About our beneficiary.

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Camp Freedom is an adventure camp for disabled Veterans & First Responders, their family members, and Gold Star families providing quality hunting, shooting sports, fishing, camping, hiking, biking, and other year-round outdoor activities. These activities remove individuals from clinical settings into the healing environment of the outdoors and nature. They also promote the social well-being of the participants through peer-to-peer interaction, camaraderie, and outdoor adventures.  Activities are led by Camp Freedom's Staff and experienced volunteers. Camp Freedom provides services to other nonprofits who have a similar mission for a collective impact.

Camp Freedom was founded in January 2018 by Bill and Laura Bachenberg due to a passion to serve others and provide healing outdoor adventures for disabled Veterans, First Responders, and Gold Star families. The Executive Director, Matthew Guedes, shares the same passion for Veterans, First Responders, and Gold Star families and has an extensive background in the outdoors. There are over four million registered disabled Veterans and numerous others that choose to not seek VA benefits. While many suffer from physical challenges, there are an abundant amount that face the challenges of PTSD, TBI, and other mental disabilities and suicide among Veterans is high. Whether trauma is a single occurrence or cumulative from repeated exposure to trauma, the results lead many down a pathway of isolation, drugs and or alcohol, and desperation.  

The mission of Camp Freedom is simple – to heal heroes through outdoor adventures. Camp Freedom is an adventure camp for disabled Veterans and First Responders, their family members, and Gold Star families providing quality hunting, shooting sports, fishing, camping, hiking, biking, and other year-round outdoor activities. These activities remove individuals from clinical settings into the healing environment of the outdoors and nature. They also promote the social well-being of the participants through peer-to-peer interaction, camaraderie, and outdoor adventures. Activities are led by Camp Freedom's Staff and experienced volunteers. 

Camp Freedom provides services to other nonprofits who have a similar mission for a collective impact. During the first year, Camp Freedom was able to serve forty-nine guests. In the four years since Camp Freedom opened their doors, they have served over 3,800 of America’s Heroes from over thirty states and have saved lives of many of those men and women. 

CASA of Luzerne County is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to recruit, train and support community volunteers to provide whole child advocacy and serve as the voice of abused and neglected children in the Luzerne County dependency court system so that they will be safe, secure and given the opportunity to thrive. 

Volunteering with CASA is an impactful and robust experience that enables the advocate to develop a relationship with a child, speak to all of the people in the child’s life including doctors, teachers, service providers, etc. and provide a report to the court on what the child’s wishes are as well as recommendations in the child’s best interest.

The organization was established in 2013 and has continued to grow with the needs of the children in the community. There are over 500 children in the foster care system in Luzerne County and in 2022 CASA of Luzerne County volunteers advocated for 126 of them, guiding 55 children to achieve safe and stable permanency.

CASA of Luzerne County has been partnering with Troop P of the Pennsylvania State Police and their Shop with a Cop program since 2021 to provide joy to the youth we serve during the holiday season. This is a unique Shop with a Cop experience because many children served by CASA are placed in residential treatment facilities, group homes and foster homes across the state. Troop P has been flexible in their understanding that many of the children served by CASA have experienced trauma and our program needs to be tailored to their needs. This partnership had supplied gifts to children who are far away from home for the holiday and provided a holiday party for local children where the youth have had positive one on one interactions with law enforcement. All of the funds raised go directly to the Shop with a Cop fund at CASA of Luzerne County and will be used to purchase gifts and provide a special holiday experience for the children.