During a Difficult Year, a Welcome Sojourn at Camp Moss Hollow

"It was kind of scary at first. For me."

That's Selena Dawson of Oxon Hill, whose son, Cortez Ennis, went to sleepaway camp for the first time last summer.

Cortez rolled his eyes. It was no big deal to him. Or if it was, whatever homesickness he fleetingly felt was quickly eclipsed by the activities at Camp Moss Hollow.

"It was fun," said Cortez, 11. "We went hiking, swimming, we had a campfire. I helped with breakfast, lunch and dinner."

He saw deer. He saw a snake.

"It was brown and had a triangle head," Cortez said.

He did not hold the snake.

"They picked it up with a stick and threw it in the woods," he explained.

A rumor went around camp that bear tracks had been spotted but -- alas (or, luckily) -- the bear itself was a no-show.

Cortez has not seen bears around Oxon Hill. Or snakes. And he has not roasted marshmallows. (He prefers them just slightly browned.) But he had that chance last summer and will have it again this summer. He'll return to Moss Hollow week after next.

Money is tight in Cortez's house, as it is in a lot of households around the Washington area. Selena had been earning $40,000 a year as a caseworker in a Red Cross call center in Falls Church, but when the nonprofit was looking to economize last year, it closed the call center. Selena took an $8,000 pay cut and went to work at Lady Foot Locker, shuttling between stores in Hyattsville and Forestville. Then the footwear chain started shuttering stores, and in January, Selena lost that job.

She has been looking for work ever since, mainly in management and customer service.