In the 10-plus years I have known John Annoni, a recently retired elementary school teacher from Allentown, Penn., my first impression of him has only solidified.
I first contacted him for a feature for America’s 1st Freedom. After that series of conversations, I went to Allentown to see the afterschool program he founded in 1994 called Camp Compass Academy.
I first met him as his elementary school was letting its students out to waiting buses. John grabbed my hand and I met his open eyes and genuine smile. He had a warmth that drew people to him. Students were surrounding him in the halls and following him. Some had questions, but most just wanted to be around him. I met many of his then current students—these little kids actually shook my hand and looked me in the eyes—before we went a few blocks away to his academy. John did begin this program in the school, but he was told by school officials to either stop using gun-training and hunting to help kids or to get the program out of the school.
He said he couldn’t drop what helped him most when he was a kid evading gangs, so he found a nearby carpet store with an open top floor and an owner who also looked into John’s open eyes and smile and saw something good.
On my visit, I asked to meet some of his former students. I wanted to meet adults—the program had by then been ongoing for nearly two decades—so I could gauge its longtime impact. I ended up in a series of meetings with young adults who all told me the same thing: that if it wasn’t for John’s Camp Compass they’d probably be dead or in jail like so many of their childhood friends.
I participated in the class and saw that, by using the gun culture NRA members know so well, he was teaching kids individual responsibility, accountability, a willingness to put off instant gratification in the pursuit of substantive goals and more.
In this video interview with us, John talks about his methodology and how he is now working to bring Camp Compass to other neighborhoods throughout the country.
Along his journey to save and help our nation’s under-privileged youth, the NRA noticed and began giving his nonprofit grant money. On he went.
Last June, John Annoni retired from the elementary school, but he is hardly done. You can find out more at campcompass.com.
