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Your Fire Project = Power to the She by Maddie Holste

June 13, 2016 by Sunni Markowitz Leave a Comment

Your Fire ProjectI have always wondered why younger girls could never seem to get along. The hallmark word for it is drama, and we all know that middle school girls usually have more than their fair share of it. The root of this issue has always been a mystery to me until one phone call changed it all.

I was feeling really down one day, so my mom offered to call my friend’s mom for me, who was a life coach. She always had something about her that was so inspiring and full of fire. I ended the phone call with my entire mindset flipped upside down, and soon after, I realized that the something that made her so inspiring was special. I wondered who else had it, if I had it, and where to get it!

I coined a term for this quality, and I like to call it one’s fire. I developed the theory that everyone has a fire inside of them, some big and some small. Their fires represent how much they value, know, and love themselves.

So, to answer the million dollar question of why girls can never get along?

It’s honestly because our fires are often dangerously low. With so many standards and so little time to get to know ourselves, we never get a chance to build our fire. There are countless people that live their lives with extinguishers on hand because fire is scary! Knowing yourself is scary, but it doesn’t have to be.

The solution is simple: look inside yourself.

Know yourself before you attempt to understand others. Love yourself before anything else. This is the message I am trying to spread, and I hope it spreads like wildfire.

The minute I thought of this idea, my mind immediately wandered to my favorite place on earth, Camp Lantern Creek. Their core message is self-love and confidence, and I freaked out when I realized that their logo is a fire. It was meant to be.

Your Fire Project

I immediately contacted Piper, and we got right to developing Your Fire Project. We were going to make this happen. My first step was to create an Instagram. My account is called @yourfireproject, and people are welcomed and encouraged to send in photos of themselves holding up signs with words that describe their fires.

This year at camp, I am beginning the leadership program, and I am so excited to bring this Your Fire Project to the table. I am working to set up activities mainly for the children starting middle school to discover their fires. Some activities include making fire T-shirts and conducting smell/touch/taste tests to practice their instinct skills.

I continue to go to Camp Lantern Creek because it is truly an accepting place filled with people that will kindly take in my crazy ideas, like this one. I feel honored to be a part of the CLC family, and I hope to spread the flame all the way to far away places. If you would like to become a part of the movement, follow @yourfireproject on Instagram.

Maddie Holste will be a freshman next year and starting our leadership program this summer at Camp Lantern Creek. This will be her 5th year at camp.

Filed Under: Good Vibes Tagged With: @YourFireProject, Camp Lantern Creek, empowerment, girl empowerment, Look inside yourself, middle school girls, your fire

About Sunni Markowitz

Whether as a community leader and volunteer, academic researcher or mother, Sunni's career has been defined by a singular commitment to children. She has been an avid fundraiser, community advocate and board member for a wide range of organizations including Hadassah, a Jewish woman's organization that assists with the development of two hospitals in Israel, the Brain Injury Association of Texas, Jewish Family Service Houston and the Girl Scouts of America, and the Shlenker School. Sunni currently sits on the board of The Emery Weiner School.

Before her work as a volunteer and community leader, Sunni advocated for many special needs children and worked as a researcher and education liaison at The Institute of Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR) and the University of Texas Medical School. As part of a brain injury study, she advocated for more than 300 children ages 6-16, assisting in their return to school after injury and helping develop a questionnaire for the diagnosis of Mild Brain Injury Syndrome. While pursuing her M.Ed. at the University of Houston, she worked on a research project examining reading curriculum in elementary schools. Prior to that she was a preschool teacher at the Becker Early Childhood Center, earned her B.S. in Child Psychology from the University of Colorado, and also lead a youth pilgrimage to Israel with 72 16-and 17-year-olds.

The summer camp tradition is strong with Sunni, she attended camp for 14 years as a camper, CIT, Junior Counselor and assisted with the Water Front Department at her beloved camp. For Sunni, the establishment of Lantern Creek, which she opened in 2011, allows her to combine her strengths as a children's advocate and educator with her background as community leader and strong connections in Houston to bring a new vision of summer camping to Texas children. Sunni's vision of inspiring young women and girls to be confident independent young leaders to help make our world a better place!

Camp Name: Piper-given to her by friends as she seems to be a "Pied Piper"!
Favorite Movie: Steel Magnolias!
Favorite Book: "Pride and Prejudice"
Favorite Quote: "Say what you mean and mean what you say!"
Email: sunni@camplanterncreek.com

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