TAMPA, Fla. — Launched in 2020 during the pandemic, Camp Doublemint is a lifeline for community families. Recently, the team celebrated moving into a new facility with more rooms to care for children; 90 days is all they lasted.
As the winds of Hurricane Helene tore through Tampa, the roof of one of the buildings at the CRES Community Leadership Center ripped off. The gust also cracked the steeple in half, sending it crashing downtown to the sidewalk below.
With the roof exposed, rainwater flooded all three rooms at CAMP Doublemint.
“July 1st, we opened the doors to our new camp, sorry,”"Co-owner and founder Synthia Fairman said, fighting back tears. "So, we had 75 operating days, and unfortunately, Hurricane Milton won, and the roof fell off, flooded the second floor, and flooded everything.”
Fairman and her best friend and business partner, Gabi Rosello, salvaged whatever they could, but the space had to be gutted.
“We are telling kids that camp is sick,” Fairman said.
Fairman and Rosello could have given up, but they pivoted and secured a location at The Spiral Staircase in Tampa.
"We have to be strong for the kids because we can't let them see us sad. So we will always figure it out. We have such an amazing group of people helping us. But suppose it was not for our friends here at The Spiral Staircase. In that case, I don't know what we would be doing,” Fairman said.
She continued, “because a lot of the kids that are coming through our doors right now have also lost everything, so seeing them excited to play with a dinosaur toy just gives us hope that if the kids are excited, we have something to be excited about too.”
“How does that make you feel, knowing they have nowhere to go except you guys offered them this?" Paluska asked Kate Hardiman, the Social Media Manager and a founding member of The Spiral Staircase.
“Being a part of that is great. Because, you know, so many times when something like a hurricane happens, you want to help, but you don't know how you can help. And this is a way that you can help right away like we are helping families, women, and the community,” Hardiman said.
“How are you holding up?”Paluska asked Rosello. “You just lost everything you've worked so hard for in an instant.”
“If you had asked me three days ago, I probably would have cried,” Rosello said.
“We plan to essentially just do what we can,” Rosello said. “We'll pop in, promote all of that, and post where we are. A lot of our sitters have all started coming back. They all started getting power restored. We'll be able to put those girls back out to the team and start providing in-home sitting services, or in-hotel sitting services, or kind of just whatever families are needing right now.”
If you would like to support Camp Doublemint, they are accepting donations on Venmo @doublemint-sitting
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