Well each summer the Miami
Coalition of Christians and Jews offers
a unique experience for 50 high school
students throughout miami-dade County
for one week teens at Camp Metrotown get
a chance to build relationships with
others from different backgrounds taking
part in workshops covering topics such
as racism homophobia and sexism all in
an effort to break down barriers and
bring the community together here to
share more is former camper Brian Siegel
now regional director of agc global
jewish advocacy of Miami and Broward
County and miami-dade high schools
student tray he's one of this year's
camp Metrotown delegates also a former
camper gentlemen thank you so much for
being with us this is a really cool camp
and Brian I'm gonna start with you
before we get to camp Metrotown you
actually participated in something very
similar when you were growing up as a
boy in birmingham alabama so tell us
about that
I did it was called camp in e-town and
it was very similar to metro town it was
a phenomenal experience that had a
lasting impact on me it took me out of
my daily life where I was living and
brought me together with kids from many
different backgrounds and walks of life
and allowed us to have time to get to
know each other to learn from each other
to understand our different backgrounds
and Heritage's it's camp Metrotown and
camp any town that I attended is really
unique because it really gives you that
chance to stop in your daily life learn
grow as a person it's the confidence
that you gain by being able to speak
about your own background and heritage
and it's also the empathy you gain by
listening to other people's stories
so you left there feeling very proud of
who you are because some campers go in
sort of ashamed sometimes of who they
are and it changed your life didn't it
it really did yeah it gave me a sense of
who I am and who I wanted to be and it
gave me a path a path where I realized
that when people come together despite
our differences and especially relevant
now when I think there's so much in our
society that tears us apart but to sit
down with somebody across from you and
to share the most meaningful parts of
your background in your life and who you
are and honestly and sincerely listen to
them and what they're going through and
trying to realize you have so much in
common and you also should appreciate
what you have and how you can be helpful
to others Trey talk about your
experience with camp Metron how did you
get involved with this in the first
place right so I got involved with my
assistant principal mrs. Clara and had
asked me if I wanted to participate in a
possible summer program and when to
apply or what have you and I thought it
was an amazing idea I met Heather
Burdick who was the camp director at the
yar I attended and she told me about it
and she told me so much similar to what
Brian was scribing and this
transformative experience and
like huh that sounds really cool you
know I I couldn't think of a better way
to spend one week of my summer and
honestly it was life-changing I think it
was a really cool decision so we're
looking at some pictures from Camp Metro
town and walk us through some of what
we're looking at cuz it looks like
people are singing they're putting on
performances we've seen people drawing
and coloring tell us a little bit about
what actually happens there right so in
the pictures you see that we are sharing
our talents and sharing what we love to
do because I can't what they really
focus on is reading that understanding
in sense of diversity there's more to
someone than what you see when you first
you know make eye contact the first is
someone into a room there's so much more
to their story and a lot of the
workshops we did were about breaking
down boundaries as Brian said and it was
about really getting to know who we were
on the inside aside from the labels so
just because I am this way and I was
raised here with this much in my name it
doesn't mean that we don't have a lot in
common some of the exits we did were
when being privileged walk which was for
us to understand the term privilege in
most people kind of have a negative
association with the word and that it
must be an attack or an insult but it's
not
it simply means to have something
accessible to you that someone else may
not and I believe that because I was
always told that there are so many
things working against me being
african-american being queer being
whatever that I would be at a
disadvantage compared to my friends and
when my best friends Esther Ellis ofays
who attended with me when we had to do
the activity I thought that you know it
would show that I was just not as good
or that she wouldn't like me as much but
that was completely ridiculous and it
turns out we have so much more in common
than we ever did apart yeah we talked
about diversity but we're also talking
Brian about finding common ground the
things that we're alike that we share
right absolutely and I think what Trey
describes is so beautiful and that hope
that you can gain so it's the sense of
confidence in that sense of empathy but
it's also empowerment it's that hope
that you take away from the experience
and for me you know it's really served
me incredibly well so some of the work
I'm doing now reaching out to the Muslim
community on behalf of the Jewish
community and seeing the work that MCC
Jay does and partnering with us on so
many things it gives you that hope to
realize that as Trey said boundaries are
not there to stop you you have to figure
out how to break through is this a free
camp tell us
about the funding related for this camp
so the camp is I believe mostly
subsidized but that's why MCC J works
hard to raise the funds that it does
because it needs to be able to provide
some of the students the opportunity to
attend so some students will I believe
pay and some are subsidized okay and
they go all week go ahead Trey you were
gonna say some right I was gonna step in
on that one the camp is completely free
of charge they do have an application
fee of about twenty-five dollars if you
want any more information we do have
applications still open and all the
information is still on the website
I'm Miami ccj org in there you're free
to apply we stopped some spots open and
we're definitely loving half kids
financial barriers are not a thing we
like to impose I came into town like we
said Barrios should not be anything to
stop easily thank you gentlemen both of
you for bringing this awareness to us
about camp Metrotown awesome awesome
program and for more on camp Metrotown
as Trey was just saying into apply visit
Miami CCJ org slash Metrotown we're
gonna have all the information for you
on our facebook page at your South FL