TYSON VANYO
When Tera Vanyo picked up her son, Tyson, from YMCA Camp Cormorant last August, she thought he would be ready to come home after a week of bug spray, bunk beds, and early morning polar plunges. She was wrong.
Tyson, a 10-year old sports fan and middle brother of three, wanted camp to last forever. He talked the whole way home about his adventures. He described all of the new things he learned, like how to ride a horse, scale a rock wall on the water, balance on the water trampoline, tie dye a shirt, shoot archery, and even speak some Spanish, a skill that his cabin counselor knew well! Tyson’s favorite thing at camp was the ‘shark’, a 10-passanger tube that gets pulled behind the camp’s speed boat. He told his mom all about how he and his cabin mates had challenges to see who could hang on the longest as they swooped and glided across the lake. “I fell off the most!” he told her excitedly!
Tyson’s mom, Tera, is a single mother of three. She doesn’t like to ask for help, but when she learned that the Y provides financial assistance opportunities for youth to attend summer camp, she decided to give her son an experience that she never had. She didn’t want him to miss out on yet another opportunity because of her divorce. Because of the Y’s help, Tyson was able to spend a life-changing week at Camp Cormorant, the Y’s overnight camp near Lake Park, MN. “It was impactful to me as I was very humbled.” Tera said. “I would not have been able to afford camp if we hadn’t gotten financial assistance.”
Camp Cormorant is such an incredible place for youth, like Tyson, to grow in areas like self-esteem, responsibility, communication, independence, leadership, environmental awareness and Christian values. It provides just the right setting to encourage a camper’s mental, physical and spiritual growth.
“As a parent, you only want the best for your child, “Tera said. “Having an experience at camp like the one my son had was exciting.” Tyson still talks about how he can’t wait to head back to camp next year and meet up with some of the friends he made during his week in the woods. He also told his mom that he wants to be a counselor one day so he can be a leader to others, like his counselor was to him.