Karaoke, Princess Wars and Sorry-to-Go Tears

“If you want to get wet, stand here,” yells Dinah Weldon, counselor supervisor at Camp Max Straus & Jewish Big Brothers. She sprays into the air with a green garden hose and about 10 young boys scamper into the downpour she has created. “Can you do it one more time?” asks one. “Wash my head,” says another, yanking off his baseball cap and tipping his head forward. Another just opens up his arms and yells, “Yeah, baby, it’s raining!”

When girl campers approaches, they are hesitant about running into the spray. They’ve just returned from practicing karaoke, where they fine-tuned Britney Spears’ “Oops, I Did It Again” and are engaged in an argument about whether their cabin group name is the Powhatan Princesses or just the Powhatans.

“We are princesses,” insists 10-year-old Jo’na Patterson, a Times fund camper whose big brown eyes peek out from under a baseball cap. “If you don’t want to think of yourself as a princess, that’s fine, but I do.” Her friend throws a hand on her hip and says, “You’re not a princess, you’re a headache!”

Camp director Gabby Leon doesn’t blink at the commotion; getting kids accustomed to working as a group is one of the camp’s goals. “A lot of our kids might have difficulty in group situations, so we tend to give the entire group tasks to solve,” he says. “Rather than competitions, they have to work together.”

And sure enough, soon the girls are trying to find out what to do with a lizard they caught and, more important, what to name it. “Powhatan Princess!” rumbles through the crowd (spearheaded by Jo’na), which is soon countered with “Speedy.” Camp counselor Andie Birdsell puts it to a vote, and the matter is settled.

“Speedy,” she says firmly, walking them off to their next activity. “But its middle and last names are Powhatan Princess.”

Farther up the wood-chip trail, which winds through 112 acres of rustic land near the Verdugo mountains, another group emerges from the pool. With the scent of chlorine and sunscreen hanging in the air, Maria Magadan, a 10-year-old from Long Beach, towels off with her friends. “It is nice here,” she says. “You are not afraid here to be changing in front of others because they won’t judge,” says the fifth-grader, nodding toward the rooms where her cabin mates are putting on their street clothes. “Where I go to the pool at home, they talk about people in the locker room. It’s bad.”

The older campers seem to be most affected by camp and the opportunity it gives them to relax and let down their guard. When the bus comes to take them home, they’re the last to get on. “The 12-year-old guys will all be in a huddle and will start to cry because they don’t want to leave that moment,” said Weldon. Camp counselor Sergio Amador nodded, adding, “They are such tough guys at that age, then two seconds later they are crying. We try to make them feel happy that they had such a good time and are feeling so much.”

Every year since 1954, readers and employees of The Times have sent thousands of needy children to summer camp. This year more than 11,000 children will experience a special summer thanks to the $1.6 million raised last year.

The average cost of sending a child to camp for a week is $150. This year, the McCormick Tribune Foundation will match the first $1.2 million in contributions at 50 cents on the dollar.

Checks should be sent to: L.A. Times Summer Camp Campaign, File No. 56984, Los Angeles, CA 90074-6984. For more information, call (213) 237-5771. To make credit card donations, visit www.latimes.com/summercamp. Do not send cash. All donations are tax-deductible. Unless donors request otherwise, gifts of $25 or more are acknowledged in The Times. The summer camp campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation.