This Wisconsin summer camp reunites foster kids with their biological siblings

For the past two years during a week in the summer, a Wisconsin high school student drives to meet someone she doesn’t get to see often: her sister. 

Like many foster children, this young girl was separated from her biological sibling. 

But in the rolling hills of eastern Wisconsin at a summer camp called Belong Wisconsin, a reunification week happens for dozens of Wisconsin foster youth and their biological siblings. 

“We have the bunk beds. But she doesn’t sleep on the top bunk where she’s supposed to. She sleeps in my bed,” the high schooler told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “I enjoy it because I know she loves me. It’s just all out of love.”

About 7,000 children are in foster care in Wisconsin at any given time. National organizations estimate between 50 and 80 percent of siblings who enter the system are separated from each other. 

Belong Wisconsin started 10 years ago. Each summer, foster youth and their biological siblings from all around the state meet at Camp Anokijig, a 450-acre, century-old camp set on Little Elkhart Lake. “Wisconsin Today” visited the camp in August and is not using the children’s names for their privacy. 

“They run to each other. They jump out of the car. Some of them will refuse to get out of their vehicle until they see their sibling’s vehicle pull up,” said Eshalon Mayer, Belong Wisconsin’s executive director.  

Each day brings a set of activities like horseback riding, tie-dyeing and, of course, roasting marshmallows around a giant campfire. The siblings sleep in their wooden bunk beds inside cabins. They even make pillows for each other with personal messages to read throughout the year to come.

One middle school boy who attended camp learned this year that his brother loves to dance.

“He never really dances in public. He knows here no one’s going to make fun of him,” the boy said. “No one’s going to be, like, mad or laugh at him. So, it’s really cool seeing him go out of his shell.” 

Next year, another one of his siblings he doesn’t get to see often is potentially attending the camp. The boy said he looks forward to this camp all year long and only wishes it would go on for the entire summer. He doesn’t even mind sleeping in the rustic cabins with no running water. 

Campers and counselors described the week as therapeutic, fun and memorable as they were serenaded by cicadas. 

The high schooler, who someday wants to be a politician to change laws for foster youth, said being without her sister is like living without a kidney. 

“Like you have two kidneys and you can live with one,” she said. “But it just feels odd. It feels strange. It hurts, like physically and emotionally. It hurts.” 

The camp, however, faces funding uncertainty.

‘We have no idea how we’re funding next year’

This summer, 42 campers attended Belong Wisconsin’s sibling camp. 

The cost is about $2,000 per camper. The camp charges $500 if families can afford it. If not, campers can come for free. 

Mayer said Belong Wisconsin will not turn away a child because of cost. The camp gathers donations, and counselors work for free. 

Research shows keeping biological siblings together in foster care is beneficial. And in Wisconsin, the law requires state agencies to make reasonable efforts to place siblings together. 

But it’s not always possible due to a shortage of foster families and in cases where there are larger sibling groups. 

The Belong Wisconsin organization was previously associated with an international group called Camp To Belong. That organization went through an acquisition last year, so Mayer and her fellow camp leaders thought it was the right time to break away and become an independent nonprofit.

Mayer sought out researchers to help assess the positive impact of this camp on the kids’ well-being. She said the camp “absolutely improves the resiliency and connection for these siblings.”

Belong Wisconsin partnered with the state Department of Children and Families to ensure the siblings camp would happen in 2025. But funding for 2026 remains uncertain. 

“We do not have secure funding at this point at all,” Mayer said. “We have no idea how we’re funding next year.”

Campers often return as counselors 

Holding back tears, Mayer described her first time attending the camp. 

“I hated it. It was so hard,” she said. “The whole week I was like, ‘Oh, I’m glad I’m here. But I can’t wait to go home to my bed and my house and my cat and my family.’ 

“As I was running through the list of all the things I was excited to go home to,  I realized that this (camp) is that home for these kids,” she added. 

Mayer eventually learned she wanted to participate in the camp forever. Some of the campers feel that way, as well. They often go on as adults to become counselors, like siblings Chelsea and Anthony Gilbert. 

Before they started at camp, they weren’t particularly close. But their relationship grew over time. Now, they look forward to each year where they can eat meals side by side and connect throughout the day. 

Counselors at Belong Wisconsin have nicknames. Chelsea goes by Hershey, and Anthony goes by Pickles.

“I get to have Pickles here with me. That makes it a lot easier. It’s rough sometimes, but to know at the end that we are doing this for the children and to see their smiles on their faces, just is that warming heart sensation. I wouldn’t change a thing,” Chelsea said. 

The Gilberts return each year. Counselors are required to go through trauma-informed training. They learn de-escalation and redirection techniques to ensure campers have all the support they need. 

“We started out this camp together as campers, so we’ve been in that spot. We know what that’s like,” Anthony said.

Anthony was decked out in brightly colored bandanas from head to toe, representing his camp spirit. He said the bandanas hold all his memories from years past. While he has been coming to the camp for years, he’s one bandana short. 

“I had 11 because 11 years is how long I’ve been here. But one of the years I had a kid ask me at the very end of camp when they went home, they’re like, ‘I want something to remember you by. Can I have this bandana?’” Anthony said, getting emotional. “And they chose the specific one that they (wanted), and I just started tearing up. I’m like, ‘Of course, I’m going to give you that. I want you to have that.’”

Camp closes with tears and a bonfire 

On the last day before foster families come to pick up the children, there is a closing bonfire. Surrounded by a canopy of trees, each camper gets to pass around a handmade totem pole and talk about their favorite part of the week. 

“I know how important this camp is to see your siblings and be with them because they are something really, really special,” a camper said. “Even though sometimes you would, like, fight … deep down you really know that you absolutely love and adore them and they mean the world to you.”

There are tears, so many that Belong Wisconsin has to supply dozens of mini packages of tissue so each kid can have their own. 

“This is the time that they get to be with their siblings in a place where it’s not school. It’s not a courtroom. It’s not a visit with supervision. They just get to be kids together, and so it’s a really magical place for them,” Mayer said. “But we do have to acknowledge that it’s kind of like Disney. It’s not real.” 

At the end of the week, the siblings have to leave and prepare for their reality. 

But to lessen the sadness and anxiety some campers feel, leaders had children pick a sibling constellation. So when they leave and go back to their foster families, they can look up at the sky and know they are staring at the same stars.