OUR VISION

Our Short-Term Vision (Oct 2009- Oct 2012):

• We will be able to invite 120 kids to camp next summer (2010).
• We will establish a good core team of 6 camp counselors who will be involved in all four camp sessions in 2010. The core team will be comprised largely of Lakota Tribal members. We will provide the core team with a solid orientation to Camp and invest in their development as camp counselors. We will seek to recruit the same core team every summer during this 3 year period.
• We will identify a qualified person from our core team of counselors to become the Camp Director for Camp Laugh A Lot by the end of this 3-year period.
• We will be able to invite an additional 30 kids to Camp every summer after 2010.
• We will offer an excellent program of nature/environmental study activities for the various age groups involved.
• We will identify 2 campers from each session with potential for becoming Junior Camp Counselors (and eventually Camp Counselors) and will invite these campers to return the following season as Junior Camp Counselors.
• We will offer a special orientation before camp for Junior Counselors.
• We will strengthen our Board of Directors with both Tribal and non-Tribal members following our “Strategy for Strengthening the Camp Laugh A Lot Board of Directors”, and will establish functional committees.
• We will have our own bus/es.
• We will develop a solid relationship with several funding entities to guarantee a minimum operating budget that permits us to plan ahead for at least the next summer season.

Our Mid-Term Vision (Oct 2012- Oct 2015):

• We will be able to offer camp to all kids on Pine Ridge who want to go to camp.
• We will be able to offer the opportunity to return to camp every summer for all kids who want to.
• We will involve past and prospective campers in fund-raising activities for Camp Laugh A Lot for the purpose of exposing them to micro-enterprise practices, promoting the concept of self-help and the concept of service to others.
• We will have our own canoes, paddles and life jackets and all the camping equipment we need without having to borrow from others.

Our Long-Term Vision (Oct 2015- Oct 2018)

• We will have our own permanent camp in the Black Hills.
• We will run programs year round.
• We will invite at least two kids for every camp session from different Tribes from around the country (and maybe even from around the world) to join Lakota kids at camp to promote and facilitate learning more about the Lakota culture as well as other Tribal cultures while building positive relations and connections between Lakota children and children from different cultures.
• We will provide Camp Counselor training par excellence for prospective and actual Camp Laugh A Lot Camp Counselors so that those who can say they've been a counselor at Camp Laugh A Lot have a reputation of being the best, and so that this experience opens doors for them not only at Camp Laugh A Lot but at camps and other places that serve children around the country both on and off Tribal lands.
• We will offer summer camping expeditions for older Lakota youth (ages 15 – 19) who have attended Camp Laugh A Lot sometime in their life to visit Tribal lands across the country to study and report on, together with youth from those Tribes, environmental issues on Tribal lands. Note: We may need to revise our mission statement to allow for this follow-on phase to Camp Laugh A Lot.