Backyard Mission Trip Families Grow and Serve Together

Bradford Woods BYMT

The Upchurch family is an integral part of the Victory Lane Camp community. Their family has attended three camps as a Victory family, mother Dara Upchurch serves on the events and programming pit crews, and Victory kid Caden is well-known in VLC’s community for his winning smile and personality.

The Cash family is also a vital part of the VLC community. Carmen and Scott are good friend with Brett and Paige Fischer, VLC’s founders, and helped with the first Pace Lap Camp.

Both of these families served as Backyard Mission Trip families at the most recent camp session. This camp took place at Bradford Woods in Martinsville and included several Victory families and Backyard Mission Trip families.

“Victory Lane Camp is in our heart,” said Dara. “Our family loves helping and being a part of things. We took it on, and it went great.”
The Upchurch family was paired with the Coomer family. The two families knew each other beforehand, but the bonds developed while at camp led to deep friendships, especially between Dara’s son Hunter and Alyse, a Victory kid (the two are pictured in the above photo on the right).

“Alyse kept smiling whenever Hunter was around. He wanted to help her and help me. One of my favorite memories was watching Alyse on the zip line. That might have been overwhelming for a three-year-old, but she took it all in stride and loved it,” described Dara. “We formed connections, which was what we were looking for and what it’s all about. We’re going to the next camp, and we’re already looking forward to that.”

The Cash family wants to be sure that their kids grow up without an entitlement mentality. “It’s so easy to get caught up in being all about ourselves, so the best remedy for us was serving as a mission family.”

Two of the Cashes’ sons, Grant and Luke, found friendships to be an important part of their experience. Grant said, “I liked getting to meet all the new kids.” Luke made a new friend, Will (Will and Carmen are pictured in the photo above on the left).

“My favorite memories were watching my children and the Victory kids bond together because of all the quality time spent together in groups,” noted Carmen. “Camp truly brings you together because many distractions are eliminated.”

The Cash home continues to be filled with the sweet sounds of the kids singing camp songs they learned at VLC. Their 7-year-old son, Caleb, pulled out his guitar because he is determined to play around the campfire next year.

Learn more about becoming a Backyard Missions Trip Family.