2021 Thank You!

Another successful year has drawn to a close. There are so many that had a hand in making our 2021 Summer Camp a success. 

First, we would like to thank Jim McDonough, of Jim McDonough Cutting Horses, his family and staff for hosting our 2021 TACO Camp. As we learned in 2019, Jim brings a ton of enthusiasm and energy to camp, and as always it is LOVED by the campers and volunteers. We also greatly appreciate Jim and his clients generosity in allowing us the use of their horses. Jazzware, Bo, 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! For our long term TACO volunteers, you know Grey Ghost hasn't been attending camp the last few years due to the age of our campers. We were so excited to call Teresa this year and let her know it was time to bring Grey Ghost back to TACO! 

In 2019, we added a new area to camp; music. Lindsay Latham was able to come back and join us for a day this year to run her music station... as always, the campers loved it! 

On Wednesday, 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.

Also, a huge thank you to Orange and Madison County Public Schools Transportation Department for transporting our campers to and from camp each day. 

Culpeper Farmers Cooperative also came out to camp one day to meet our campers and brought them all ball caps! The campers loved being able to wear them the rest of the week. 

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, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Rapidan, Christ Anglican Church, Church of the Nazzarene, Orange, Orange Presbyterian 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 Thursday we rounded out our week with a pizza 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 2021 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: Southard’s Seafood, Darnell's Garden Patch, Chateau Merrillanne, Two Pups Pottery, Carrington Farm, The Market at Grelen, Split Ends, Champion Ice House, Med Spa of Virginia, JB Cakes, Well Hung Vineyard, Laced Revival Vendor Boutique, and Orange County Chamber of Commerce. 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 RECORD for TACO and we cannot thank all of the donors and bidders enough for making it such a huge success!

2021 was a year for many firsts! Not only did we have a record year at the County Fair Auction but we also had a record year of new campers and volunteers! We had 11 campers attend TACO this year, EIGHT of which were new 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 36 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 2021 camp a success. Camp would not be possible without everyone's hard work. 

Be sure to checkout our Facebook page for photos and videos from the week.