Adios, Mom Camp

Well, Mom Camp is over.

Sadly.

It was a blast. We are intending to do it again next year -- longer. And if we're feeling very daring -- with T-shirts. Though probably not. We do like flying beneath the radar.

Kid camp is over, too. Also sadly. They both had a terrific time. Let me rave briefly about Loras College's summer All-Sports Camp in Dubuque, Iowa. It began 25 years ago, the brain child of Dr Robert Tucker and his wife Judy who thought it was important to provide a place for student athletes to learn not just about how to be better in the sports they wanted to play, but also how to be better sports, period.

The camp stresses values such as perseverance, loyalty, discipline, attitude, and enthusiasm even more than it stresses how to bat, hit, climb, run, ride, skate, fish, shot, dribble, pass and all those other sporty things. My oldest son went to camp here the first year it opened (then he got too old). But his son went this year. It's the third year one of his boys has attended. The glowkid (his sister's daughter) went this year as well. We think highly of it or we wouldn't be sending them there year after year.

It is more about life than sports -- and more about all kinds of sports from football to rock climbing to dragon boat racing to bowling to horseback riding to golf t0 inline skating to baseball to fishing than about only those few promoted by the national media. There is pretty much something for everyone. It's about getting out and moving, about doing, about following through, being a good teammate.

Kind of like Mom Camp. The kids are saying they can hardly wait for next year.

They aren't the only ones!

ps: Some of my friends and acquaintances won RITAs Saturday night. Congratulations to Barbara Hannay who won in the traditional romance category, to Lori Handeland who wrote the winning long contemporary romance and to Betina Krahn who won for Short Historical Romance. I'm sure the others were all great, too, but I know these three ladies and they are terrific writers and fantastic people. Check out their books!