| Thomas's Experience: Barefoot Republic Camp began as a vision in 1991. During that summer, Tommy Rhodes, the founder of Barefoot, served as a 19-year-old camp counselor at Camp Mac outside of Birmingham, AL. Over the three months of camp, Tommy witnessed for the first time how God could use his life to impact the lives of others. Tommy left that summer with a God-sized dream and burden to provide similar opportunities to youth like himself who could not afford similar experiences.Upon completing his undergraduate degrees at Belmont University, Tommy was accepted to Vanderbilt University's Ph.D. program in Biomedical Science. Although Tommy had never forgotten his calling to camp ministry, he felt that he would first have to attain significant status and wealth to launch the vision. However, during his third year of the program, Tommy shared with his wife, Lane, that God had revealed now was the time. After much prayer and due diligence, they discovered a stunning 70-acre farm on a 20,000-acre lake outside Scottsville, Ky. Tommy felt led to leave his Ph.D. program and sell his baseball card collection to secure the land and initiate Barefoot Republic Camp.Barefoot Republic seeks to celebrate diversity and build unity through a diverse platform of artistic, athletic, and action adventure programs. To date, Barefoot has been able to provide twelve summers of camp programming. Initially, due to the nature of Barefoot's mission and the lack of initial capital, the Board of Directors felt it crucial to demonstrate the impact of Barefoot's ministry through hosting camp at local retreat centers and universities. Through God's affirmation of Barefoot's vision, with over 9,200 campers, 1,800 volunteers and a dramatic increase in financial support since our formation in 2000, the first permanent Barefoot Republic Camp was established in 2009. We praise God for this pivotal step, which provides tremendous encouragement and ensures Barefoot's future for years to come. |
