Another successful year has drawn to a close. There are so many that had a hand in making our 2022 Summer Camp a success.
First, we would like to thank Jim McDonough, of Jim McDonough Cutting Horses, his family and staff for hosting our 2022 TACO Camp. This year presented unique challenges as the storms knocked out power to the farm and brought down many limbs, in addition to Jim being out of town! We can't thank everyone here enough for everything they do for TACO and all of their help to get camp back up and running after the storms. We’d also like to extend a huge thank you to Ricardo for helping to teach camp this year in Jim’s absence!
We also greatly appreciate Jim and his clients' generosity in allowing us the use of their horses. Jazzware, Bo, Peaches and Lady made wonderful camp ponies this year! As we said numerous times throughout the week, if it weren't for the horses and their amazing temperaments camp would not be possible.
While on the subject of camp ponies, we can't thank Teresa Critchfield and Grey Ghost enough for making the trek to Orange every day!
On Thursday, A Little Magic Miniature Horse Therapy Team came to visit TACO. The campers got to groom, decorate, and lead their ponies through an obstacle course. They also provided entertainment for us on Thursday, showing us some of Dakota’s awesome tricks.
Also, a huge thank you to Orange and Madison County Public Schools Transportation Department for transporting our campers to and from camp each day.
Orange Maidson Co-Op also came out to camp one day to meet our campers and brought them treats to share with their horses! The campers loved being able to give their horse a treat at the end of riding!
We'd also like to thank the Orange County Review for outstanding news coverage.
Each day campers were provided with an afternoon snack and popsicles. We'd like to thank
Orange Baptist Church, Christ Anglican Church, and St. Thomas Episcopal for their donations of afternoon snacks for the campers.
As always, Gibson Rental donated a tent so our campers can enjoy crafts and snack in the shade! We greatly appreciate their support every year.
On Friday we rounded out our week with a pizza and ice cream party! We'd like to thank the Shifflett Family for their generous donation of pizza for our last day of camp!
This year, Betsy McGinnis donated her artistic talents to draw our 2022 t-shirt. We absolutely loved the design she created!
This year for the Orange County Fair Auction we decided to have a "Shop Local" Basket. Local businesses donated products and gift certificates to be included in the basket. We'd like to thank the following businesses for their donation: Chateau Merrillanne, Honah Lee Vineyard, Two Pups Pottery, Carrington Farm, Split Ends, Garden of Eden, Med Spa of Virginia, Provisions Market Table, Fresh Wind Consignment, Well Hung Vineyard, JB Cakes, Champion Ice House, The Market at Grelen, Unionville Florist, Maddybugs Gifts at Locust Grove, LACED Revival Vendor Botique, Darnell’s Garden Patch, Barbara’s Soul Food on Wheels, and Southard’s Seafood.
In addition, a HUGE thank you to all of the individuals and businesses who bid on our auction piece, including the winner, Battlefield Farms. This year's auction piece was a huge success for TACO and we cannot thank all of the donors and bidders enough for making it such a huge success!
We'd also like to thank our donors, Culpeper Home Medical, Curt and Tracy Gill, and Gordonsville Medical Foundations. Your support helped us to provide an amazing camp experience!
This year we hosted 11 campers! We'd like to thank all of our campers' parents who trust us with their children daily. We love working with every one of our campers and were so excited to see so many new and returning faces this year!
\Volunteers are invaluable and this year we were so fortunate to have so many volunteers. both returning and new! We had an amazing 39 volunteers for camp, 18 of those volunteers were first time volunteers! Without the dedication of our volunteers, none of this would have been possible. We cannot thank our dedicated volunteers enough for all of the time you have volunteered with us! Camp would not be possible without all of your help.
Lastly, we'd like to thank our committee who put in countless hours to make our 2022 camp a success. Camp would not be possible without everyone's hard work.
Be sure to check out our Facebook page for photos!
