Oregon summer camp for military kids at risk of closing

VERNONIA, Ore. (KPTV) — Oregon Summer Star is the only overnight summer camp in the Pacific Northwest for children of military families. If it doesn’t raise $60,000 by April, the camp will likely have to shut down, according to the camp’s administrator.

“The first time I heard we might not get a camp next year, I was just devastated,” said Aidan Moriarty, a former camper and current counselor.

Moriarty, who lives in Ashland, told FOX 12 he started as a camper when he was about eight-eight years old. Now at 18, Moriarty is hoping to return for another year as a counselor.

Oregon Summer Star is more than just a summer camp. It’s a place for children of military parents to connect and share their experiences, something they may not be able to do in their hometowns.

“Every summer, the thing that kept me going every year was knowing that I had that camp to go to in the summer where I would be around kids who truly understood the stress of what it’s like to have a family member in a combat zone with everything completely out of your control...” said Delaney Pollus, a former camper and counselor.

Now, Pollus, who lives in the Seattle area, helps Oregon Summer Star with its media presence.

Oregon is one of the few states in the country without an active federal military base. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any active-duty military members — and their families — who live in Oregon. More than 2,000 children with active-duty military parents and more than 7,200 children with parents in the National Guard or military reserve live in Oregon, according to 2023 data from the U.S. Department of Defense.

FOX 12 spoke to the camp’s administrator Ethan Erickson. Erickson is also the founder of the Tsuga Community Commission, a nonprofit that sponsors Oregon Summer Star. Erickson is a veteran himself and said having a parent in the military can take a toll on a child. From missed birthdays and holidays, to growing up with an absent parent, military children have to make their own sacrifices.

“Kids serve too, right?” Erickson said. “Their parents made the choice to get in uniform. The kid didn’t necessarily make that choice but it’s their role to also serve an important function within the family.”

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Former campers like Moriarty and Pollus said that having their own community at camp can make all the difference.

“It feels like you’re not alone,” Moriarty said.

Erickson said that ever since Oregon Summer Star opened 18 years ago, it’s been a struggle to consistently secure enough funding. Oregon Summer Star used to be a free, two-week long camp. One week was dedicated for the older children and teens, the other was dedicated for the younger children. Now, camp has been reduced to one week.

Erickson told FOX 12 it could soon cost campers up to $500 each, depending on how much money Oregon Summer Star is able to raise in the coming months and how many scholarships it’s able to cover. He also noted that the cost of food and materials has increased over the years. To help cut costs, the staff at Oregon Summer Star has recently been 100% volunteers.

If Oregon Summer Star cannot raise $60,000 by April, Erickson said it won’t be able to open this summer.

While the camp serves a niche community, Erickson doesn’t want to let the kids down.

“We do this because it’s a community that never existed before we started this summer camp program and we fear may not be able to continue if we just can’t continue keeping up with the increased cost of doing business,” he said.

Pullos, who is from Eastern Oregon, told FOX 12 that she struggled to make friends and relate to her peers in school growing up. She said Oregon Summer Star helped her find a community of people with similar experiences and hopes it will exist for the summers to come.

“That camp [had] a big, big, big role in my life to honestly keeping me here and keeping me fighting for my community and feeling like I had a community,” she said.

Oregon Summer Star is currently accepting donations through its website.

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