Camp Laugh A Lot all-volunteer effort in 2001. It was legally established as a non-profit corporation in the State of South Dakota in February, 2007. Depending on available resources, we invite between 25 and 125 children, ages 7 to 12 to come to Camp every summer.

We need your help, both your time as volunteers and your financial support, to allow us to invite more children to come to Camp (always free of charge to campers) and to provide the necessary resources which allows for long-term individual accompaniment to ensure greatest impact.

Our goal is to change the way we as humans interact with nature and with animals (both domestic and wild) to live as the Lakota and other cultures teach, with respect for all our relations.

Our Commitment to Grow Until No Child Is Left Behind

We are committed to ensuring that someday every child on the Pine Ridge Reservation will have the opportunity to experience carefree days full of fun and adventure at camp at least once in their lifetime. As we grow, we will encourage more return campers, and will offer a variety of camping experiences with increasingly advanced nature and animal study programs for different age groups.