With this issue of Letters from CAMP Rehoboth we return to our biweekly publishing schedule, so look for Letters every other Friday from now until September. With every issue in 2015, we continue to celebrate CAMP Rehoboth’s silver anniversary. On numerous occasions throughout the last 25 years, the art of Rod Cook has appeared on the cover of Letters. Fittingly, his Heliopsis and Silver Grass heralds the blooming of the summer season and gives a nod to our silver theme at the same time. I’ll pretend we planned it that way!
On a very sad note, one of the people responsible for CAMP Rehoboth’s longevity, Charlie Lee, passed away on April 24. Charlie was a vital part of the CAMP family, and though he worked as a volunteer he occupied a staff level position within the organization. In his CAMPmatters column, Murray—with the help of several other members of the Board of Directors—remembers Charlie and the enormous contribution he made to CAMP Rehoboth over the last dozen years. We are heartbroken by his death. All are invited to attend his memorial on Sunday, June 7 at Epworth United Methodist Church, and the reception following at the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center.
Big plans are underway for CAMP Rehoboth’s Silverbration Celebration weekend, October 9-11. The weekend will feature the Silver Gala on Friday night at Nassau Valley Vineyards and a Baltimore Avenue Silver Block Party on Sunday. Sponsorship opportunities are available for the weekend. For information about becoming a Silver Sponsor, contact Chris Beagle, Kathy Davison, Kathy McGuiness, or me.
In preparation for the recent Supreme Court case on marriage equality, the LGBT Section of the Delaware State Bar Association (DSBA) and Equality Delaware hosted a panel discussion, Supreme Court Preview: Obergefell v. Hodges on Thursday, April 23 at the World Café Live at the Queen in Wilmington. The panel members included Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn, Professor John G. Culhane (Widener University School of Law), Angela Giampolo (Giampolo Law Group), and Mark Purpura (President of Equality Delaware Foundation and CAMP Rehoboth Board member), and was moderated by Anthony Flynn, Jr. (Chairman, DSBA LGBT Section). I walked away from the event with a strong sense that regardless which way the court rules, the fight will not be over. If there is a narrow ruling in our favor, we will still have to be alert to religious freedom laws, made all the more ferocious by the backlash from the court’s decision. Of course, if the ruling is not in our favor, our efforts will continue as always. Here in Delaware we continue to be thankful that we have full marriage benefits, but we would all love to see that true for all the other states as well.
A word of thanks to everyone who helped to make this year’s Women’s FEST another big success. I’m always dazzled by the amount of work that goes into producing an event like this, and we’re especially grateful to the CAMP Rehoboth Women’s FEST Committee and to the staff and volunteers of CAMP Rehoboth for making it happen. Not long after Women’s FEST, we celebrated all our CAMP volunteers at the CAMP Rehoboth Volunteer Appreciation Party. Talk about being dazzled! Volunteers are the soul of our organization and their enthusiasm is contagious. We are especially grateful to CAMP Rehoboth Volunteer Development Committee Chair Steve Hoult for his many years of service to this branch of our organization. Be sure to check out the Women’s FEST and Volunteer Appreciation Party photos in CAMPshots.
If you did’t have tickets to one of the three sold out performances of Fay Jacobs Aging Gracelessly: 50 Shades of Fay, you missed a great show. Hopefully, we can coax Fay back on stage sometime in the summer season for an encore performance. Fay is indeed a bona fide CAMP treasure. Congratulations, Fay, we love you!