Mariah Carey Launched A Camp With The Fresh Air Fund, Introducing Youth To Robotics And Environmental Science Classes – AfroTech

Mariah Carey remains committed to a summer camp that provides middle school students with career support.

The Grammy Award-winning artist from New York had a difficult upbringing, moving around frequently and navigating family challenges, according to People. Music became her focus, and she launched her singing career at the age of 12. At the time, she didn’t have a role model in her day-to-day life whom she could look up to.

“I had to figure it out on my own. So I started working very young, I worked, I did background vocals … learned about the studio, really put the time in,” she explained, per People.

The Fresh Air Fund

As Carey’s career grew, she made it her mission to ensure that younger generations would have the representation she didn’t have in her career. So, she joined the board of The Fresh Air Fund, a New York-based nonprofit organization that helps low-income middle schoolers attend summer camp upstate and with host families, according to People.

In 1994, Carey raised more than $700,000 for the Fresh Air Fund during her holiday concert at Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Harlem, New York, Fresh Air Fund reports. At the time, this was the largest donation the nonprofit had received in at least three decades, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

What’s more, in 2024, Carey announced a $1.9 million raise for The Fresh Air Fund with the help of partners and donors during the organization’s spring benefit.

Camp Mariah

Thanks to her support of the Fresh Air Fund camps, Carey had a camp named in her honor, reports the Tampa Bay Times. Camp Mariah, launched in 1994, is a three-week career-awareness program for children ages 11 to 13, according to the camp’s website.

“It’s such a big thing for me because most of these kids have never been outside their own blocks,” Carey told People. “That’s why we keep doing it every year. I go up there and talk to the kids so they can learn about the different things they can do in life.”

At Camp Mariah, young people can participate in team sports and explore film, photography, fashion design, creative writing, dance, culinary arts, and robotics, as well as environmental science, notes the camp website.

The camp also offers career services, including resume and cover letter support and mock interviews, per its website.