OUR HISTORY

C5 was founded by John Alm in 1999 while he worked as the CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises.   John saw the impact summer camp on his own children’s lives; helping them to develop interpersonal skills, confidence, and improved self-esteem.   As a result, he had a vision of developing a summer leadership camp for youth from the Los Angeles area who may not of had the resources to otherwise attend.  The first summer, he took 36 students who were recruited from the Los Angeles area schools for a five-week summer program at Paintrock Canyon in Wyoming.   With the support of Coca-Cola, many local and national sponsors, and an incredible board of dedicated individuals it has grown to four different locations around the country.

Today, our C5 program has four independent sites (C5 Georgia, C5 Los Angeles, C5 New England and C5 Texas), who combined serve more than 1,000 young leaders annually. Each of our four sites is managed by an executive director, is led by a board of prominent business and civic leaders, and is an independent 501(c) (3) organization while working together collaboratively to maintain program quality and provide mutual support through a national board.