“Boulder Builders” L to R: Reyna Ramirez, Mitchell Frimodt, Piper Cramer, Connor Burshears, Susanna Andrews. Tolt Middle School 6th grader Connor Burshears received word from Camp Korey that they were looking for rocks. Not just any rocks--Camp Korey needed specially made light weight boulders. The theme of this year’s summer sessions is Super Heroes, so Camp staff wanted paper mache boulders for campers to lift and toss while on their Super Hero escapades.

Connor couldn’t turn down another opportunity to help. He assembled a group of fellow classmates and friends to build the big pile of boulders. Some of the students were looking for a service project for a class requirement or for National Junior Honor Society. Some students were there just to help on the project for the sake of helping.

Connor Burshears, along with Susanna Andrews, Piper Cramer, Mitchell Frimodt and Reyna Ramirez, gave up their half-day Fridays as well as Saturdays to work on the boulders. They formed the boulders out of large leaf bags and newspaper, then applied countless layers of paper mache over the forms. Finally, the students painted the boulders. Long after their service hour requirements were met, these students were still at work. Additional help was recruited from Smiley Burshears, Kirena Cornthwaite, Connor Heger and Devon Leboutillier.

When the project was finished, there were over 137 total hours spent building rocks (12 hours spent on each of the 11 boulders). They recently delivered the boulders to Camp Korey and know they will be put to good use all summer long. Dozens of other community volunteers contributed to this project as well, ensuring that it will be a “super” summer for all Camp Korey campers! Camp Korey Executive Director Tom Parker comments, “It’s wonderful that we can count on volunteers like Connor to step up when we need them to help us make Camp Korey great!”

The students would like to send a big thank you to Ace Hardware of Carnation for donating all of the paint needed for this project – Carnation Ace Hardware also rocks!

If you are interested in other volunteer opportunities at Camp Korey, contact Volunteer Coordinator Mary Ann Hutchinson at mhutchinson@ campkorey.org or 425-844-3278. Visit www.campkorey. org www.campkorey. org/> for information. Courtesy photo