July 1-11, 2012

The past week has been a whirlwind of activity here at Camp Magruder. We started the week off with Creation Vacation Western Washington County. This is an event that low income families apply to participate in their local communities. We'll host a couple more of these events this summer (one from Salem, one from Dallas, and one day trip from a women's shelter in Portland). Funds are raised via grant writing and donations allowing families to come to a three day vacation on the coast. For most of the participants this will be their only vacation for the year. All who come are happy to be here and take advantage of all the programs camp staff offer. Highlights from this event included the annual salsa making competition, bingo, and anything involving waterfront or crafts.



The second part of last week was our annual 4th of July Family Camp. Some families have been coming to this event for years and now have multiple generations in attendance. We started off their time with a campfire and fireworks down on the beach. The city of Rockaway put on a firework show that you can see from the beach at camp. Families enjoyed time together in the beautiful weather. Big favorites were the giant swing, waterfront activities, crafts with Mari in the boathouse, donkey care, campfire, and wave jumping which included a family sand castle contest. 4th of July Family Camp ended with a worship service and lots of happy campers.




Over the weekend we hosted a group from Portland State University. These students have applied to be mentors to international students for the coming school year and were on retreat to learn the necessary leadership skills they'd need. They spent some time on Sunday morning in small groups participating on our challenge course.




This week we host our biggest event of the year. We've got 289 (mostly young women) from the LDS Vancouver East Stake on site. Every bed and then some are full in camp. We've got every table in the dining hall set up including 8 more tables in Chappell Hall to fit all our guests for meals. The campers have participated in themed days like crazy hair, color day, and ugly sweater day. Girls have helped our staff with service projects, hiked, played on the big swing, gone boating and swimming, tie-dyed, and have been a pleasure working with.

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