NEW YORK — Nothing tricky about Run-DMC rapper Darryl McDaniels’ passion for transforming the lives of foster children.
For nearly two decades, the pioneering rapper from Queens has made it his mission to inspire, educate and entertain New York City kids in the foster care system through his nonprofit The Felix Organization, which hosts an annual summer camp devoted to giving kids formative experiences.
“Some of them never get to leave the neighborhood. Some of them never get to leave the block. What Camp Felix does is this: It shows the kids the beauty of the world that they live in,” McDaniels, 58, who uses the stage name DMC, told the Daily News on Wednesday ahead of a talent show for the camp.
“They get to see nature. They get to see trees. All the stuff they see in cartoons and in movies and on TV, they get to experience for themselves. ... But most importantly, what it does is put them in a community of others just like them so that they can realize they’re not alone.”
The organization’s flagship Camp Felix returned this month after not happening the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously held in New York's Putnam County, the camp moved this year to a new location in Sandyston, New Jersey, that offers experiences like kayaking and fishing.
The initiative is deeply personal for McDaniels, who was 35 when he learned he was adopted and had gone through the foster-care system.
“When I received that revelation, I felt like people in general do when they go through traumatic situations, but then I really related to the adopted and foster kids,” McDaniels recalled.
“I felt all alone. Why did my mother and father give me up? Did they like me? What’s wrong with me? It was all these why, why, why, why, why, whys? I got very depressed. I got suicidal. The revelation of my blessing was a very traumatic event.”
The rapper’s outlook changed after a friend introduced him to Hollywood casting director Sheila Jaffe, who was also adopted.
Their friendship showed McDaniels that he wasn’t alone in his experience, and the duo co-founded The Felix Organization in 2006 to share that same message with children.
“We came up with the idea to do Camp Felix so that we could let all the children in the foster care situation know, ‘Your situation does not define who you are.’ ... We started Camp Felix to show the kids they’re not alone,” McDaniels said.
Camp Felix serves 175 to 200 kids each year and includes programs like bringing in doctors, entertainers and lawyers to inspire possible career choices for the kids.
McDaniels was a founding member of Run-DMC, which started in Queens and is known for hits like “Walk This Way” and “It’s Tricky.” The hip-hop group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
This year’s Camp Felix is three weeks long and runs through Aug. 26. McDaniels’ organization also sponsors weekly camps for members of the LGBTQ community and for teenage boys in foster care, and has launched camps in Los Angeles and Connecticut as well.
Camp Felix serves kids ages 6 to 16, but offers older campers the chance to return as counselors. McDaniels says he’s proud that many kids in the program go to college.
“A lot of these children from the foster care system ... change their major to be social workers, lawyers and judges,” McDaniels said. “We go, ‘Why did you change your major?’ They say, ‘So I can go back and work in the system that I came out of.’ These children are so concerned, and caring, and worried about all the children going through the very same foster-care system that they made it out of.”
McDaniels says anyone can help the cause by offering mentorship to children in need.
“Sometimes, in addition to not being adopted and fostered, all these children need is once or twice a week, call that kid up,” McDaniels said. “[Ask them], ‘Is there anything you need to talk about? You can tell me anything.’ ”
———
