ARRINGTON COX
- Area Head Staff
My family moved around NC a lot while I was growing up, because my father was always being transferred from one town to another. We ended up in Wilmington until I married and moved to Columbia, SC, where I lived for almost 50 years. I moved to Camden, following a horse, in 2014.
I’ve had horses in my life since I was a little girl and have been either teaching or riding (or both) ever since. My life as a competitor and then as a manager of local horse trials (or both) up and down the east coast soon expanded to include international equestrian competition management. This experience put me in good stead to accept the position of Assistant Competition Manager for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, which kept me away from my riding for 3 long years. Happily, I am back at it, although the speed is not as fast nor the jumps as high as before! At this point in my life, my grown children shudder when I jump cross-rails!
And then in the middle of this came Ton- A-Wandah. Daughter Jane was 9 when I hosted a party in Columbia and said jokingly “Gosh, I wish I could go to camp.” Goofus was never one to miss an opportunity to grab staff, and that summer of 1974 I was indeed right where she had in mind: a counselor in Spruce, working in the riding ring! The next summer I was offered the position of Head of Riding, ran the 3 rings, procured the horses, and trained not only our staff but that of Camp Pinnacle’s down the road. I came for all summer and brought all three of my children, Jane, (10) William (7) and Johnston (4). Camp was closed in 1988 for a year, and Eloise and I moved over to Camp Rockbrook. I ran the riding program there, and Eloise was just wonderful Eloise, being everything to everybody. Judy and Billy bought camp in 1989, and I trekked back across the mountains to become Program Director before heading to Atlanta for the Games. Camp continued to be my real calling, so I came back in the 2000’s to help with the first ACA accreditation.
In 2009, the first of my granddaughters, Callie, began her two-year residence in Cedar. Elliott followed in 2011, and I came back to TAW with a wonderful promotion to run the canteen and hand out the mail. Callie is now a counselor, and Elliott will begin her CIT year in 2021. And I will still be in the canteen, loving watching our campers grow up from year to year, and hugging my former campers, some of whom are now head staff, and their children. What a ride it’s been!!