The Story of Amici
By: Amici Children's Camp Charity
July 21, 2026
Sixty summers ago, in 1966, Amici Children’s Camp Charity sent its very first camper to camp. As Paul Chamberlain explains it, it was a modest beginning, with one camper, a $105 camp fee and a donated sleeping bag, but it marked the start of something far more enduring and wide-reaching than anyone could have imagined.
That milestone was the result of an idea that had taken some time to take hold. Two summers earlier, in 1964, the then-owner and director of Kilcoo Camp, John Latimer, had raised a vision he had already tried twice before, inspiring Kilcoo camp staff to stay connected as alumni while giving back to the community. He first shared it with a small group, asking Donald Craw, a staff member at the time, to bring it forward to the rest of the staff team. The staff embraced the idea, and Amici was created. The name for Amici originally came from an acronym they created, Aiming Mainly in Camping Improvement. It worked perfectly, with Amici also meaning friend in Italian, and a key motivator for these young Kilcoo staff members was to pass on the camp experience in hopes that another child would get to form friendships like the ones they had made at camp.
The group started with $76 in the bank, collected through $2 membership fees from 38 members of the Kilcoo staff team, and a shared understanding that camp had given them something meaningful and worth passing on. Most had grown up at camp themselves, moving from campers to CITS to counsellors, shaped by the friendships and mentorship they experienced along the way. They created Amici’s first executive, a group of six Kilcoo staff and young alumni, many of whom were in university or just starting their professional careers.
In the winter of 1966, Paul Chamberlain worked with John Latimer to figure out how they might raise enough money to send one child to camp that summer. Paul wrote a letter sent to former Kilcoo staff, and the response was tremendous. Over the summer, Kilcoo alumni rallied around this idea, and Amici was able to send its first camper to Camp Kawabi. The start, said Paul, was not without its challenges. The camper was hesitant, and on the drive up to camp in the Kilcoo truck, he even threw the truck keys out the window! But once he got there and experienced the joys of camp himself, he quickly came to love it. He returned for several summers after that, and what began as a single opportunity became something more lasting.
In the early years, Amici grew slowly through sustained effort. One child in 1966 turned into three children in 1967 and five children in 1969. Paul admits that he didn’t expect it to grow much beyond that; at the time, he imagined Amici sending ten to fifteen children a year at most. Fundraisers such as walkathons and concerts helped sustain Amici during this time, often raising a few hundred dollars.
What carried Amici forward was not only the fundraising itself, but the relationships behind it. It became a way for former staff to stay connected and to something they all understood deeply. Even when engagement dipped in the late 1970s, it was those relationships that brought people back together to rethink and recommit to the organization. A steering committee formed, bringing together a group of committed volunteers who began to think long-term about what Amici could be. From there, the organization became more structured and grew into a sustained operation with staff and ongoing fundraising initiatives.
At the heart of that growth is a simple truth: camp changes young people through the relationships they build there. Friendships are not just part of the experience; rather, they are the experience. At camp, you are known not for what you have or where you come from, but for how you show up for others.
For children from low-income families, this sense of belonging can be especially powerful. Amici campers are given the opportunity to return year after year, and they build friendships that influence their confidence and their sense of possibility. Surrounded by peers who support and challenge them, they begin to see new paths forward. Over time, those relationships can shape aspirations and open doors that once felt out of reach.
As the world becomes more complex, Paul believes camp has only become more important. It offers something increasingly rare, a space where young people are fully present, away from technology and pressure. At camp, they learn how to work together, how to care for one another, and how to form relationships built on respect.
Sixty years later, the values at the heart of Amici have remained the same. The organization may have grown far beyond what any of the founders imagined in the 1960s, but the motivation behind it has stayed the same. People support Amici because they remember what camp meant to them, and more often than not, because of the friendships formed there.
For Paul, reaching the 60th summer brings a sense of fulfilment and continuity. On one hand, Amici’s growth over the past sixty years is unimaginable. On the other hand, he says, it makes perfect sense. If you have gone to camp for several years, it becomes a part of you, and how can you not want to ensure all children have this same experience?
In the end, he returns to the same point. The numbers matter, the growth matters. But what endures is harder to measure. It is the friendships that begin at camp and continue long after summer's end. It is the sense of belonging that stays with a child long after they leave. And it is the lasting impact of being part of something shared. That is the magic of camp that brought a group of young camp staff together in 1964, sending the first child to camp in 1966, and it’s the same magic that the Amici community is built on today.
