Camp Because I Said I Would builds resiliency skills for those facing adversity
Retreat founded by Alex Sheen helps youth and adults strengthen mental health, healing and perseverance.
Alex Sheen founded Camp Because I Said I Would several years ago to help teach people of all ages the resiliency skills needed to take on life head first. The camp is a 92-acre retreat near Walhonding.Submitted
“Every man of courage is a man of his word.” There is as much truth to that saying today, as when French playwright Pierre Cornielle penned them, back in the 17th Century. Knox County’s Alex Sheen spends each day of his life trying to live up to being a man of his word.
“My dad was a man of his word,” said Sheen. “He was a ‘handshake-means-something’ kind of guy. If he said he was going to be there for you, he just showed up. He was resilient from challenges and adversities.”
This is what inspired Sheen to found Camp Because I Said I Would, a 92-acre retreat located 30 minutes from Mount Vernon in Walhonding and dedicated to teaching people of all ages the skills that are important to persevere in life, or what Sheen calls, ‘resiliency skills.’
Mental health is often forgotten when it comes to the well-being of young people growing up. It can continue to get pushed to the side as those young people join the workforce and build their lives as adults.
“That is why you often see the phrase, ‘resiliency skills,’ all over our website,” said Sheen. “When we talk about mental health, there is a stigma about that, but if I say, ‘These are resiliency skills,’ people will say, 'Oh yeah. Yes, of course.'”
Camp Because I Said I Would is designed to empower individuals by building those resiliency skills to help them face life’s adversities. They offer bereavement retreats, youth camps, and leadership development retreats, which are customized to address each group’s challenges. Because I Said I Would is a 501 c3 charity that develops resiliency skills in young people, especially those struggling with abuse issues, professionals in high-stress occupations like corrections officers, and other community impact professionals.
Retreats for grieving individuals or families provide training on practical resiliency skills and mental health habits to face life's adversities. This helps individuals and families to strengthen and heal in a peaceful environment.
Manor Lodge, the main building at Camp Because I Said I Would, sleeps 35 people and has seven and a half baths.Submitted
Built on a former winery, Camp Because I Said I Would features their 8,500-square-foot Manor Lodge, which sleeps 35 people and has seven and a half baths. Manor Lodge also includes a kitchen, a sauna, a pair of saloon wet bars, and a game room with a pool table. The 100-foot porch with rockers, a large dining room and 30-by-30 deck make it an attractive place to relax and enjoy. Along with that are lake view and forest cabins with many of the comforts of home.
While Sheen has been in Knox County a few years, he grew up going to Olentangy schools, back before there was a Polaris shopping center.
“It was a big corn field,” said Sheen. “We had to drive a tractor all day and all that kind of stuff, back when that area wasn't developed. The reason why I'm saying all that is because these were ‘handshakes-mean-something’ type of communities. In order to fight adversity, and in order to be that strong person, we need habits and tactics. It's not just about gritting your teeth and bearing it. There are ways to make that self-control easier to happen, so that we are more compassionate to our neighbors and that we are stronger and work harder for our families. It's not just an inspirational quote and a pat on the back.”
In the schools, Sheen gets an opportunity to make these resiliency skills foundational in the thinking of younger people. Camp Because I Said I Would seeks to empower 12-17-year-old students by helping them build practical resiliency skills.
Programs and activities for people of all ages help people develop the skills needed to face life's adversities.Submitted
“Our programs in the high schools have nine workshops,” said Sheen. “We have one of these workshops once a month, such as, ones on self-control or understanding negative thinking patterns. When we talk about why kids need it and how it helps, look at the mental health challenges that are in the communities. Across the state of Ohio, including Knox County, 13.3 percent of all teenage girls in the United States have attempted to take their own lives. That's astronomical. Also, 3.9 percent of those girls have needed medical help because of those attempts, so this is a serious issue throughout Knox County and, of course, the entire country.
"We've got to help kids develop these basic mental health forms of self-control, otherwise these kinds of things happen. Another reason why that connects to the camp is bereavement. When a child loses a parent or a sibling, these cases of suicidal ideation, post-traumatic stress syndrome, or substance abuse disorders, will skyrocket.”
One of the key programs at Camp Because I Said I Would is a bereavement retreat for adults, which lasts three days and two nights. Loss comes in so many forms and so do those it leaves in its wake. This program has helped grieving mothers of murdered children, as well as survivors trying to bear the emotional weight of losing their spouse, perhaps to suicide.
Not surprisingly, the very idea of Because I Said I Would came to Sheen when his father passed.
“It was a title to his eulogy,” said Sheen. “My dad was diagnosed with stage four small cell lung cancer and in 2012, he passed away. I was asked by my family to get up and speak to his greatest characteristic and his greatest qualities as a man.”
Over and over again, Sheen kept coming back to the same spot. It was the importance of the promise.
“Too often, a person might say I'll get to it tomorrow,” said Sheen. “The commitments that we keep, and we break really define our character.”
Sheen introduced something called a promise card at his father’s funeral.
“I was just trying to say goodbye to my dad, but I started writing a promise on a card,” said Sheen. “You give that to the person you're making a commitment to, saying that, ‘When I fulfill that promise, I earned the card back. This is a symbol of my honor and my respect and I'm coming back for it.’ When you fulfill the promise, you collect the card back. You keep it to remind yourself that you are a person of your word. I offered to send 10 of these cards to anywhere in the world at no cost to anyone.”
Because I Said I Would has since distributed approximately 15.5 million cards to 178 countries around the world.
“People write all kinds of things on these cards,” said Sheen. “These are things like, ‘I'll quit smoking,’ or, ‘I will be the first one of my family to go to college.’ Some will promise to lose weight, or volunteer for a cause. They will also write very serious things like, ‘I won't kill myself.’ They will make promises through all kinds of adversities. A lot of people think of us because of so many cards spread around the world.”
Often, writing a promise on a card is not enough.
Canoeing is one of the many activities available at Camp Because I Said I Would.Submitted
“Some people never kept those promises, because they needed help with stress management, more types of self-control, understanding negative thinking patterns, accountability best practices, or all kinds of goal setting basics, and the things that help us build that self-control,” said Sheen.
At the end of the day, it all comes back to resiliency skills and mental health habits.
“We are really working on developing the same skills with all kinds of groups of people,” said Sheen. “This is the part of mental health and self-control we are not taught in school. Maybe we had a good teacher or the benefit of having a therapist or athletic coach or something like that, who taught us lessons in self-control and stress management and keeping positive, and things like that, but to be honest, it's like a roll of the dice. Maybe you got lucky, and you tripped across these basic lessons, but if it's not taught in schools then, maybe this basic form of self-control may not reach you. That's why we have to invest more into this foundational sort of mental health that is resiliency.”
