The Way I See It
by Steve Elkins
At CAMP Rehoboth the holiday festivities will continue throughout the year as we celebrate the 20th birthday of CAMP Rehoboth—and this magazine, Letters from CAMP Rehoboth. Anniversaries always seem to inspire retrospection, and I’m sure we’ll be doing our share of that as the year progresses. As one of the founders of CAMP Rehoboth, I’ve been a part of the organization from the time when it was nothing more than a small idea and a few scribbled notes in Murray’s studio. I will say, it’s been an amazing experience, and I’m glad to have been a part of it. As we celebrate this milestone year, I’d love to hear some short “CAMP stories” from our Letters’ readers. Send submissions to editor@camprehoboth.com
This time last year, the new wing of the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center opened its doors for the first time, and it continues to provide a home for a variety of both CAMP Rehoboth related and community activities. This January, thanks to the generosity of Tony Burns and the organizational skills of volunteer librarian Mike Kelly, our second floor library has been renovated. Sometime in the spring we will be officially celebrating that renovation, but in the meantime, stop in and check out a book to keep you company on these cold winter nights.
As CAMP Rehoboth continues to grow, so does our need to understand what kind of programming is needed, and the CAMP Rehoboth Program Committee has created a survey to help us do just that. The survey can be filled out online (go to CAMP Survey). Hard copies of the survey are available at the CAMP Rehoboth office. The Program Committee is a part of the CAMP Leadership Council whose current members are also listed on our web site. If you haven’t been to the CAMP Rehoboth web site in the last few months, you haven’t been to the CAMP Rehoboth web site at all. Check it out.
February 11-13, CAMP Rehoboth and the Rehoboth Beach Film Society will again present our very popular, LGBT mini-film festival, Another Take. All three Another Take films will be shown at 7 p.m. at the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center at 37 Baltimore Avenue. Tickets are $7 per film and are available by calling the Rehoboth Beach Film Society at 302-645-9095. The films are: Night Fliers, Thursday, Feb. 11; Pop Star On Ice, Friday, Feb. 12; Hollywood, je t’aime, Saturday, Feb. 13. For a description of the three films being offered at Another Take, see page 30 of this issue, the events section of our web site, or visit the RBFS web site at rehobothfilm.com.
One of the first big CAMP Rehoboth weekends of every year, is our Women’s Weekend in April. This year the event has been renamed Women’s FEST and event organizers are excited to proclaim that more than just the name has changed. From the Ladies 2000 tea dance, book signings, happy hours, workshops, golf outing, bike ride, poker tournament, wine tasting, and women’s art exhibit, to nationally acclaimed entertainers Maggie Cassella and Sweet Baby J’ai (back by popular demand), the Women’s FEST promises to live up to its name—Fun, Entertainment, Spring, Tradition. For information, visit the CAMP Rehoboth web site or call the CAMP Rehoboth office. Ladies, mark your calendars now and plan to be in Rehoboth Beach, April 8-11.
After 19 years of sharing the CAMP Rehoboth courtyard with us, we are all still saddened by the closing of the last Lambda Rising stores—including the Rehoboth and DC ones. In the days before the internet changed our world view forever, LGBT bookstores were at the heart of gay culture and played a big part in the collective “coming out” going on at the time. Lambda Rising will be missed, both as a bookstore and for the part it played in so many of our lives. For information about Lambda Rising’s CAMP Courtyard space contact me at info@camprehoboth.com.