Reflecting on 24 Years of Sunshine

Summer camp is often a rite of passage for many young people. It is a place of transformation and character building. Camp Sunshine is no different, but is special for many other reasons. This month, we are sharing an essay from Stacey Van Laan, a long-time Camp Sunshine volunteer who currently serves on our leadership team and as a member of our board of Directors. She’s been involved with Camp Sunshine for more than 20 years, and her story is just one more example of the “why” of Camp Sunshine. Our vision is “to make the world outside of Camp Sunshine a more affirming and inclusive place by inspiring agents of change with transforming experiences and relationships.” 

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When I was 16, a friend from high school asked if I could help out at a place called Camp Sunshine. His parents had a cottage nearby, and they’d heard camp needed more counselors. All I knew was that it was an overnight camp for people with disabilities. I said yes… and I guess the rest is history. Twenty-four years later, my summers don’t just include Camp Sunshine… they revolve around it. That 16-year-old girl had no idea how much her “yes” would shape the rest of her life. Those first years as a counselor left an imprint on my heart—and they also changed my future. Back then, I thought I’d become a school counselor. But one week at Camp Sunshine shifted my focus to special education. My experiences with campers later guided me to specific endorsements at GVSU so I could teach certain populations. And when a teaching recession hit, my Camp Sunshine experience even helped me land a job. As I grew as an educator, my role at camp evolved. 

When Camp Sunshine grew from two sessions to four, I was invited to join the PAL* team after 12 years as a counselor. Instead of having one camper assigned to me, I supported an entire cabin and served as a resource for counselors. The timing was perfect—I had just welcomed my first child four months earlier, and Camp became something my whole family could share. My husband and daughter spent long days soaking up the same culture of inclusion and joy that I’d fallen in love with years earlier.

With the help of my husband, I now bring all three of my children to camp each summer. Camp is truly a family affair, and that’s been a dream come true. I used to watch the “Camp Sunshine Kids”—the children of staff members and volunteers—running around camp and learning what inclusion looked like in real life. Now it’s my turn to raise my own Sunshine Kids. That’s not an accident—Camp Sunshine is intentional about welcoming families and building the next generation of inclusion. This summer marked my 12th year as a PAL, and my role continues to shift. I recently added “Camp Sunshine Board Member” to my list of titles—and wow, what an honor. To help guide Camp Sunshine into the future feels surreal. I’m just a mom, a teacher, and a Camp Sunshine enthusiast who still pinches herself that this is real. But the part of my Sunshine story that lights me up the most is what happens back home. I teach at Jenison High School, where I’m both a special educator and the coordinator of our Peer-to-Peer Links Program. I get to teach students about disabilities, inclusion, and belonging—and then I get to recruit them to serve as counselors at Camp Sunshine. Some of them serve right alongside me as PALs, and others return year after year either as counselors or within different leadership roles. Watching my students fall in love with camp and carry those lessons into adulthood makes me feel like the proudest mama bear. While some move on, I know they carry the lessons of Camp Sunshine into their adult lives, because once you’ve experienced the true inclusion and joy of Camp Sunshine, it never leaves you. 

So here I am, wearing one of my many Camp Sunshine shirts as I write this, reflecting on how 24 years of camp have shaped my life—and, I hope, touched the lives of others too. I am endlessly grateful that 16-year-old me said yes all those years ago.

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*PAL stands for Professional Alumni Leader, and are considered sort of a “counselor to a counselor” to offer support and guidance to counselors!