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Meet Our Summer Team
- Head Staff
Head Staff
SHARON BELCHER - Camp Nurse
Hi Campers! I'm Sharon Belcher RN. Though I lived in N.C. for 25 years, I now reside on Amelia Island in N.E. Florida. My nursing specialty is pediatrics and still work in Labor & Delivery. My daughter has been a Navajo since 1997 and her photos are still up in Linden Hall!
My passion at the moment is hiking and hope to get more in this summer. Nicholas Sparks is my go-to-author. In my free time I keep a vegetable garden and bike 15-20 miles a day.
I love Camp TAW because it empowers us all to be the best we can be AND have fun doing it!
Stay safe. I can't wait to see you this summer.
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!!
BROOKS JONES - Head Staff
Welcome camp family! My name is Brooks Jones and you'll see me twice a day, every day (except Sundays), in the canteen along with Miss Arrington in Session 3. I live in Winston-Salem and teach during the school year. I first found out about Camp Ton-A-Wandah in 1984 from Southern Living Magazine, and here's a fun fact: Goofus hired me over the phone! I'm looking forward to trying to learn all your names in the second half of the alphabet, and this year I'll be bringing something new to camp: a ukulele! You may hear me working on some of your favorite camp songs on the deck outside Balsam Cabin. If you do, come on up and sing with me!
APRIL LARUE - Head Staff
Hey ladies of TAW! I am April LaRue. I am a wife to Matthew, mom to Hannah and Madeline, and a science teacher to lots of middle school muffins in Marietta, GA. This will be my third summer at Camp Tonawandah. I am very excited to see some returning campers and meet some new ones this summer. Let the count down begin!
AMY SLAVEN - Camp Nurse
Hi everyone! I'm Amy Slaven this will be my 3rd summer here as one of the Camp Nurses. I have lived in Hendersonville now for 4 years, moving from Florida, where I lived for the majority of my life. My daughter loves camp and I can't say enough good things about it. I can't wait to meet all of you, and please don't hesitate to stop by the Infirmary. Hope to have another great summer!
CANDY WAUGH - Area Head Staff