It all started in 2000 with our founder, Ernie Colwell. Retired Delaware National Guard Master Sergeant Ernie Colwell came up with the idea of a camp nearly three decades ago. During his own days in the Guard, he came to realize that it was difficult for children of military families to experience basic summer fun for a week at a time due to the obligations of their parents. “I decided at that time I was going to do my best to get some kind of camp going where the kids could go and have the same kind of vacation that the other kids were having,” Colwell said in 2010 reflecting on the founding.

Children stayed in the barracks at the Bethany Beach Training Site in lower state Delaware and enjoyed trips to the Delaware State Fair and the beach. While the kids are assigned to different platoons and learn to march in formation, it was not a rigid, military-style “boot camp”. It was a camp like many others where campers have fun playing sports, games, crafts and special outings to the local board walk, water parks, movie theaters, bowling alleys (the outings changed every year). But the campers also shared a special bond, they are children of Delaware National Guard members. The camp was also run solely with the help of volunteers, many were Guard Members and former campers themselves.

The Delaware National Guard Youth Foundation ran the camp up until COVID hit and it had to be put on hold. In 2022, the Youth Foundation worked on reimaging the camp and other activities that it could do to benefit the Guard Youth.

Over the last couple of years, the Delaware National Guard Youth Foundation has developed ways to impact the youth of the Guard in many ways throughout the whole year now. Instead of just one week of camp, they now provide camp (a partnership with Camp Barnes for Guard Youth to attend together), monthly youth and teen activities, quarterly family events, activity grants and scholarships.