Hello folks! We are a little late this year but it is our pleasure as the SoCal TAA to announce Virtual Camp George 2021, which will be held from July 12 through August 13! We were wishing so very hard to have camp in person this summer, but we promise our second iteration of virtual camp will be a blast!
For those of you who have not joined us in the past, Camp George is the Southern California Chapter’s annual summer camp, which is typically a family sleep-away camp that is 100% volunteer-run. When Camp is held virtually like this year, it consists of several weeks of various daily activities and is also 100% free of charge to participate! On top of this, all of your Camp organizers and awesome counselors are either young adults or teenagers who have TS themselves.
This year, Virtual Camp George will extend over a FIVE WEEK period and will feature game nights, Minecraft hangouts, arts & crafts, book club, and the return of Monday night adult happy hours! Whether virtual or in-person, Camp George is a laid back, fun, positive, and supportive environment for all campers and their families, providing a safe atmosphere where those of us affected by TS can be themselves and spend time with others who understand what everyone is going through. In the year since last year’s virtual camp was held, friendships forged during camp have endured and allowed those who participated to keep in touch with those they met online. There truly is nothing like it!
As described above, Camp George has something for everyone. Whether you are interested in all of our activities, or even just one, we are here for you! There are activities for just campers, sometimes split up by age, activities for everyone, and even a few just for the adults.
Virtual Camp will be organized through this website, which will provide a calendar of events, descriptions of each event, and corresponding links to Zoom/similar meeting rooms. We will also be creating a Discord channel for all participants to remind you of events and provide any other details needed.
We are so excited to see all of the returning and new faces at Camp again this year! It is going to be a blast!
Kind regards,
The Camp George Team
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do we need to complete a registration to participate in the Camp George Virtual Summer Series?
A: No! We will be taking note of everyone who attends our sessions through our end, so there is no registration needed!
Q: Will the events be recorded?
A: Yes. However, there will not be recordings of each event posted. Instead, we may be using these recordings for further materials for the site.
Q: What will we need to have downloaded for these events?
A: We will be hosting most of our programming through Zoom. It is free to sign up and free to use. We recommend downloading the application to your desktop (that’s how it works best) but you can also just join online via the links we will send out. Click here and download ‘Zoom Client for Meetings’.
We will also be using Discord for all communication outside of this website. Discord is a voice, video, and text chat app that's used by tens of millions of people ages 13+ to talk and hang out with their communities and friends. Here is a webpage that talks more in detail about what it is. We will be opening up our Discord for campers and parents to join on Monday, July 12, 2021. The link to that will be posted on this website!
Finally, there may be some extensions or games that you need to download depending on the activity. If an activity requires anything, it will be listed in the description of the activity!
Q: Are all of these events set in stone?
A: No, they aren't. This virtual event series is entirely run by volunteers with Tourette Syndrome, and becuase of this, we need to account for some level of flexibility. We will give updates about the events if there are any changes or cancellations both on this website and on the Discord page!
Q: Some of the events haven’t been added to the calendar yet / we don’t have links for them yet. Why not?
A: We are updating the pages as quickly as we can, but as we are all volunteers and working remotely, we are trying to confirm some cool activities for you all! We have released the first two weeks and will be adding more events as the time passes to the calendar. However, you can check out the “Virtual Event Descriptions” section below to see the dates that we have scheduled for each activity!
Q: I have an idea for a fun activity but I don’t see it up here. Is there any way to add activities to the camp?
A: We would love to hear any ideas and comments that you may have! If you have an idea for a virtual event, please email Rhianna at Rhianna@socaltaa.org and she will get back to you as soon as possible!
If you have any additional questions or concerns, please email organizer rhianna wicken at rhianna@socaltaa.org or eric mcgowan at eric@socaltaa.org and they will answer as soon as they can!
Discord Information
As mentioned above, we will be utilizing Discord as our primary means of communication and reminders about the events. This will also be a space where we can chat about different topics in a chatroom-type environment, which will help it feel more like camp!
We will be opening up our Discord on Monday, July 12th for campers and parents alike to join! Once you join, follow the instructions on the “Start Here” channel!
If you have any questions that aren’t answered above, please email Rhianna at rhianna@socaltaa.org or Eric at eric@socaltaa.org and we will answer them as soon as possible!
Virtual Event Descriptions
ArtisTIC Tuesdays
Join the Camp George crew for our weekly ArtisTIC Tuesdays! Each Tuesday, we will have a different event that relates to art or artisTIC talents led by our community! Please check the event links for more information about each date! This weekly activity will begin week two.
