Margaret's 15 minutes of fame

Today's Olympian newspaper ran a story about the camp that Margaret & Caroline attended last week. Margaret was prominently featured in the article and gave a great interview. I can't seem to figure out how to post the link here, so I've just cut & pasted a copy of the article.


Published July 21, 2008
Kids get crafty at 4-H camp
Venice Buhain

Margaret Doyle, 8, and her friend, Camryn Phipps, 7, made a list of things they made in the Creativity Festivity summer camp at the Thurston County Fairgrounds.

"We've made a scrapbook, we made papier mache, we made clay things," Camryn listed as they worked on sewing a small, stuffed turtle.

"We made a T-shirt. We made friends," Margaret added.

The annual weeklong camp is run by Washington State University Extension 4-H and is for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. The projects made by the 40 campers can be entered into the county fair, 4-H program assistant Barbara Wollstein said.

Wollstein said the purpose of the camp, which has been offered for three summers, is to introduce students to arts and crafts and to give them a taste of 4-H, which many think of as a club just for raising farm animals.

"The point of the livestock is to help kids learn responsibility and time management," she said. "They also learn public speaking and leadership. A lot of them do record-keeping."

She said that projects are awarded ribbons based on standards, and students aren't pitted against each other.

This year, the fair's mascot is a turtle, and students made papier mache and quilted turtles to tie in with the theme. Students also took a field trip to Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, where they practiced photography, Wollstein said.

Margaret, who will be in third grade this fall, said she was in the camp last year and enjoyed learning new skills.

"Last year, my favorite was crochet," she said. "It's like knitting. I always wanted to learn how to knit."

Some of her projects were entered last year in the fair, and it was the first time she and her family attended, Margaret said.

Some students also are exposed to skills that traditionally have been taught at home.

Patt O'Neil and Vicki Ogden, who are Master Textile Quilters with Washington State University Extension, said some students were getting their first exposure to sewing.

"One of them said, 'My mother has a sewing kit,' " O'Neil said. "We hear that a lot."

Venice Buhain covers education for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5445 or vbuhain@theolympian.com.