Video: Camp Long Lodge reopening celebration

He’s scheduled to ride in the Seafair Torchlight Parade downtown in about two hours, but right now, Mayor Mike McGinn is in West Seattle, at the Camp Long Lodge reopening party. It continues till 7 tonight, with tours of the million-dollar renovation work (including the expanded kitchen), cake, and other festivities, and at 7, you’re invited to stay in the park for GreenStage‘s free Shakespeare performance. More photos later; the mayor’s Twitter account just posted a photo of West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen speaking (video added later):

Rasmussen was chair of the council’s Parks Committee when voters passed the Parks and Green Spaces Levy, which paid for this project – plus this pic of the grand-reopening cake, attributed to Fauntleroy’s own Original Bakery:

(video substituted for photo, 7:48 pm) And of course, it can’t be a grand opening without a ribboncutting:

While, as Parks project manager Kelly Goold told us during our sneak-peek tour last week, this renovation is meant to help extend the lodge’s life into the future, its past is also something to honor, as Camp Long’s Sheila Brown noted at the party:

Find out more about Camp Long and its programs and features by going here.

Jamie July 31, 2010 (6:09 pm)

That is an AWESOME cake who made it?!?!?!?!?

JayDee July 31, 2010 (6:32 pm)

Did you see Hizzoner’s bike outside?

Kat in HighPoint July 31, 2010 (10:59 pm)

Camp Long is such a treasure. The renovations look fantastic!

Tom Rasmussen August 1, 2010 (8:59 am)

The cake was made by the “Original Bakery” at Fauntleroy!

WSB August 1, 2010 (9:04 am)

Thanks. We did have that noted in our story even before the comment/question came in, but the photo may have dwarfed the words :) – TR
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(p.s. they don’t have a website so far as I can tell but are at 9253 45th Avenue SW in the Fauntleroy/Endolyne mini-business district) – 938-5088 – famous for their brioche among other things.

Jen August 6, 2010 (5:46 pm)

I’m so proud of Camp Long and the message that it sends all throughout this country!! i’m from Connecticut but i know what an impact Camp Long has on the local and global community!! Keep up the good work!

gretchen graber August 7, 2010 (11:05 am)

Talked with a citizen at the Re-Opening, that Camp Long has served via nature programming, the mom of a 7 year old. The Mom wanted us to know that because of her daughter coming to a Spider class, she is no longer afraid of spider because of what her daughter taught her. They have both changed their behavior to accept and support spiders instead of killing them and continuing to promote unscientific irrational behaviors and information about spiders. I want to continue to stress the importance of children taking home their nature knowledge they learned at Camp Long School and Public programs, and teaching both their parents and other siblings, once we have inspired and properly educated youth we have a nature supporter that is properly informed about the benefits of animals that have traditionally been misunderstood by the general citizenry. The statistics we are not able to capture are still a large component of Environmental Education that permeates our community after children have attended one of our nature classes. One of the components of school and public programs is to invite our students back to Camp Long and to bring their families with them, thus further instilling passion for nature and to support sharing nature amongst family units. Children then feel proud and important and have a sense of empowerment. Which 70 years later is a key goal of Judge Long’s mission that we continue to champion to empower children to make informed choices as they move through life.

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