“It's going to be a New York institution one day,” Bermudian founder of the GOTO Group, Cameron Snaith, promised recently.

And the board members sitting with him when he made that statement all nodded in agreement, such is their determination to take the two-and-half year-old charity to great heights.

While in Bermuda over the Bermuda Day weekend the five board members had a meeting to discuss the direction GOTO wants to go. The 20-somethings could have been on the beach or hanging out that Saturday afternoon but they sat down instead to talk important business.

Snaith was 23 when he founded the non-profit charity in January 2001. GOTO (Giving Opportunities to Others) raises both money and philanthropic awareness by utilising the energy and resources of New York's young professional community to expose underprivileged youth to art and music.

In 2002 enough money was raised to support eight Bronx sixth-graders at Appel Farm Arts and Music Camp in Elmer, New Jersey and next month the number of youngsters going to the camp will double to 16. The vision of the group is to raise enough funds to be able to send 24 to the camp next year and then capping off at 30 in 2005.

“We have 16 going to the camp in July and that is a major milestone,” said the GOTO chairman who was in Bermuda recently with his board members Jason Liddell (president), Danny Salmon (vice president), Dana Deluce (secretary) and Steve Moeller (treasurer).

“Our plan is to send eight, 16, 24 and 30 and then I want to keep it level at 30. Each student we send is given the option to attend for three years, six of the eight who went last year are going again this year.”

It helps that members of the board knew each other before GOTO was formed and that they have a similar vision for the charity.

“It's worth noting that Jay (Jason), Danny and I all went to high school (Trinity College School in Ontario) together and Jay, Danny, Steve and myself all went to college together at Princeton,” said the Bermudian.

“Dana is also from Canada and I met her through friends at TCS, so we've all known each other over ten years.”

The trip to Bermuda was described as a ‘board retreat' by the chairman, an opportunity to have uninterrupted time together.

“Usually when we are in New York we all have our day jobs and when we spend time on GOTO we are doing things that are time sensitive. If we have a fundraiser coming up we need to put together a marketing campaign and have to put our efforts into that.

“We are always looking to the next two or three weeks, but while we are in Bermuda we want to look for the next two or three years, and also to get the chance to look at what we've done in the past year and how we can improve on it in the next year.”

While here they also discussed “an amazing opportunity given to us by a big foundation in the States”.

“But we're not allowed to discuss what foundation it is,” said Snaith.

“It's not so much a financial opportunity, but a marketing opportunity, a national opportunity, which is big for us.”

The group has considered expanding to other parts of the States and even Canada, but for the time being are concentrating on New York.

“Right now we have our own issues to deal with in New York, said Salmon, the vice president.

“We're still growing on our own in New York and before we even think about expanding beyond that we need to develop our own chapter. When we started this a little over two years ago I never would have believed we could be at this stage at this point... the number of people we have involved, the number of kids we are sending to camp and the number of people in New York who know about us now. It's fantastic.

“This was ‘Cam's' idea to start with and when he first came to me it was a rough idea and we didn't really know what we could do or were going to do. Where we are today, when I stop and think about it every once and a while, is impressive and we're very happy about it.”

The charity has over 50 members serving on various committees, including another Bermudian, Britten West, who is very active in various committees. The members are all in their 20s.

“He's been involved with GOTO since I started it, and comes to every meeting,” said Snaith of his fellow Bermudian.

“We are all still going to be very involved in GOTO in the long term future, but it is always going to be a charity for young people,” the chairman promised.

Said president Jason Liddell: “The other half of our mission is to promote philanthropy among young adults and that is something we even try to do with fundraisers and through volunteer opportunities. We try to get them to better themselves and realise philanthropy is important.

“Going forward, our involvement in GOTO, as Cameron said, is going to be a little less hands-on. I feel it is important to keep our leadership young and to give them the experience of running an organisation like ours.”

Snaith said he sought to help youngsters with interest in art and music because of his own strong music background.

“I saw first hand the way art and music can open kids up,” he said. “They express themselves a lot easier through art and that's what we saw at Appel Farm the first time we went to the camp. Some kids may not look like they fit in but they are all getting along and the music and the art brought them together.”

Snaith pointed to one 12 year old who has noticeably become more confident.

“Shadae (Lawson) has come out of her shell,” he says.

“Shadae's mom asked if Shadae would be able to bring a cellphone (to the camp), because she needs to talk to me all the time, she is very shy. The next time we saw her she was on the bus, very quiet and very reserved and hardly smiled.

“When I saw her in pictures at Appel Farm she was smiling and happy. At the next information session in the Bronx she was outgoing, we were taking pictures with her and there was a marked difference between the first information session before she went to the camp and the second one.

The camp is about two hours away from New York, but for most of the teenagers it is like a world away.

“So many of the kids haven't had the chance to get outside the city itself for any extended period of time,” said Salmon.

“So it's not just necessarily about opening them up to art and music, it's giving them a week or two away from their family outside of the urban area.”

Liddell also saw a big change in another youngster, Omar Williams, who also attended the first camp. “He had trouble making friends and is a bird watcher, so the scholarship committee thought ‘lets take a chance on Omar, he's not a superstar but has a lot of potential',” said Liddell. “When we saw Omar recently he had made a whole bunch of friends and his father came up to me afterwards and said he's doing better in school and couldn't thank us enough for the camp experience.

“That's the proudest I have every been of GOTO. It's amazing to hear that from the parents who know the kids better than anybody else. He had nothing but great things to say about Omar and he attributed it to his experience at camp the summer before and the new friends he had been able to make.”

It costs about $3,000 to send each child to the four-week camp and when the 30 mark is reach the cost overall could be in the region of $100,000.

“We have a special arrangement with the camp, so we get a below market rate,” said treasurer Steve Moeller.

“We looked at other camps as well but Appel Farm's rate is very competitive. This year with 16 kids in camp at $3,000 each and plus a few other expenses here and there, it is around $50,000.

“We have aggressive growth targets and next year it will be more, about $75,000 for 24 kids with tuition and other expenses. By the time we get to 30 kids our budget will be above $100,000.

“About half our money comes from events and we have four events a year. We reach out to our personal contacts to ask them to support the cause. More than 50 per cent of the budget comes from people giving, including people on the board and the committees who give financially as well as their time.

“This year it (the goal) was ambitious and we made and next year it will be ambitious, too, and we'll make it!”

Said GOTO's founder: “One thing worth noting is none of our volunteers are paid and neither are we. And this trip wasn't paid by GOTO. That helps us a lot in generating enthusiasm, when people see us spending all this time working for GOTO.

“We're not doing it for money, we're doing it because we believe in the organisation and we believe in the kids. That inspires people to help us.”

GOTO's chairman, president and treasurer all live together in New York so their apartment serves as GOTO's office. Salmon and Deluce also live close by in Manhattan.

“Some of our committees meet at odd hours, the meeting won't start until close to 10 o'clock at night or something, so people are able to volunteer and give something to the organisation despite the fact that they have a very demanding work schedule,” said Moeller.

Deluce, the only female board member, is happy to donate her time to something positive.

“I knew ‘Cam' from high school and moved here from Toronto about three years and ‘Cam' and I reconnected,” she stated. “At that point I was introduced to these other three and shortly after that ‘Cam' asked me to join the board and it took off from there. This summer we will start a push to attract new volunteers.”

GOTO is planning a conference on philanthropy for young professionals for October 4.

“There are people who don't necessarily do a lot of non-profit or philanthropy kinds of things,” said Moeller. “Why is it that they don't do more? Do they have enough time, enough money and that is what the conference aims to discuss.”