For many young people, going to camp is part of the summer experience.

One camp is making sure Kentucky's LGBTQ plus youth get that summer camp experience.

Camp Beacon is the first of its kind in the state, and its founders say they want it to serve as a beacon of hope for LGBTQ plus youth.

I think Can't Begin to me represents a hope for the future.

For a future where LGBTQ people just get to be ourselves and get to experience joy as opposed to struggle.

I know a lot of us growing up who are LGBTQ adults.

When we were younger, we needed more of a community and we needed more support and more places to be ourselves.

And I'm hoping that Camp Beacon is one of those places for future generations.

The idea for it started in 2021.

We started by putting together a leadership team, people in mental health and youth leadership.

Youth leadership was really important to us.

So all of our all of our decisions are guided by the youth, our logo, our activities, All of those things are, you know, it's not us making it for them, it's with them and supporting, you know, what they would like.

We have about ten of our 32 campers are from last year.

The rest are all new.

One important thing I think to note is that about two thirds of our campers are from rural Kentucky, so only about a third are from Lexington or Louisville, which was really important to us.

We love our Lexington Louisville kids, but there's more resources in those places for LGBTQ youth than there is some rural Kentucky.

We're just trying to have a typical summer camp that anyone could go to, but there are things that come up.

People feel upset.

They talk about things they've experienced in school, about bullying, about struggling with mental health issues, and it can be a lot to deal with.

I before I was here, I worked at other summer camps as a camp counselor, and it's actually more common than people realize that campers have mental health issues.

But counselors don't always know how to deal with them.

So here we figured it was better to get ahead of the game.

I've had campers open up to me about things that were really serious and because I know how to deal with them, we were able to work through it and come to a better resolution than I think I personally would have been able to as a camp counselor at 19.

The first camp was really great.

We did surveys after camp and they all were they were all really positive and as far as like what they told us and their experience that, you know, camp is like family and they've all stayed connected since then to each other.

There is definitely a change in the campers when they come in compared to when they leave.

A lot of them are shy.

A lot of them aren't very strong at making friends.

And you can really tell they're not used to new people.

And then over the only three days really that we have them, they really open up, they make friends, they make lifelong connections.

It's it's very empowering to see.

They've supported each other throughout this past year, and they're from all different parts of the state.

So it's been really important to to, I think, have them have that opportunity to stay connected with one another.

So we know that Kentucky, especially recently has been very unfriendly from a political standpoint towards LGBTQ youth, specifically a lot of laws coming down and things like that that target those young people in particular.

We really strive to make it a place where you know, their LGBTQ identity is loved and affirmed, but also their all their lived experience, who they are as a total person.

Can't Beacon's founder say for the safety of its campers, they only released the location of the camp to parents and guardians.