85: I felt seen, valued and safe at camp with Mechale Mency

Have you been to a Salvation Army summer camp? If so, you probably remember it well. 

Camp is a place where kids discover inner-strength, learn valuable life skills, make lifelong friends, appreciate the outdoors and are mentored with love and kindness. 

And Mechale Mency remembers it well. 

In fact, she recently emailed a thank you to the director of Camp Gilmore, The Salvation Army’s Calabasas, California, camp that she attended in the late 1970s.  

Mechale is from the Los Angeles-area, and for three summers she spent a week at Camp Gilmore at no cost to her family. Did you know every summer thousands of kids attend one of 12 Salvation Army camps across the West, many of them on scholarships funded by generous donors? 

Mechale is one of them and she’s on the show to share what she remembers of camp and the experience she had there that made her want to be an experience for others today. Now, as the principal of Garfield Elementary School in San Diego, she’s out to make sure kids feel seen and valued, and learn to value others—just as she did at camp. 

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