What Is Camp High Hopes?

Camp High Hopes is a year-round respite care and recreational facility for individuals of all ages with disabilities. The camp is a not-for-profit organization.

Camp High Hopes began in the summer of 2004 when Gary Turbes, founder and former Director of Camp Courageous, saw the need for persons with disabilities to experience year-round recreational and respite activities in a camp setting in Sioux City, Iowa. This would be a camp where those with special needs could participate in recreational programs. It would be a place where they could learn and grow to fulfill each person’s individual potential. This camp would also provide families and care-givers with the chance for a vacation and networking.

Gary took the first steps to making that idea a reality. He formed a non-profit corporation and engaged community members who were also looking for sustainable opportunities for children and adults with disabilities to have a rich and fulfilling place to experience camp in a supportive and caring setting. Soon, individuals and businesses were enlisted to provide support.

In the fall of 2004, with its first significant donation, Camp High Hopes purchased a classic camp property in Sioux City, Iowa – complete with 90 acres of wooded land and a beautiful 8-acre lake. Services from local architectural and engineering firms are guiding us through the process of obtaining maximum utilization of land and buildings. We are making a special effort to use the most advanced energy conservation technology available to ensure a “green” operation. We believe this is the right thing to do for our camp, our campers, our community, and our donors. We also know that there will be long-term financial benefits to designing our facilities using environmentally sound principals. From using sustainable and recycled building materials to installing motion sensitive lighting, all aspects of the camp property will be environmentally friendly.

Additional donations and community interest were received over the following three years, leading up to a monumental donation in the summer of 2008. This donation energized the project, causing the land to be paid off and the road to be installed in the fall of 2008, and later the first Executive Director, Ali Langseth to be hired in early 2009.