The Road Worth Taking to Camp

Here's how you get to Camp Moss Hollow: You drive out Interstate 66 until the cursed traffic thins and the interstate sheds half its lanes and the landscape goes from suburban sprawl to rural cow pasture.

When you've just about forgotten that there is a place called Washington, you get off the highway and go over some railroad tracks and drive past an orchard.

You follow a narrow country lane as it twists and turns, then you hang a right and follow that narrow country lane as it goes from asphalt to gravel. You look for butterflies.

When you get to the sign that says "Camp Moss Hollow, Youth Zone, Enter With Love," you know you're there.

"No child is bad," said Michael Shirley, director of instructional programming, of the kids who go to Moss Hollow. "They just don't have the same opportunities as other kids."

Michael shared with me the overarching aim of the Moss Hollow counselors and staff: "Try to make it a utopia. Try to make it a paradise, for at least one week."

The cost for one week at Moss Hollow for one kid is $590.

Our Send a Kid to Camp campaign needs to raise $750,000 by Friday so more kids can go to camp this summer.

As of yesterday, Washington Post readers had donated $361,825.37.

Here's how you can contribute: Make a check or money order payable to "Send a Kid to Camp" and mail it to: Attention, Lockbox, Department 0500, Washington, D.C. 20073-0500.

To contribute online, go to www.washingtonpost.com/camp. Click on the icon that says, "Make Your Tax-Deductible Donation."

To contribute by phone with Visa or MasterCard, call Post-Haste at 301-313-2200 on a touch-tone phone. Then punch in KIDS, or 5437, and follow the instructions.