Reading Camp Update
Preparations are well underway for Reading camp 2023. You may have seen the picture Melinda posted on our Facebook page, showing me with Chris+, wielding what looks like a serious club. Rest assured – no vegetables were harmed in this incident (and Chris+ also remained unharmed!). If you haven’t been to our Facebook page, find us at “WV Reading Camp Saint Johns Charleston” and ‘Like’ our page. That clublike thing, my friends, is a gourd, obtained (along with some vegetable friends) by Jeannine Boothe. It is a gourd of the type used to fashion drinking gourds (free dipper for water) back in the days of slavery. It is much larger than any of those I had previously seen, but I guess a lot of water was necessary in the intense heat of the plantations. Our camp theme is “Follow the Drinking Gourd” – learning about using the stars to navigate at nights while escaping from slavery.
What, you may ask, can you do to assist us in this very worthwhile effort? We especially need people who are able to assist with transportation that week – the week starting July 17. Your duties in this regard would involve picking up campers from their residences around 8 a.m. and dropping them off at St Johns in the morning and then collecting them at 4:30 in the evenings to return them from whence they came. If you are not available or able to perform both pick up and drop off activities, we will be happy to accept your help on an either/or/both basis. These children mostly reside in families with no car and it is very important that we make it easy for them to attend. The camp is offered at no cost and they receive breakfast and lunch while at camp. If you do serve as a volunteer, you will receive one of the tee shirts so generously designed for us as a donation to reading camp by well-known local artist Colleen Anderson. Many of our campers suffer from food insecurity – I often say that difficulty reading is the least of their problems! “Whatever you do to the least of these, you do it unto Me”
If you don’t see yourself as a driver, but would like to help, we always need backpacks, pencils, pens and notebooks which can help our campers get off to a great start next school year. These can be brought to church or handed in at the office. For questions, please contact one of our three co-directors, Jeannine Booth, Melinda DiCarlo, and Margaret Lieberman through the Church Office.