Please click the links below to access the event page:
Tuesday, July 20 from 5:00-6:30 PM PST - Creative Writing
Tuesday, July 27 from 5:00-6:30 PM PST - Mindfulness Glitter Jars
Tuesday, August 3 from 5:00-6:30 PM PST - Creative Writing [CANCELLED]
Tuesday, August 10 from 5:00-6:30 PM PST
Book Club
Led by Sam Wagner, beloved author and adult with Tourette, this book club will be reading and discussing “An Invisible Sign of My Own: A Novel” by Aimee Bender. Read the description below:
Mona Gray was ten when her father contracted a mysterious illness and she became a quitter, abandoning each of her talents just as pleasure became intense. The only thing she can’t stop doing is math: She knocks on wood, adds her steps, and multiplies people in the park against one another. When Mona begins teaching math to second-graders, she finds a ready audience. But the difficult and wonderful facts of life keep intruding. She finds herself drawn to the new science teacher, who has an unnerving way of seeing through her intricately built façade. Bender brilliantly directs her characters, giving them unexpected emotional depth and setting them in a calamitous world, both fancifully surreal and startlingly familiar.
This novel is sure to be an interesting read and discussion! This book is divided by the author into three parts, so we will be reading along those lines for our discussion meetings. If you fall behind in the reading, please still join as we would love to have you! We will be breaking up the meetings into the following, and please join the Zoom through the links below:
Wednesday, July 14 from 7:00-8:00 PM PST: Prologue and Part One (Chapters 1-9) **
Wednesday, July 28 from 7:00-8:00 PM PST: Part Two (Chapters 10-19)
Wednesday, August 11 from 7:00-8:00 PM PST: Part Three (Chapters 20-29)
**Do not worry if you don’t complete the entire section by the meeting time. We will still love input from wherever you are in the story!
Group Game Night: Charades
Join the Camp George crew for a good old-fashioned game of charades! We have some very talented charades players in our group, so we know that this is sure to be a fun event! It is a very interactive game that really ignites a sense of community, even through your screens :) We hope to see you there!
Please join the Zoom by clicking the links below:
Group Game Night: Mafia
Come join us for a fun game of Mafia, a game full of mystery and exciting stories to help figure out who the secret mafia is. If you’ve never played before, don’t fret! We will go over the rules and how to play at the beginning of the game session. Anyone who has been to one of our previous Mafia nights can attest to the fact that it is a BLAST. I hope to see you all there for a great game night!
Please join the Zoom by clicking the links below:
Thursday, July 15 from 6:00-7:30 PM PST
Happy Hour
Grab a beverage of your choosing and start off the week right. No need to prepare anything in advance, this is a cool, calm, and casual event. All adults are welcome!
Please join the Zoom by clicking the links below:
Monday, July 12 from 5:00-6:30 PM PST
Monday, July 19 from 5:00-6:30 PM PST
Monday, July 26 from 5:00-6:30 PM PST
Minecraft Meetup
We have created a Minecraft Server just for our Tourette community! Jackson Moore and Cole Davis, Camp George superstars and young adults with Tourette Syndrome, will serve as moderators and hosts for our Wednesday evening Minecraft nights on our server!
You will need the Minecraft Java edition, which you can purchase online at minecraft.net for $26.95. You will also need a computer with a reliable internet connection in order to play!
This server will be for members of our community aged 10 to 17! This server will be open to playing 24/7 beginning on July 12th and continuing for the foreseeable future, and there will be scheduled playtime zoom meetings every Wednesday from 4 pm to 6 pm PST while the server is active.
The rules for the Minecraft server will be posted on the Discord channel.
Please join the Zoom by clicking the links below:
Wednesday, July 14 from 4:00-6:00 PM PST
Wednesday, July 21 from 4:00-6:00 PM PST
Wednesday, July 28 from 4:00-6:00 PM PST
Movie Nights
Join the Camp George crew for our movie nights! We will be using the Teleparty browser extension to watch the movie together, so be sure to log into Netflix and have the Teleparty extension downloaded before the movie. Don’t forget the popcorn and candy either!
Click here for a tutorial on how to download the Teleparty extension.
We will be logging into Zoom to go over the steps once more and to send out the link so that everyone makes it into the Teleparty, and then we will watch the movie! We will also be posting the link to the Teleparty in the Discord server.
Please join the Zoom by clicking the links below:
Friday, July 16th: Over the Moon (2020) PG
Friday, July 30th: Hot Rod (2007) PG-13 *RESCHEDULED FOR AUGUST 6*