Just like other Enchanted Hills Camp Summer 2020 sessions, we’re going virtual with Music Camp, led by longtime EHC Enrichment Area leader Masceo Williams. Masceo is a blind musician with over 20 years of live performance experience.
This is a four-part Zoom series for people who are blind or have low vision with some sort of formal music training. The four sessions will feature interactive discussions, music sharing, brainstorming, games, challenges and music fun all with EHC as inspiration and the backdrop.
I’ve been going to camp as a camper since 2015. Camp’s been such an amazing part of my life this past half-decade. I am extremely thankful for being able to go. I felt compelled to help out in more of an official capacity, so I became a CIT (Counsellor-In-Training). Also, the program offers very valuable skills in leadership and conflict resolution.
The hardest part of the program was coming up with solutions for scenarios they gave us. I had never faced some of those situations before. For instance, how do you handle disciplinary issues? What if a camper isn’t following the rules, even after you tell them to? Being in the virtual training with my fellow CITs and able to bounce ideas off of each other and talk different perspectives was something we all benefitted from.
We got to be counselors for the the [Virtual Youth & Family] campfire and it was very fun. We had to come up with activities and lead them. There were also videos about some of the [rebuilding efforts] going on at camp and the younger kids were asking questions. The kids were really participating. I think it went well.
I think people should go to EHC because it’s a ton of fun. If you are the only blind or low vision person in your school district, it’s a great way to interact with other blind people. I’m really excited for next year.
We’re just days away from the beginning of EHC’s Virtual Teen Camp. Join your EHC campmates for another magical (but totally unusual) summer of fun. Virtual Teen Camp runs July 16 through 25 and is for people aged 14 to 20 who are blind or have low vision from all over. Drop in on Zoom for the sessions you like. The full schedule is below.
Thursday, July 16
Crip Camp movie and discussion, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Friday, July 17
EHC “Give Back” Virtual Concert featuring blind opera singer Cristina Jones, 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Art with Julie Cabrera: Origami, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 18
EHC Opening Teen Virtual Campfire, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Monday, July 20
What’s the latest at EHC? From gardens to the cabins, presentation of the rebuilding efforts, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday, July 21
So, You Think You Want a Guide Dog?, 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Teen Talk, Being Real, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday, July 22
Art with Julie: Making Clay, 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Social Justice/Advocacy Discussion, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, July 23
Art with Julie: No Sew Stuffed Animal: 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Music Trivia Night – Hosted by Masceo Williams, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Friday, July 24
Art with Julie: Tie Dye Night, 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
EHC “Give Back” Virtual Concert with blind classical pianist Fernando Apan, 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
EHC Talent Show, hosted by Masceo, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 25
EHC Closing Teen Virtual Campfire, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
With the devastation of the coronavirus and the state ordered shelter in place safety restrictions, LightHouse’s beloved Enchanted Hills Camp has had to temporarily close its cabin doors. But that doesn’t mean campers will be completely deprived of fun this summer—dust off those hiking boots, grab a cozy camp sweater, and gather around the virtual glow of a Zoom campfire! The terrific staff of Enchanted Hills will be hosting virtual campfires and all campers, young and old, big and small, are invited to join in on the fun starting Saturday, June 6, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
These fun-filled evenings will consist of all your favorite real campfire traditions, including camp’s traditional opening campfire ceremony rituals, special guest performances, and singalongs. Campfire attendees will also be informed of rebuild updates and all other camp related program offerings.
Enchanted Hills Camp Director Tony Fletcher, reflects on the upcoming virtual campfires.
“I feel strongly that our virtual campfires will keep our camp community connected to Enchanted Hills. Virtual campfires and other activities will prove our resilience and ability to live our motto, that flexibility is key. In offering this program, we are not dismissing the importance of physically being together, but this is a preliminary step for us to take to help us plan on being together again.”
Enchanted Hills is the heart and soul of LightHouse. The EHC staff is working hard to bring the fun and nostalgia of camp to its dedicated community members by adapting beloved camp traditions to an online platform as Tony states, “In reality, what we are doing this summer will have a lasting program impact for the future,
Due to the current global crisis, LightHouse is quickly finding ways to adapt and make virtual events such as EHC’s campfires part of the new normal as Tony explains.
“We may offer virtual programming simultaneously with in person programing in the future such as campfires, talent shows, concerts, discussion groups and educational presentations. We are rebuilding camp with a fiber optic system that will make all of this possible. We have former campers and staff that live all over the world and now they will be invited back to camp.”
If you are one of the hundreds whose heart resides at Enchanted Hills Camp in Napa Valley, then warm up those pipes and sing along ‘til your heart’s content at EHC’s first virtual campfire for everyone June 6. And if you or your campfire neighbor is just a little off-key, there’s always the mute button. Just one of the many perks to the virtual world.
