It’s that time of year when we celebrate the great success of our summer camp. Westside’s Wizarding World, Camp of Fantasy and Fun, was well-attended and was a great deal of fun! There are many people to thank for their time, talents, and efforts.
First of all, Cindy Arnold is the mastermind behind camp, and we owe a whole lot of heartfelt gratitude to her for the vision and organization that makes camp possible in the first place. Even after learning a few months prior that she wouldn’t be able to be at camp, she still did all of the legwork to get everything ready and in place for camp, from the schedule, to the guests, to the classes, to set up. She took care of everything and prepped so well, it’s like camp almost ran itself.
Well, ok, not really. It took a lot of work from a lot of people. Our core group that did the day in, day out for camp are basically our Religious Exploration Committee and teachers. Linda Chavez, Beth Sandidge, Laura Wallace, and Grechen Wingerter were there the whole week keeping things moving, corralling the campers, and generally making sure everything that needed to be done got done.
We had amazing help in the form of classes from Anne Harvey, who lead the campers in making slime, and Christina and Andy Gault who prepared the t-shirts for tie-dying and helped the campers create absolutely beautiful camp shirts. Beth Kurtz joined the crew on Friday to help with cookie baking and everything else that day.
So many thanks go to the helpers who came for a few hours or the day to be an extra hand when needed. While you can never exactly predict when you’re going to need the help, you can be sure that the help will be needed! Priscilla Blanton, Celestial Baumann, Carol Coffey, Ellen Greenwood, Yetta Jager, and Judy Winchester each provided the support we needed at some point during camp.
This year’s Prefects (youth camp counselors) were awesome as well. Andrew, Chloe, Joey, Megan, Quinn, and Travis were there all week working with their houses, refereeing Quidditch, assisting with classes and projects, and just being awesome big buddies to the campers. That group of youth are certainly something to be proud of; they represented Westside superbly!
We’ve already got plans in the work for next year’s camp and hope to expand our offerings again. I’ll certainly be calling on you next year to come enjoy camp and lend a hand. It’s really a great time—Westside knows how to throw a party, and camp is basically a weeklong festival that celebrates our principles and the spirit of Westside. It’s wildly popular and is a great outreach that we do for our community. Come be a part of it and make it even more awesome next year!