Camp Save-a-Life — a partnership between the City of Philadelphia’s Parks and Recreation Department and the American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania (SEPA) Region — is a great success story of the summer season. 

Funded by the Pennsylvania Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program, Camp Save-A-Life taught youth fire safety and preparedness programs Prepare with Pedro and The Pillowcase Project to 911 youth over a five-week period between July 10 and Aug. 11 at 25 locations across the city. It replaced the legacy program Camp Save-a-Life formerly held at the Red Cross House in West Philadelphia for the 2023 summer season.

Reaching Out to Local Neighborhoods

Camp counselors Sumeyya Herzi and Daijah Fleming taught the Prepare with Pedro program to 329 6- and 7-year-olds in 30-minute sessions.  The enthusiastic young campers were provided with coloring workbooks with action items for home fire safety and guided steps for having a plan to share with their parents or guardians. They also taught The Pillowcase Project to 582 highly-engaged 8- to 12-year-olds in 45-minute periods. In addition to family-focused workbooks designed to strengthen safety and preparedness lessons learned in camp, the youth were given pillowcases to color and use to store go-bag emergency items.

By partnering with the City of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation’s program, [the Red Cross] was able to forge local neighborhood relationships with young people and build bridges to families who may need home safety and preparedness information,” said Ryan Gaul, Red Cross disaster preparedness manager. “Incidentally, the success of Camp Save-a-Life helped us meet 53% of our youth preparedness service goal for FY24.”

The Service Delivery Team

The Camp Save-a -Life team was spearheaded by Red Cross Regional Disaster Officer Lisa McGee and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Program Director Joseph Brogan, along with Ryan Gaul, Red Cross regional disaster preparedness manager, Maureen Streeter, regional recovery manager, and instructors Sumeyya Herzi and Daijah Fleming. Red Cross volunteers Kathy Mullen and Charlene Scott  provided outreach support at the rec centers.

Visit redcross.org to learn more about Red Cross youth preparedness programs.