The vision of Melody Ministries began in the early 80’s when Dawn Cobb-Fossnes had a strong desire to see young people attend camp because she had witnessed positive results from her camp experience. She realized that many children would never have the opportunity to have camp experience because of finances. Dawn began researching running a camp and began making plans. At that time she was committed to teaching at a Christian school and did not have money to finance the camp. Finally in 1999 with a passion to start a camp consuming her, Dawn and her husband decided to start a camp with what they could afford. The camp was named after a little girl, Melody McTamney, Dawn’s friend’s daughter who died of leukemia. That first year, they took 10 campers, 2 teenage counselors and 4 adults to a week long camp in tents at the Delaware Water Gap. The boys came from the Bronx in New York and from the local area. The camp had a tremendous impact on the boys. One of the boys from the Bronx had lost both his parents to a drug overdose. Camp meant so much to him that it filled the void in his life. Another camper from the Bronx said that camp was the best week in his entire life.
The next year they rented a facility and were able to have a total of 44 with campers, teen counselors and adult staff. They were so blessed to see the money provided for the camp. All of our campers are different. Some campers come from very good and stable homes, some pay for camp while others can’t afford camp and others come from a very difficult and broken background. Camp continues to grow each year making a difference in the boy’s lives.
In 2013, the camp grew by beginning their first year of girl’s camp. Our first year of girl’s camp met all of our expectations and beyond! We had 30 campers and 17 counselors who volunteered their time. The counselors met throughout the year to plan the week “Oh, the Places You’ll Go”, including daily themes such as: safari and fiesta days. We received many reports on the life changing impact that camp has had on our campers.