Our official #RebuildEHC Volunteer Day is October 6, 2018. Join us on the first anniversary of the fires at EHC by signing up, pitching in and laying the groundwork for years to come. Contact aferrari@old.lighthouse-sf.org to sign up.
We just wrapped up the largest teen camp session ever, and 64 teens spread out across lower and upper camp — learning karate in the Kiva, playing Monopoly in the dining hall, braiding friendship bracelets in the Hogan, woodworking in the Art Barn, riding horses along the nature trails and fishing on the lake.
But to look a little closer, you’d find that things aren’t quite the same as in previous summers. After eight months of hard work, we reopened Enchanted Hills for a full 2018 summer and offered almost every session that generations have come to love since the camp opened in 1950. And despite challenges, upgrades to EHC have it looking better than ever.
Tony Fletcher, Director of EHC, reflects on this summer season. “Watching the adult campers, family campers and youth campers enjoy themselves so much and adapt to the modifications we have had to make to run camp this summer, reinforced my belief that the show must go on,” he says. Tony, who started working at LightHouse in 1989, just celebrated his 29th year of working in the blindness community. “There’s no way I could let a summer go by without us operating.”
So, what are some of the modifications? After the loss of the 10 cabins in lower camp that housed 120 campers and counselors, we knew we would have to find a swift and safe solution if we wanted to hold summer camp. Enter the Sweetwater Bungalows.
With their durable wooden frames, and breathable waterproof white canvas walls, the eight bungalows provide a sturdy and airy structure for a variety of weather conditions. The bungalows are eco-friendly and off the grid; we installed solar panels, which enable the bungalows to light up at night. One of the biggest adjustments for our campers has been the lack of plugs in their sleeping quarters to charge their mobile devices. What the bungalows lack in electricity, however, they gain in proximity to the pool and Dining Hall compared to the original lower camp structures.
The lakeside cabins got spruced up, too. Although they did not burn, thick smoke permeated the walls, windows and furniture. The cabins have new paint, bedding, flooring and windows. For the first time, some of our youth slept in the lakeside cabins so that we could hold the same number of campers in 2018 as we hosted in 2017.
One of the other concerns after the fire was the loss of habitats for the animals who live at camp. A lot of work went into removing weeds and brush and we continue to remove many of the trees that were charred in the fire, so that all those who live at EHC, animal and human, will have a safe place to live. We’ve even added new animals to camp. Two donkeys, Citizen and Quill, now keep company with our goats Saint Nicholas and Saint Christopher, who were rescued during the fires by the Napa Community Animal Response Team.
Many of the changes are less structural and more to express the spirit of community and fun that has gone into the rebuild. On the maroon fence that surrounds the swimming pool in lower camp there are large yellow plastic dots that spell out “Swimmin Pool” in Braille lettering. There is no letter G, but there is a cluster of dots forming a happy face to welcome you to the pool. Signs are up all along the roads thanking counselors and Americorps members for their contributions, and brightly colored flower pots are speckled throughout the gardens, right from Donald Sirkin’s own estate.
LightHouse Social Media Specialist Christina Daniels looks at a new bright yellow braille sign on the pool fence that reads ‘Swimmin’ Pool.’
Another new addition to is one you can hear as you drive into upper camp. Outside the dining hall sit two PowerShowdown tables. Part table tennis and part air hockey, the object of the game is to bat the ball off the side wall, along the table, under the center screen, and into the opponent’s goal. All players wear sleep shades, making this a great game for blind and sighted people to play together. Chris Keenan, owner of Keenan’s Cabinets of Distinction, makes the tables. He and his wife Kelly personally drove to EHC to deliver them and took a mini-vacation at the newly reopened camp.
Working to rebuild EHC has involved careful prioritization of which buildings to reconstruct first. Next up is the tractor barn, as it will hold tools to reconstruct future buildings. Constructing a pool shade structure and bath house with improved showers and bathrooms also tops the list.
The combined work of PG&E, FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA ensured EHC was safe after the fires. After that, volunteer organizations moved in to help with the cleanup, and continue to volunteer.
Individuals have also volunteered their time, including neighbors in the surrounding Mt. Veeder area, and we are organizing a special day where the EHC community can come together to help in the rebuilding efforts. A year after the fires, we will have a Community Volunteer Day on October 6. Allyson Ferrari, Volunteer Engagement Specialist, says, “I’m really excited for this day because it’s going to be an excellent opportunity to bring our community together and contribute in our efforts to rebuild, so that camp remains a cornerstone for many generations to come.” For more information about the EHC Community Volunteer Day, contact Allyson at aferrari@old.lighthouse-sf.org or 415-694-7320.
