All that 12-year-old Lauren wanted in early summer 1999 was to go home to Dresher.

It was her first year at Camp Ramah, a Jewish summer camp in the Poconos. “I cried every night because I was homesick,” she said.

Sticking it out changed Lauren’s life – and Matt’s. But that would take a while.

That summer Matt, who is from Wilmington, was an 18-year-old, second-year counselor.

As fall approached, Lauren’s homesickness was replaced with new friendships that brought her back each year through 2002. Matt remained a counselor all that time, but they have no specific memories of each other from those days…

Read more of Matt and Lauren’s story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.