Taylor Shelley, promoted to Lake Martin operations director in January 2025, has been on staff for just under four years, but Children’s Harbor has always been a special part of her life. Follow her journey from childhood to college to the heart of the Children’s Harbor mission:
Sharing her time: Taylor says she grew up knowing about Children’s Harbor from the many weekends she spent with family on Lake Martin. So when she was a student at Auburn University and heard about the Bruce Pearl golf tournament benefiting Children’s Harbor, she wrote the coach a letter asking to volunteer at the event. That year she helped out during the reception the night before the tournament and met Vicki Tuggle, who is now her boss. Taylor says the experience got her “hooked on Children’s Harbor,” and she continued to volunteer throughout college.
Classroom to camp: Taylor profiled Children’s Harbor for a college project about nonprofit organizations. “By the time my college career was coming to an end, I realized that Children’s Harbor was the place I wanted to work at forever,” she says. She kept in touch with Vicki, who asked her during the summer of 2021 about interviewing for a job. Taylor joined the staff two weeks later. She served as Lake Martin operations coordinator and operations manager before her recent promotion.
Every day is different: Taylor works year-round, spending winter months preparing for the next camp season. That involves everything from scheduling camps to updating manuals and sending grant applications to camp partners, as well as meeting with camp directors and partner organizations and arranging volunteer orientations. The rest of the year, Taylor is out and about on the Lake Martin campus working “to make our camps’ experience the best it can be.” She ensures that everything is ready for camps, assists with setup and check-ins, and works with volunteers and interns, among other tasks. Summer is “magical,” Taylor says.“It is the time where I see God’s glory on display the most, the reason behind our mission, and the time we see joy across the faces of the children and families we serve.”
Unique atmosphere: Taylor describes the Lake Martin campus as “a blank slate” allowing each camp to individualize the space with its own theme and decorations to create a special experience for campers. She also praises the Children’s Harbor team for ensuring the campus is accessible to every child and family, from designing accommodations and play areas that welcome wheelchairs to having medical supplies—and even extra hearing aid batteries—on hand. “Every family we serve has different needs, and we’ve tried to make sure whatever it is they need, we have it,” Taylor says. “For many of them, this is their only time to take a vacation and get away from the hospital setting. To have such a beautiful place for them to relax is invaluable.”
“It is truly a blessing being a part of something as great as Children’s Harbor and being able to see the difference we are making for the children and families we serve every day.”
—Taylor Shelley
Edited by Charles Buchanan
