Updates

2024 Scholarships!

Camperships for 2024 Camp Cedar Glen and College Scholarships for graduating seniors pursuing further education are now open! We’re hoping to fund a lot more camperships this year than in these last few post-pandemic years. So please share our foundation with anyone you know who is looking for support and interested in positive social change!

Site Crash

We lost the website for about a week, but were able to recover it as well as the campership and college scholarship submissions! We’re reaching out to all of those students in the next few days, so please stand by for the announcement and all of the new jokes to be added.

Also, it appears that this news page is no longer presenting properly… so that’s something we need to work on.

Never Ending Covid Updates

I’ve waited to update anything here, once all this mess started happening, because there were plenty of communications coming from every possible source. I also didn’t have any solid answers to provide. The conference has consistently been saying that they will do what they can to keep camp open this summer and surely colleges will continue, one way or another, in the 2020-2021 scholastic year. So, the foundation is still operating and ready to provide college scholarships, but we are not doing campership funding this year. That is because it is still unclear whether or not camps will be held in person. We are going to start raising awareness of the funds among the conference and we hope to receive lots of great applicants this time around. We encourage everyone to share the information about this foundation and its awards, as some assistance to families may be more necessary than ever. If you are able and would like to give to our foundation, please see our options on our donate page.

2020 Camps!

With a new year come new camps. Registration opened on the first and we are excited for another year of scholarships. They usually come in closer to camp start dates (procrastination is real), but once they do, all of us on the Spencer Topham Foundation committee love reading the expressions of faith and the jokes. Camp registration has changed to a new system this year. The link to that is on our camp scholarship page. It’s bit wonky. Apparently if you had an account on the old system, it has been ported over and when attempting to sign in, you have to hit the “what’s my password” button. I hope this doesn’t prove to be too frustrating for anyone. The informational page on camps is also quite a bit outdated and odd looking. We have availed ourselves to the camp administrators to help on that end. Don’t let any of this deter you. All of the real energy is in the camp experience. If you need any help, reach out to us through our contact page and we will advocate for you.

2019 Camp Registration is Open!

Registration for 2019 summer camps at Camp Cedar Glen opened up on the first of the year and with that, the new round of Spencer Topham funds are open. Applications for 2019 support are welcome beginning now until the end of June. Make sure to remind your friends and family of the foundation. We look forward to seeing all the great world perspectives and cheesy jokes that will come!

2018 Camps and Looking Forward

In 2018, we gave out a little over $3,000 to students going to Camp Cedar Glen and one very deserving student heading off to college. Better than just the number, we were able to provide assistance to every single student that submitted a request. Their applications were heartwarming and touching. Supporting kids who are able to think socially was a great gift. More students and youth leaders now know about the scholarship, so we are expecting more applications for the 2019 round of funding. Today is Giving Tuesday, so if you are able to provide support to these students, please do. We will hold another fundraiser/get together in early 2019, so stay in touch and sign up for the email list on the contacts page.

Great Fundraiser!

On Saturday, February 17, several dozen of us gathered at Helix Brewing Company to celebrate in Spencer’s memory and raise funds for camperships. The night was a blast, with the employees at the brewery saying it was the busiest they had ever seen it. The campaign leading up to the fundraiser began in early November with the launch of the foundation. We received 30 donations before the event and more interest than anticipated on the night of the event. I (Steven Topham) stood by our little table along side mine and Spencer’s friends and chatted with people who came for the foundation and others who were interested in learning more (or just entering the drawing for our 7 gift card baskets). We had stickers with the mustache logo, that friends were happily slapping on everyone and everything they could find. With everything tallied up after this very fulfilling campaign, we are going to be able to double the number of camperships that we were anticipating to give. Thank you everyone for you continued support! Love, Steven.

Giving Tuesday

We’ve managed to get everything in place just in time (semi-coincidentally) for Giving Tuesday! If supporting youth who see themselves working towards healthier and happier communities speaks to your heart, then please consider giving to the foundation. As the foundation is administered through Foothills UMC, all donations are tax-deductible. SPECIAL BONUS: Anyone who donates now through mid-February, will receive a ticket to the inaugural, fundraiser party for the foundation. It will be held at a San Diego brewery and will surely be a great time. More details on that event will be coming very soon!

Launching the Foundation

An organizing committee made up of Spencer’s friends, family and mentors has gotten together to lay the framework of the Spencer Topham Foundation. We’re very excited for the opportunity to help students get to camp and are putting together materials for churches in the South District of the California Pacific Conference to use for promoting awareness of this opportunity. There will be more to come and if you have any questions, please contact Steven Topham.