Reserve for our 10th Season Celebration Event!

It’s our 10th Season and we want to celebrate with you!

WHEN

Friday, June 2nd

3:30pm-5:30pm

WHERE

Edwin Warner Park, Pavilion #5

We’re celebrating 10 seasons of collaboration, connecting kids with nature, building grit, and developing leadership skills! We began Leadership Academy with a clear mission: to provide a camp for outdoor play that was lacking for kids today. We developed this goal out of the firm belief that every child deserves the opportunity to explore nature and develop life skills with new-found friends outdoors.

We’re inviting all our friends, campers, families, alumni, and community partners to celebrate with us. We’ll be playing camp games, grilling up some hot dogs, and making S’Mores over a campfire. It wouldn’t be a camp party without the S’Mores!

We are also celebrating the expansion of our operations to offer these opportunities for kids to get outside this summer:

Opening THREE new nature day camp locations, Camp Twigs Bellevue, Camp Twigs Big East Fork in Franklin, and Camp Twigs Sanders Ferry in Hendersonville

Adding shuttle service from Elmington Park to Camp Twigs Bells Bend Beaman and adding more shuttle seats at East Park to serve more campers
Sending 100 campers to camp in our Campership program. This is a BIG goal and it means raising more money to send kids to camp, which is why we are becoming a nonprofit organization this year
Offering summer internships to high schoolers and jobs for young adults to develop leadership skills, build resumes and provide hands-on experiences.

Come join the celebration and roast a marshmallow, meet our summer staff!

See you there!

Reserve for our 10th Season Celebration Event!

Becoming a Nonprofit

As we enter our 10th season, we’re proud to announce our transition to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization! The transition will help us expand our efforts and resources in sending more campers to camp through our Campership program and providing more camps for children to play outdoors!

Leadership Academy is now accepting donations as well as sponsorships to support Camperships! Donations of any amount are so appreciated, and you will know that you have helped make a significant impact on a child’s life. Now that we are a nonprofit organization, any donations made to our Campership program are tax deductible! Our new status as a nonprofit means that we’ll be able to connect with the community in a more sustainable way. We’re establishing more community partners, and have a goal to provide 100 Camperships to families in need so that marginalized communities can also attend summer camp.

We would love for every child to have the opportunity to attend camp and become the most confident and capable version of themselves, no matter their economic situation. Camperships, or “camp scholarships” make camp accessible for more families. Thanks to generous donors and camp partners, more children have had the opportunity to attend camp and create treasured memories with Leadership Academy Camps. Camperships are completely confidential and do not impact the camp experience in any way.

If you are interested in the Campership Program, we encourage you to apply!

About our Campership Program

Want to donate to Leadership Academy?

Your donations go towards funding our campership program, a scholarship program aimed at getting kids to camp that wouldn’t be able to attend without generous donations from parents and business partners.

Donate

Camp History

Our founder, Laura Johnson, was inspired to begin Leadership Academy because there was a clear demand for more opportunities to get kids outside and connected to nature. It all started in 2014 with a partnership with Friends of Warner Parks and Metro Parks to open Camp Warner Park. From there, we opened camp at Bells Bend and Beaman Parks in 2016. As the desire for more types of activities grew, we opened Nashville Sail Camp, which was followed by Mountain Bike Camp. As our campers were growing up we saw the need for more teen programs and began Teen Leaders programs at all our camp locations. Leadership Academy has always been about sensing what the community wants and needs for their children, and providing opportunities to pursue that.

Our mission is to get more children outside during the summer. We believe that when kids get outside to play in nature it increases children’s creativity through outdoor exploration, learning, playing, and having fun so they develop a strong sense of self and a deeper connection to nature. We teach campers outdoor skills to equip them as they continue to grow and develop lifelong outdoor recreation habits.

Within our 10 seasons, we have:

We have served 5,681 campers in our programs. We started out in 2014 with 188 campers at Camp Warner Park, and now this summer we expect to serve almost 1,000 campers across seven camps in Nashville, Hendersonville, and Franklin.
Employed 209 staff
Sent 218 campers to camp on scholarship
And now becoming a nonprofit organization in efforts to send even more kids to camp! Donate now to help us send 100 kids to camp this summer!

As Leadership Academy has expanded over time, the need for camp has also grown tremendously. We’re working hard to grow three new camps for the 2023 season and beyond! Those camps are Camp Twigs at Sanders Ferry in Hendersonville, Camp Twigs Bellevue in Nashville, and Camp Twigs at Big East Fork in Franklin.

6 Day Camp Programs to Choose from in Nashville, TN

For ages: 13-17

Have fun, make friends, and learn Leadership Skills at camp. Teen Leaders teaches principles of leadership through two unique and fun programs, Leaders in Training (13-15) and Counselors in Training (15-17). Under the direction and support from the Teen Mentor, Teen Leaders participate in camp activities, at a leader level, learning both advanced skills and how to teach and talk about skill development. Teen Leaders will learn to be role models to younger campers, lead games and songs, and complete a service project with their peers while journaling about their experience. Being a Teen Leader can be a transformational journey that takes teens to the next level of their leadership development.

This program takes place at all camp locations!