The CAHEC Foundation improves the quality of life for youth and young adults through wellness and education. So far in 2022, we've distributed $61,000 to support our mission of offering life-changing opportunities to the residents in CAHEC's footprint. Here's an overview of the initiatives we proudly supported:

CAHEC Foundation Sponsors 235 Weeks of Summer Camp

Over the past few years, the CAHEC Foundation has increased its efforts to send youth living at CAHEC-sponsored properties to summer camp. On average, summer camps can cost up to $185 per week, which is sometimes hard for our families to afford. Through our Youth Leadership Initiative, we're able to offer these summer camp experiences to CAHEC families for $10 per week. While at camp, and depending on the camp location, students take part in various sporting activities, learn to swim, take educational field trips, and receive a nutritious breakfast and lunch each day.

This summer, the CAHEC Foundation sponsored over 235 weeks of camp for our residents! Some youth were able to attend for up to seven weeks of camp, others for one or two weeks, but they all came out with the same end result: experiencing something new and doing something fun and educational during their summer break. Kristen Aquino, Vice President of Financial Development for the YMCA of Western North Carolina, explained that the campers have been having a blast. "One of my favorite weeks was when everyone was a dinosaur explorer. We had life-sized animatronic dinosaurs invade our camp and we also had a dinosaur "foam-roam" party." Sounds like a great time to us! We can't voice our appreciation enough for the creativity each of the YMCA camps have, and for allowing us to send CAHEC youth to experience these wonderful opportunities. We'd also like to thank our partners for their donations this year, which ultimately allow us to sponsor more weeks of camp at each location. Thank you to Thomas and Amanda Boothby, First Bank, Fitch Irick Corporation, Mountain Housing Opportunities, North State Bank, Pacific Western Bank, and Taft-Mills Group for your generosity!

Supporting Our Teachers

The 2022-2023 school year is already kicking into gear for a lot of our residents. We want every student to have a successful year, and sometimes that means helping the educators who work so hard to be energized for our youth. Teachers: it would be our honor to support you this year! If you are a teacher living in a CAHEC-sponsored property, we'd love to help you purchase some of the items off your school supply wish list. Please send your contact information, property name, and school supply wish list to Stefanie Lee at slee@cahec.com so we can help get your year off to a great start!

For more information regarding the wellness and education initiatives offered by the CAHEC Foundation, or to make a donation, please contact Stefanie Lee at (919) 645-9825 or slee@cahec.com.