Ryan Christopher Hersh was an active participant with Hands4Hope who passed away at the age of 18 in 2015. His family established the Ryan Christopher Hersch Scholarship through Hands4Hope, with the goal to continue his legacy by giving youth with limited means the opportunity to attend a summer camp in which they will be able to further develop an interest or skill.
The 2023 Ryan Christopher Hersh Scholarship Committee, composed of 8 high school-aged youth, started meeting in March. The committee spent time researching local summer camps, creating a scholarship application, sending the applications out to community agency partners, updating the scoring rubric for applications, and reading/scoring the applications once they were received.
This year, the Ryan Christopher Hersh Scholarship Committee awarded nearly $4,000 to 18 children in the community between the ages of 4 and 14, who would not have been able to attend summer camps without this assistance. We worked with Folsom’s Hope to send 9 children to day camps hosted by the Folsom Parks and Recreation Department. One child went to a multi-sensory day camp in the Cameron Park area, and the remaining 8 children went to camps hosted by Exhilaration Station in Placerville, which focused on their choice of nature studies, dance or science.
After the summer camps concluded, scholarship recipients reported they enjoyed their experiences. All made new friends, and liked participating in the camp games and arts and crafts time. Some would like to become Jr. Camp Counselors when they get a little older and continue with the program.