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KID’S SUMMER CAMP

I’m Just a Kid, What Can I Do? Summer 2015

Photos from Marti Cermak

A delightful summary of camp activities from Marti Cermak, Youth Nurture Chair.

WOW!!! We had a wonderful turnout for our summer camp, I’m Just a Kid, What Can I Do?

We focused on how kids could be of? service, volunteer, raise money for?charities, and become more keenly ?aware of how fortunate they are. The? kids were encouraged to ring the?”Gratitude” bell whenever they felt ?grateful. We learned about several ?charitable organizations around the ?world that help people, animals and the ?environment. Chelsea from the Marin ?Humane Society came and taught us ?about dogs and all that MHS does to? help animals. We learned about PETA, ?the Marine Mammal Center, and? Wildcare, as well as charities Sausalito?Presbyterian supports: Tangible Hope in Ethiopia, Children’s AIDS Art Programme in South Africa, Bridge the Gap in Marin City, the Casa Hogar school in Leon, Mexico. We also learned about Habitat for Humanity, Ceres Community Project of Marin, and the Sierra Club. SPC member Arundhati Simmons shared her wonderful experience with the Ceres Community Project, where a master chef teaches high school kids about the importance of good food and how to prepare it and give it to people who are experiencing health challenges, like cancer treatment.

We had a marvelous team of camp counselors: Jean Patterson, Alison Deal, Diana Ferrone, and Miles Berg our Junior Counselor; and Heather Eff provided ALL of our food for three days-snacks, lunch, and beverages. Heather and her husband, Kent (who was definitely put to work making sandwiches and hauling everything perfectly packaged to camp on Monday morning), are rock stars for their generous contribution and efforts. None of this fun, three-day camp would have happened without these very loving and special SPC family members.

The lemonade and cookies are all gone, the checks are on their way to the five charities, the counselors have recovered from all of the joyful activity, and many photos will soon appear on the SPC website. And I am already thinking about next year’s theme. One of our sweet campers, when she was leaving on the last day, asked if we were having camp next summer because she said she wanted to come. Yea!

Love, Marti Cermak, Youth Chair

On Monday afternoon, the kids each made a fleece blanket for Project Linus, which will give them to kids in trauma or illness.

Tuesday morning, we made cookies, lemonade, signs for a lemonade stand, and prepared 60 handouts of Pray Every Day pencils with an SPC tag describing the kids’ camp mission. We set up our stand on Bridgeway at noon and by 1:45 PM our tired campers packed up and hiked up the Excelsior steps. We were thrilled to have raised $360, which the kids decided to give to five charities: the Ceres Community Project of Marin, PETA, Wildcare, Marine Mammal Center, and the Marin Humane Society.

Wednesday morning, the kids worked on SPC’s Community Lunch, a mission program that provides weekly meals to the hungry, homeless, and “anchor-outs” in Southern Marin. The kids did all of the set-up, made hand-decorated placemats for all of our guests, and helped serve the food. We all ate with our guests, and then we did all the clean-up. It was a big job!

At the end of our day, we went to Lappert’s Ice Cream for a treat and celebrated camper Alaia’s sixth birthday that day by singing Happy Birthday.