This Saturday the Tour de OC bike-a-thon event at Vanguard University hopes to raise more than $35,000 to send children from abusive situations to the camp.
Howell went to Royal Family Kids Camp when it opened in 1985.
“It basically gave me a better perspective on life — that life wasn’t full of troubles, that life is actually fun and worth living,” Howell, 31, said. “I am not out there robbing banks because I am confident in who I am. I don’t have to join a gang to feel accepted because Royal Family Kids Camp accepted me for who I am.”
Howell, along with his brother Mark, were put into the foster care system when Howell was 4, he said. He and his brother were eventually adopted but ended up in different homes.
They would see each other occasionally on weekends, but the week at camp was their best opportunity to spend quality time, Howell said.
Howell said he was a troubled youth, often unaware of the harm or discomfort he caused others.
He sucked his thumb, had buck teeth and was often teased by other children.
But at Royal Family Kids Camp, he could fit in.
“I felt very much a part of it because the other kids there had a lot of the same issues and problems,” Howell said. “They were taken away from their birth parents, and I thought ‘These other kids are just like me.’”
For every two children at the camp there is one counselor giving them a unique personal experience.
“Let’s remember the name in this is family — abused children, what they lose is family,” said Dave Brooks, a Newport-Mesa Unified school board member and co-founder of Royal Family Kids Camp. “This meets the needs of these kids.”
Brooks was Howell’s counselor in 1990 — his last year attending the camp.
