The Bear Hug Foundation

The Bear Hug Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides customized residential camping programs for underprivileged, at-risk, and developmentally disabled children living in metropolitan Detroit. Founded in Bear Hug works with a number of schools and youth-serving organizations to design camping programs that supplement activities learned in the classroom. Since its inception, Bear Hug has given over 3,300 children the opportunity to attend a residential, summer camp program. The mission of the Bear Hug Foundation is to provide self-esteem and skill-building experiential programming for children through the summer camping experience. Everything that Bear Hug does works to compliment the efforts made by its partner organizations in developing the whole child. The ultimate goal of Bear Hug is to encourage positive growth of children and adolescents. One of the future goals of the organization is to serve as many children as possible each summer, possibly utilizing several camping facilities across Michigan to ensure that all children in need can benefit from the experience. The camping environment helps over 300 young children and adolescents, each year, build leadership, self-esteem, as well as problem-solving, decision-making and communication skills.