To us, TRAC is our tribe. At risk youth feel alone, hopeless, and vulnerable… camp is our way to sit down and meet them where they are and show them who God says they are. Each teen is valued, loved, HIS. TRAC and TRACLife mentoring programs allow our family to show God’s love through building camp each year.
If my wife and I could describe TRAC in 1 word…it would be Love. The prodigal son prepared a speech for his father when he was coming home because he felt unworthy. His father wouldn’t even let him get done with the speech before he gave him a hug and took care of him. His father loved him. These boys and girls feel unworthy. They feel unwanted. Outside of everything else the purpose of TRAC is to show love to the kids. These kids don’t know what love is. Our role is to show them the love of THE father. TRAC is life changing. TRAC is Love.
TRAC is one of our favorite weekends of the year. We always look forward to seeing God move in the hearts and lives of teens in a way that only He can. Our TRAC family is a constant blessing to us. We are incredibly thankful that God placed camp in our lives at a young age and pray that one day our children will serve alongside of us. We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19.
The opportunity to provide hope and encouragement to TRAC campers is a priceless gift that our family will never take for granted. Serving at camp has strengthened our relationship with The Lord and taught us so much about what truly being the hands and feet of Christ means. We look forward to serving at TRAC for many years to come.
TRAC is one of the best weekends of the year. We always look forward to building relationships with the teens that God blesses us with & watching them grow over a short weekend. God truly does a lot in a few days! We are so thankful for camp & have loved serving over the years. We can’t wait to see how big TRAC continues to grow!
Tom, Joy, and Brantley Collins Tom and Joy served together at the very first Royal Family Kids Camp in Tuscaloosa in 2007. Tom was part of the kitchen team, and Joy was a counselor. A few years later, Joy was introduced to TRAC. She knew TRAC was the solution to being able to continue serving the kids once they graduated from RFK. She went with a leadership team to Portland, Oregon and trained to help bring TRAC to Tuscaloosa. Their daughter, Brantley, has always been a part of camp. When she wasn’t old enough to be on campus, she wrote notes and helped with set up and clean up. Now, the Collins family enjoys serving at TRAC Tuscaloosa together. Joy serves as assistant director and fills in wherever needed. Tom loves to help feed the campers delicious meals and has recently taken on the role of facilitator. Brantley serves as part of the photography team. Camp is something they all look forward to every summer.
Serving at TRAC means being able to share the love of Christ with kids who may have never experienced it. Seeing the difference between some of the kids at TRAC from the first day to the last is an amazing thing. I also love leading worship at camp, and hearing campers unapologetically praise Jesus with songs, even if they don’t know them
To serve as Camp Grandparents is such a Blessing to us. The 3 days that we are a part of these campers lives is truly one of the highlights of our summers! We count it a privilege to be involved in this Awesome Ministry.
TRAC, to me, is a weekend that gives teens who may not otherwise have them positive memories and experiences and sending them home with a tangible representation of the weekend in photo book form. Selfishly, it gives me an outlet to use my organization and color coding skills for good, not evil 😉.
My dad is a big reason that God put me into the TRAC family. My dad was a foster dad for about 7 years total before those same children became ADOPTED into our family. When my Dad passed away at the end of 2022, I felt the Lord telling me that it was my time to step into a role within the foster community. I didn’t know what that even meant. I was introduced to TRAC a few weeks later and instantly knew that this was where I was supposed to be. The first time I volunteered, it was in a moment that I said “ok, God, I see you” because the look on the kids faces was complete bliss.. and so was mine. God will put you where he needs you. Being a positive impact in the children lives & being able to take care of them while they are having the time of their lives and growing in a Christ. THATS why I’m here.
I have been a part of camp even before I was old enough to be at camp. My mom, Ms. Terri, was a part of the original team that traveled to Oregon to train and bring TRAC to Tuscaloosa. I originally helped behind the scenes and lived the life as the Directors daughter. When TRAC was started I trained as a Level 1 Challenge Course Facilitator. Once I was old enough I traveled to Washington state to train to be a Level 2 Challenge Course Facilitator and took on being the Lead Challenge Course Facilitator. I’ve been in this role since 2015 and I travel yearly to training to come back and teach our other facilitators the years curriculum for Challenge Course. I love that every year I get to learn and work with other CC Facilitators from all over the country. I am married to Tyler and he will hopefully be volunteering for his first year this summer!