Summer camp encourages campers to give back to their community, and emphasizes the importance of community involvement. To illustrate this, guest blog this week is one originally posted to the Camp Starlight blog on March 22, 2014. It concerns the Stack the Caps charity sponsored by the camp in honor of a former camper who passed away.

Spring has finally sprung, and as the sun and warm weather moves back into our lives, communities start to become closer again. For some reason, the warmer weather brings everyone together. At Camp Starlight, we are a community made of people from all different walks of life, from all over the world. Recently, a tradition that started at Camp Starlight has made its way across the world into others’ hearts.

Stack the Caps for Kids with Cancer is a non-profit organization that began in 2008 at Camp Starlight, inspired by a wonderful camper, Brielle Namer, who passed away from a very rare form of cancer. Every summer, Camp Starlight puts on a “Stack the Caps” event on the first Friday night of camp. Campers and staff bring baseball caps (that are new and have never been warn) and literally stack them on top of one another. Each year, the “stack” gets bigger and bigger! After the event is completed, Camp Starlight donates the caps to Memorial Sloane Kettering and Boston Children’s Hospital.

This event does not just stop at Camp Starlight. Campers and staff have taken it upon themselves to make this event known worldwide.  A fun, exciting, and unique event to hold as; bar/bat mitzvah project, school assembly, club/sorority/fraternity philanthropy event, or even just a way to get your community involved with helping others.

Holding your own Stack the Caps event is quite simple.  First you’ll want to contact[email protected] for more information, and some promotional products for your event! Choose a date, time and location, get the word out to community members and ask for donations! Contacting local sports teams or sporting goods stores is a great way to get caps. You will also need a ladder and a 2×4 piece of wood tall enough to balance the caps. Be sure to measure how high your “stack” is at the end of your event, and–without a doubt–take lots of pictures! And don’t forget to contact a local Children’s hospital to donate your caps.

You can find even more information and stories of people holding Stack the Cap events at stackthecaps.com. Bring a new/unused cap to camp this summer so you can be apart of the fun and donate to a wonderful cause!