Another Great Year for Camp WEBEENU
By Rick Renshaw, Training Committee Chair

Camp WeBeeNu graduated another great class of new aid officers on May 21, 2004. The New Aid Officers Workshop has become one of the premier services provided by TASFAA to its members. This year over 105 campers participated in the workshop. On Monday night, the campers went bowling where they were grouped into “tribes”. It was very interesting to observe how quickly these tribes each took on a unique personality. For example, one tribe gave themselves the name, “Sponge Bob Money Pants” (The whole group was very creative!). Over the course of the week, the campers were able to network with the camp staff, the presenters, and with each other to form relationships that will last throughout their careers. Many thanks go out to Casey Galindo and Lawrence Contero, and the staff at St. Mary’s University for all the work that goes into making the New Aid Officer’s Workshop such a success year in and year out.

Enough appreciation cannot be expressed to the members of the training committee for their great work again this year. Kym Sherwood, Dana Akins, Micah Marin, Daniel Estrada, Fabian Vasquez, Linh Nguyen, Jennifer Medley, Courtney Crouch, and Thomas Frazier, along with Casey and Lawrence, did a superb job in preparing for the workshop and then keeping the campers involved and attentive. They are definitely demonstrating by example the spirit of volunteerism which is at the heart of all TASFAA does.

On Tuesday night, the TASFAA Board attended a cookout with the campers. It was a great evening of fun and interaction with the leaders of our association. The next day, Kym Sherwood and Belen Valdez had the opportunity to share some of their experiences in a mentor/protégé relationship, followed by Linda Gonzalez-Hensgen, TASFAA president, who challenged the campers to become involved in the association as part of their professional development. Afterward, a number of the campers submitted interest forms about participating in the association’s mentor/protégé program.

All in all, everyone at Camp WeBeeNu had a “bubbalicious” good time. (You would have had to be there to understand.)