All year long I suffer in a school that just doesn't care about or get vegetarians or the animals we care about. Not only do students tease us vegetarians, but teachers do too sometimes. Then it gets even worse when the health teacher tries to tell us that children need meat for growing. I don't want to cause problems, but I don't want to sit there quietly either. It is very frustrating being one of a couple of vegetarians in a school of hundreds of kids. As bad as it can be at school it is that much better during the summer. The director of my summer camp is a vegan and he only serves vegan food at camp. I love not having to ask what's in the food and knowing that I can trust it and eat it. And even though not all the campers or counselors at camp are vegetarians, I love that at this camp it is considered acceptable and even normal - and even a really good thing to be a vegetarian.

I started going to the day camp here in Los Angeles a few years ago. My older brother went before me, and my sister goes with me, too. The camp is a very small camp which I really like. There are only 12 campers in a group and there are three counselors with us. The camp director, Andy, is one of the counselors. Our whole group gets in a van to go on trips each day. Besides being a vegan, Andy is a really conscious teacher who teaches us about a lot of other things too. His camp van does not even use gasoline. That is so cool. Even the camp's website printed on the side of the van makes it clear what this camp is all about, www.KidsMakeADifference.org.

So we go on trips each day. Every Monday we go hiking and get out to enjoy nature. We also do some things to help make the trails better. On Tuesday we go to amusement parks. I'm not sure if I like the hiking or the amusement parks better since I love them both so much. On Wednesday we go to the beach. We have a lot of fun there, and then we put on gloves to clean up the beach, and we fill out forms to report to the government about the condition of the beach. On Thursday we stay at camp and play fun games together. We swim in the pool. We do some creative project. We also spend a little time at the retirement house and play games and talk and sing with the older people there. I like that a lot since my grandparents live so far away. On Friday we do other special trips like skating or museums or laser tag or other fun stuff. My favorite Friday trip was when we went to a blueberry farm and picked blueberries. We had blueberry fun, throwing them at each other and getting all messy. Andy warned us in advance to bring old clothes. He also wouldn't let us call it blueberry wars and instead called it blueberry fun. I like the way he does things like that. Sometimes we play with water squirters - not water guns - and we have water fun instead of water fights. This camp is so much fun and I learn so much and I am so glad to be in a place that helps us be good people. And the food that Andy gives us is always vegan. We have great snacks each day like fruit popsicles, watermelon, chips and salsa, and other stuff like that.

At the overnight camps, the food is even better. At day camp, everybody brings their own lunches, and we eat breakfast and dinner at home. At overnight camp, we get to help make breakfast, lunch, and dinner together.

One of the overnight camps is a week hiking trip. We stay in tents and do a lot of hiking. We make our dinners at the campfire. We have barbequed corn and corn dogs and veggie dogs and veggie burgers and chili and other stuff like that. We also make rice and roll our own sushi. I love that the most. My brother loves making falafel the most. My sister loves the spaghetti and garlic bread. Another overnight camp I went to was during Christmas vacation. We go to the snow and ski or snowboard. We stay in a cabin that has a kitchen where we can make other great veggie meals. And I love getting to play in the snow and have snow much fun. : )

Everything we do at these camps is always fun. The best part is being able to eat without having to hide and without being teased. The food at Camp Exploration is so yummy and always totally vegetarian. Jen who was a counselor I really liked decided during the summer to become vegetarian. Other kids have done that, too. I love Andy's camps and I can't wait for summer for the fun and for the food and for the friends.

--Dee is in 9th grade and stopped eating meat at six. She's now vegan, and her favorite thing about being vegetarian is that she is not making animals suffer by what she eats and wears. Andy, the director of this summer camp, is one of her veg role models along with Ghandi.