PORT ANGELES — Not long after arriving at camp, artist Bob Stokes had to retreat to the woods and weep.
This was the Northwest Kiwanis Camp at Beausite Lake near Chimacum, where Stokes was volunteering.
He went to work with Kiwanis campers — children and adults with cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome and other disabilities — on art and craft projects.
The joyful way the campers approached their art was what got to him, Stokes said.
Volunteering at the camp, as he has done for the past three summers, gives him a fresh perspective.
“It takes me out of myself,” he said, “and whips me into shape.”
In need of funds
The nonprofit Northwest Kiwanis Camp itself, however, is not in great financial condition. Amid the economic meltdown, grants and donations have been drying up.
In hopes of keeping the program alive — perhaps even expanding it from four weeks to six — the camp’s supporters are striving to shore up local funding.
“We’re hitting hard times,” said Chris Wheeler, a former camp counselor who is now the program director.
“We’re looking at not having the camp” unless $40,000 can be raised by mid-May, when preparations for the July camp ramp up.
While the Kiwanis Club of Sequim established the camp in 1989, it depends on a variety of sources to offer its programs each summer.
So it’s time, camp administrator Sharon Sherfick figured, to get chocolate and romance involved.
Benefit for camp
On Friday, Feb. 11, the Beach Club of Port Ludlow will be the setting for “Death by Chocolate,” a comic play and candlelight dinner to benefit the Kiwanis Camp.
The dinner, catered by the Belmont Inn of Port Townsend, has as its main course a choice of prime rib or salmon served with locally handcrafted beer, fine wine, chocolate cheesecake for dessert and a box of handcrafted chocolate truffles for each guest to take home.
Tickets, at $65 per person, must be reserved by Tuesday.
For families around the Pacific Northwest, this camp means at least two things.
Play, respite
For the campers, it’s a chance to play outside: to swim, fish, go horseback riding, do art projects and enjoy campfire singalongs and even take part in a talent show.
The camp counselors make it their mission to give each camper the time of his or her life, said Wheeler.
The weeklong camp also gives families a respite. In many cases, family members are caregivers for the rest of the year, so when their disabled loved one is away at camp, they can take a break of their own, he added.
Stokes, for his part, has become a fundraiser for the camp, helping orchestrate a pair of auctions, one silent and one live, to benefit the program.
The auctions, held at Stokes’ Studio Bob art gallery last November, raised $2,172 with help from members of the Port Angeles Arts Council. The funds are earmarked for art supplies and other expenses for campers this summer.
$1,100 per camper
The costs for each camp participant total $1,100, Wheeler said.
Stokes looks forward to returning to camp along with, he hopes, other artists from Port Angeles.
Last summer, he and ceramicist Cindy Elstrom and painter Doug Parent traveled to Beausite Lake to teach campers how to express themselves in color and clay.
“They are amazing,” Wheeler said of the artists. “Just them being there is such an awesome thing to watch.”
Chuck Standley, vice president of the Northwest Kiwanis Camp board of directors, added he would like to expand the board from its current 20 members to as many as 30.
To find out more about serving on the board, visit www.KiwanisCamp.com or phone the office at 360-732-7222.
But, Standley admitted, “volunteering at the camp is way cooler than being on the board.”
Fortunately, volunteer application information can also be found on the website under the FAQs link.
To reserve tickets, phone Sherfick at 360-531-1712.
More information about the Northwest Kiwanis Camp and about the fundraiser is available at the website.
________
Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
