HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAMP OFLA!
2019 Camp OFLA Recap and Looking Ahead
Samantha Bremner, OFLA Early Language Learning Chair
This year, Camp OFLA celebrated its 15th year!
The theme was “Crayons” highlighting colors, emotions, traveling, and writing postcards. It was based on the story “The Day the Crayons Quit” by Drew Daywalt.
Six languages were offered: Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. 58 campers took language lessons, cooking lessons, played games and sang songs in the language of their choice and learned about other cultures together in the evenings. Ten counselors need to be commended for their language expertise, leadership ability and flexibility chaperoning the campers.
| Counselor | School | High School Teacher |
| Nik King | Northwestern H.S. | Jianmen Luo |
| Christopher Rapp | Columbus North International | Lee Bishop |
| Grace Cao | The Ohio State University | Juli Douglass-Gillespie |
| Autumn Westbrook | Mentor H.S. | Madame Farbaugh |
| Ceci Ganz | Mount Vernon H.S. | Jennifer Bishop |
| Justin Gates | Sidney H.S. | Mike Keiser |
| Aaliyah Beatty | Columbus North International | Lee Bishop |
| Elijah Welsh | Roy C. Start H.S. | Laura Helpman |
| Nayeli Lopez | Columbus North International | Eric Connelly |
| Erin Fetters | Bexley H.S. | Sherri Higgins |
In addition to those inspiring high school counselors, we had a fabulous team of teachers: Andrea Maurice (Nordonia Hills), Whitney Schlagetter (Sylvania Public), Kara Humphrey (Beavercreek), Laura Helpman (Toledo Public), Jinhong Shu, and Akiko Aloway (Academy of World Languages). These teachers have a wide array of experience from newbies teaching for their first year at camp and Laura Helpman, who completed her tenth year at camp.
Behind the scenes, Lori Winnie Ph. D., and Lucas Hoffman make sure that camp runs smoothly. They’ve been with the camp since its founding year and their excellent efforts are not to be overlooked!
Additionally, last year’s TOY, Lee Bishop completed her twelfth year at Camp OFLA along with Jesse Baum, who has been with camp since he was a camper himself, completing his tenth year!
Special guests Angela Gardner, OFLA Board member, and her parents spent a day taking photos and helping in the kitchen!
CAMP OFLA 2020 will be May 31-June 6. It is the week before the Templed Hills camp program begins, but in this way we can host our multilingual, multicultural activities over the entire campsite. Students who wish to join us but are still in their last days of school may check the http://www.campofla.org website for a superintendent/principal letter or contact Lori Winne, camp co-director at frauwinne@gmail.com for assistance.
Thank you, OFLA, for your continued support of this fantastic program that continues to spread a love of languages to young minds!
The Cardinal 