When Albert Lea resident Pat Mulso was a child, she had an experience she said she will never forget.

Her father had heart trouble and was off work a lot, so her family, which lived in Ohio at the time, never had much extra money.

One summer she was sponsored by the National TTT Society, a nonprofit philanthropic organization, to attend a summer camp that lasted two weeks.

That camp changed her life.

Now, years later, women who are part of a local chapter of the National TTT Society — the three Ts stand for time, talent and treasures — are raising money to send five area girls to camp next summer. They are hoping for as much of a life-changing experience for these girls as what Mulso had as a child.

They will host a Belgian waffle breakfast fundraiser from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday at First Lutheran Church.

“It’s one of the organizations that does good, but it doesn’t get a lot of publicity,” Mulso said. “It does it for the betterment of the community, but a lot of people don’t know about it.”

Before the camp began, Mulso said she and her sponsor went to a department store to buy new clothes and a pair of shoes for the whole week, plus a dress and a pair of dress shoes.

“It was really something because for one thing, I never had two pairs of new shoes at the same time,” she said.

At camp, she learned practical skills, such as swimming, but she also learned how to build her self-confidence and to make new friends.

“It was really an experience I will never forget,” she said.

Girls sponsored in more recent years have had similar experiences.

Longtime TTT Society member Hazel Senske said Albert Lea’s original chapter of the organization began in 1963. As many of the members in the group got older, the chapter disbanded, and another chapter started.

Now, there are right around 20 women in the Albert Lea area who participate.

Chapter President Pat Palmer said girls are chosen to go to camp through school social workers who recommend who would be good candidates for a camp experience. All of the girls who go have finished their fourth-grade year and are going into fifth grade.

The local chapter each summer sends five girls to Camp Tanglefoot in Clear Lake, Iowa, a Girl Scout Camp. Palmer said the girls automatically get enrolled in Girl Scouts by going to the camp if they choose to participate in that afterward.

The organization buys the girls everything they would need for camp, including clothes, sleeping bags, pillows, toiletries, a notebook for journaling, among other items. She estimated they spend about $350 for each girl.

The national organization takes care of the camp fees.

“I think a lot of them take away a really nice experience,” Palmer said. “They learn things they wouldn’t normally learn and meet other girls outside of their comfort zone.”

Many of the girls have never been away from home for that long.

The National TTT Society has been in existence for 100 years.

 

If you go

What: Dad’s Belgian waffles fundraiser

When: 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: First Lutheran Church, 301 W. Clark St.

How much: $6 per person, children 5 and under eat free