Lexi White and Darlene Jones have the same laugh, the same round cheeks that widen across their faces when they smile. They both fidget by twisting their fingers in their hair.
Lexi, 14, is the enthusiastic sister, talking fast about catching minnows in the camp lake and falling off a horse during a trail ride. Darlene, 18, is the quiet one, managing to get out about one sentence before Lexi starts chatting again.
The two girls didn’t know any of this about each other until last winter, when they reconnected after 13 years — thanks to a “people you may know” Facebook suggestion noticed by a friend of their deceased biological mother. They were split up in the foster care system when Lexi was an infant. One sister moved to New Mexico, while the other stayed in Colorado.
But this August, the sisters were trying to pack as much bonding as they could into a week of summer camp in the craggy mountains near Deckers, a tiny, fly-fishing haven along the South Platte River. For one week each summer, the YMCA camp up a hilly, dirt road in Douglas County becomes Camp to Belong, reuniting siblings split up by foster care.
“Dibs on the top bunk,” Lexi said as she stepped into their cabin. Two days later, they were still laughing about how a raccoon made itself comfortable on Darlene’s swim towel as the campers were trying to sleep, until a camp counselor scared the animal away by waving a flashlight and shouting. The girls went to a carnival for the first time, a traveling attraction with cotton candy and a dunk tank that set up on the hill above camp for one evening. They overdid it
on cinnamon rolls for breakfast in the mess hall...READ MORE
