Young Girl Follows Moss Hollow's Slogan, Finding Friends and a Creative Outlet

Bria appreciates the dramatic, and her favorite event was a skit she and her cabin-mates performed.

"It was a remix of Little Red Riding Hood," she told a visitor. "We put in a little bit of hip-hop. And the Big Bad Wolf was scared. She cried!"

Without camp, Bria "would have been sitting in the house every day," Brown said. Even though his home is on a quiet tree-lined street of rowhouses in Northeast Washington, Brown said he doesn't want Bria going outside if he's not there to supervise her.

Brown read about Moss Hollow in The Washington Post and called Family and Child Services of Washington, the private charity that operates the camp, to see whether Bria qualified for a scholarship.

With his modest salary, a small support payment through the courts -- less than $250 a month -- and his sister's tangles with the law, Brown qualified for help for Bria.

Moss Hollow is another of those blessings that he refers to when he talks about what it has meant to raise Bria, Tyler and Brittney.

"It all feels like it fit together like a puzzle," he said, adding that he never doubted he would be able to raise the girls.

"Once you have one, you just know what to do."

How to Help

Camp director Hope Asterilla is fond of telling her campers that Moss Hollow offers them space: "physical space, emotional space."

"And when you find that space," she tells them around the campfire, "you can go back and take a piece of the Hollow with you."

So please help more children take a piece of the Hollow home. So far, we've raised $303,404.10 through your giving. We've got $171,595.90 to go by July 25.

Please send a check or money order payable to Send a Kid to Camp to P.O. Box 96237, Washington, D.C. 20090-6237. To contribute online, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/camp. You'll see a place to make a donation. Click there. To give via MasterCard or Visa by phone, call 202-334-5100 and follow the instructions on the taped message.

McCormick & Schmick's restaurants is expanding its incentives. In addition to donating proceeds from its Wednesday "camp specials" to the campaign, the chain will provide a certificate for lunch for two to anyone who gives $250 or more to Send a Kid to Camp. Donors of $500 or more will receive a certificate for a dinner for two.

To qualify, donations must be received by midnight July 25. Certificates will be distributed by Family and Child Services.

One of our readers, Tracey Friedlander of Bethesda, has given the campaign five box-seat tickets, worth $95 each, to the sold-out production of "The Lion King" at the Kennedy Center. The tickets are for the 7:30 p.m. show Aug. 23. Next week, Family and Child Services will begin a silent auction of the tickets via the Web.

Watch this space for details.