ALTADENA, Calif., Jan. 18,
2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Summerkids Camp, a family-run
business in the hills of Altadena,
announced that its camp property that hosted generations of
children over five decades was destroyed by the Eaton Fire.
While the camp is closed, the camp community is rallying around
each other, said Summerkids Camp Director Cara DiMassa, a member of the family that has
run the camp since its founding. "We are grieving all that we have
lost in Altadena, including many
of our camp families' homes," DiMassa said. "But I am heartened by
the way members of the Summerkids community are supporting one
another."
DiMassa has spent the last week compiling a database of
Summerkids Camp families who lost their home to the Eaton Fire,
including the camp's caretaker, who lived on site. At last count,
DiMassa said, more than 50 Summerkids Camp families had lost homes
in the Eaton Fire, including several families in which both parents
and children attended the camp.
"In some cases, families who lost their own homes have been
donating to other Summerkids Camp families in similar situations,"
DiMassa said. "It shows how much we value each other as a camp
community and come together in crises like this."
Summerkids, which began in 1978 and was located at the
Altadena site since 1980, is owned
and operated by the DiMassa family. Tens of thousands of campers
from Altadena and surrounding
communities have attended the camp, which served campers in grades
K-9.
The summer camp operated on a 55-acre site originally built for
the Camp Fire Girls in the late 1940s. The site included a historic
and architecturally significant lodge designed by famed local
architect Boyd Georgi. In addition,
all structures – including four cabins, a caretaker's house,
playgrounds, an amphitheater, archery ranges and more – were
lost in the fire.
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SOURCE Summerkids Camp