I read with interest Marilyn Campbell's recent article on the difficulty of affording summer camp. As the director of Traveling Players Ensemble, a summer theatre camp, I've been acutely aware of the issues families face in paying for camp for years. I've seen the enormous difference that summer enrichment programs can make in a kid's life. That's why I made it my goal to offer the most generous summer scholarships in the area.
We just received a $10,000 grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, specifically to underwrite scholarships, and we are actively seeking middle and high schoolers of financial need to participate in our summer camps. Some of our previous scholarship campers have even been able to turn the high-level training they get from us into longer-term benefit, receiving tens of thousands of dollars in artistic scholarships to attend college.
We hope that we can add our commitment to providing scholarships to the great work that Camp Invention and other summer institutions are doing to provide real, lasting benefits to lower-income children in our community.
Jeanne Harrison
Great Falls
www.travelingplayers.org