Besides volunteering, you can donate to help #RebuildEHC in several ways. You can visit our donation page, use your mobile device to text REBUILDEHC to 501-55 or contact Jennifer Sachs at 415-694-7333 or jsachs@old.lighthouse-sf.org, and tell her you want to help “Rebuild EHC”. Without hundreds of people working thousands of hours, EHC 2018 summer season would not have been possible. We are grateful for the outpouring of support.
Two teens help a friend customize the side of her new tie dye shirt, while she poses theatrically.
Four teen campers chat and look at their phones while sitting on a couch.
A group of teen campers play a lively game of Monopoly.
Two campers rest on the couches in the dining hall during a mid-morning break.
A group of teens fish on the lake Lakoya at EHC in a small boat during Teen Session 2018.
A camper jumps into the air and kicks to the side while practicing karate in the Kiva.
Five campers sit under the shade of a tent, looking at tactile graphics and readings large-print books.
Two teens smile together while painting a wooden blue and yellow star sculpture outside of the Hogan.
A female teen camper works on constructing and sanding a wooden music stand in the Art Barn.
A camper concentrates while using a saw during a woodworking tutorial.
Photo: A smiling brunette Maycie reads one volume of the yearbook stacked on top of its three additional volumes. CREDIT John Burgess/The Press Democrat
A yearbook is a contradictory bit of nostalgia, a time capsule of days you either yearn to forget or wish you could relive. Regardless, it’s a trip down memory lane that everyone should have a chance to take, even those who get their ib diploma program online.
For better or worse, 18-year-old Maycie Vorreiter ordered a yearbook every year. And yet, for the Enchanted Hills Camp veteran, receiving the standard print yearbook was never very useful seeing as Maycie, now a graduate of ati las vegas trade school, has been blind since birth.
But early this year, the yearbook’s Editor-in-Chief Charlie Sparacio decided is was time Maycie received a yearbook she could really use. After winning $500 at a 2015 summer yearbook camp, the 18-year-old editor cooked up the idea of surprising Maycie with a 2015-16 yearbook printed entirely in braille. Advocates for the blind say this may be the first-ever braille yearbook.
What does a braille yearbook look like?
“I was so surprised. Honestly, it was the last thing I was expecting,” says Maycie. “What would it look like? I had this picture in my head of it being 10 to 15 volumes.”
The entire Windsor High School yearbook fit neatly into four volumes and, though it ended up costing more than $500 to source, could easily be printed by an agency like LightHouse at an affordable rate. There’s no traditional writing or design on the cover or inside the yearbook, just heavy white paper with a black spiral binding and a small label on the cover. Photographs were omitted from the braille version, but photo captions were included with lists of the students pictured in each photograph, allowing Maycie to have the same knowledge as her friends of who made it into the pages of high school history.
Maycie has enjoyed many summers meeting other blind students at Enchanted Hills Camp – in fact, she met her best friend there when she was 7 – but in a mainstream school setting, it’s important to be able to talk about the same stuff as the other students.
Though every school creating an annual braille yearbook is (quite literally) a tall order, Maycie thinks it’s a gesture that should be extended to each blind or visually impaired student in his or her senior year of high school.
“It was one of those really awesome moments that I would want to relive again, because it was done in braille and it has never been done before,” says Maycie, recalling the moment she received the yearbook in October. “My hope is that in the future other visually impaired students will get a braille yearbook for their senior year, too.”
After graduating from Windsor High, Maycie enrolled at the Orientation Center for the Blind in Albany, CA. Though she says mobility can be particularly challenging in the East Bay’s busy streets, she says she’s starting to get familiar with the city and learn the tricks of navigating on her own.
Braille equals literacy
Maycie is part of the less than 10 percent of the blind population that use braille – a number that LightHouse has long worked to increase. She has been reading and writing braille since she was 3 years old and used Perkins braillers and Braille note taking devices throughout high school. Braille, she reminds us, is an invaluable skill for blind students.
“I’ve used braille pretty much forever,” says Maycie. “I don’t ever want to give up braille. Braille is my way of reading and writing, and I don’t ever want to lose it.”
The LightHouse MAD Lab specializes in making materials like Maycie’s yearbook accessible – for clients small and large. Any media that facilitates independent education, communication and navigation for the blind community is fair game in our book.
We offer braille translation, audio recording and large print production, including conversion to DAISY formats for audio, in addition to the many forms of embossed and 3D graphics that we create on contract for consumers around the world. Recent big hits include the Apple iOS9 braille manual (available at our store), which consists of five volumes measuring 6 ½ inches high when stacked and weighing close to 10 pounds. The MAD Lab is currently translating the iOS 10 braille manual, which, at 82,164 words, will be larger yet. It may seem like a lot of weight, but that’s how important literacy is to the blindness community.
The MAD Lab produces a wide range of tactile media, including raised line drawings, tactile graphics and tactile maps like this one for Alcatraz, and other GGRNA maps – for everything from Burning Man to BART.
