St. Paul's Reading Camp Kicks Off in June
Posted 06/03/2024
By Betsey Hockey and Julie Micheletti
The idea for a St. Paul’s Reading Camp began in 2005 when then Rector Alan Gates sent Anne Pillot and Betsy Hockey to Pine Mountain Settlement School in Lexington, Kentucky to support and learn about their reading camp program. Since 2009, the year of our first week-long overnight camp at Cedar Hills, St. Paul’s has served many hundreds of children, helping them to advance their reading skills and foster a love of reading, while also having a full camp experience.
This summer, St. Paul’s Reading Camp is partnering with Bellwether Farm and Open Doors Academy (ODA) to provide literacy programming. Beginning June 23, volunteers from St. Paul’s will help staff a one-week overnight camp at Bellwether Farm for rising fourth and fifth graders. Campers will participate in literacy programs each morning, then will have the opportunity to engage in regular camp programming in the afternoon, including hiking, fishing, arts and crafts, farming and listening to stories around a campfire.
Volunteers from St. Paul’s will also provide literacy programming at the summer camp offered by Open Doors Academy. St. Paul’s will work with ODA campers for two weeks in July, Monday through Thursday mornings. All the children we work with are given carefully selected books to take home, donated by the people of St. Paul’s from our annual Book Fair.
Children who attend the Bellwether Farm camp are referred by reading specialists and teachers of Cleveland Heights-University Heights, Shaker Heights, and Cleveland elementary schools. Often campers attend for two summers and younger siblings follow, so relationships with families are formed within our community.
An exciting moment came for camp organizers in 2022 when a former camper returned to overnight camp as a volunteer camp counselor. Having just graduated from high school, they could see that he had flourished into a strong leader and reader, and would begin college in the fall. Each year, St. Paul’s donates money for our overnight camp experience as part of its outreach programming.
According to Reading Camp team member Julie Micheletti, our reading camps are an awesome experience for everyone involved. “It’s an experience the children would likely not have otherwise,” she said.
Volunteers are still needed July 15-18 for our morning program with ODA. Contact Julie to volunteer, [email protected].
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