Theatre Camp

What an amazing week -
To our Cast - Thank you for your courage to try new things and to put yourselves out there. Thank you for sharing your joy with us!
To our Volunteers - Thank you for your time, your dedication, your caring, your patience, and your persistence. This week is only possible because of all of you. Thank you!
To our Families and Friends - Theatre Camp is a long, hard week and we couldn't create something so magical without your support and caring. Thank you!
And to our Donors and Supporters - Thank you! You make the magic happen!

Let's do it again next year!

Theater Camp

Upper Valley Connection presents the Icicle Players, a Theater Camp that brings together people with and without developmental disabilities to experience the satisfaction and joy of putting on a play for their community.

Goals of Theater Camp:

We have two specific goals for our Theater Camp. One is to provide a theater experience for young people who have developmental disabilities, and the other is to provide camp opportunities for this population. Neither of these exist anywhere on the eastern side of Washington State, and we've only been able to identify two similar camps anywhere in the entire United States.

General Camp Info:

The Icicle Players will meet the last full week of June each year, beginning with an orientation meeting on Sunday, and ending with two performances, one on Friday night and one Saturday afternoon. We will do "Peter Pan" in 2013. Camp tuition is $250.00. Some camp scholarships are available - please ask about those if you're interested. Admission to both performances is by donation. All proceeds go to help support Upper Valley Connection.

Sports

Upper Valley Connection started with sports programs, specifically baseball in 2001. We now have four regular sports seasons, and another one or two occasional ones throughout the year.

The Icicle Trackers, our x-country ski team, actually start warming up before the snow even flies, with 2 dryland practices on Leavenworth’s Ski Hill in October and November. Then in January the training starts in earnest. The team meets once/week for 8 weeks out at the Icicle River Trail in Leavenworth, their sights set on winning medals at the Washington State Special Olympics Winter Games, held the first weekend in March.

The Upper Valley Hoops hit the court for some basketball starting in March and playing for 6 weeks. They usually manage to get in at least one game with the varsity boys and girls teams from Cascade High School.

Then the Upper Valley Sluggers—the team that started it all—pick up their bats and start hitting the home runs in May. Baseball also is a six-week season.

In the fall it’s time for some indoor soccer. The Upper Valley Force descends on the Wenatchee Valley Sportsplex for eight weeks in October and November.

This summer we did three weeks of bowling in Cashmere--great as it was really hot and we were indoors!

All our coaches and helpers for these activities are volunteers and we have the best coaches in the Valley! They are all experts in their particular sport and all have huge hearts. They comment every year on the improvement our athletes make, both in individual skills and in working together as a team. It’s hard to say who benefits most from this relationship, the athletes or the coaches.

Whitney West Fishing Day

This is a once/year event that was started 5 years ago as her Senior Project by a young lady named Whitney West at Cascade High School. She worked with the Leavenworth chapter of Trout Unlimited to put on an amazing day for Upper Valley Connection anglers and their families at a local fishing resort owned by her parents. All the fishermen were given poles and tackle boxes stuffed with fishing tackle, which they put to good use out on the dock. The fish were jumping like crazy that day. I don’t think anyone went home with fewer than a dozen fish (all cleaned and filleted for them by the Trout Unlimited folks)! They put on a fabulous lunch, had awards and prizes for everyone, and even a commemorative t-shirt for the day.

When asked if we could make this an annual event (without all the prizes, etc.), the Wests graciously agreed, and have hosted us for the past four years. The fish weren’t quite as cooperative these past four years as they were the first one, so the Wests loaded everyone up onto several of their big pontoon boats and took us out on the lake, where we eventually located those reluctant fish. This year, the local Knights of Columbus put on a fabulous BBQ lunch for our group. This is a day in the summer that everyone talks about and looks forward to all year.

Other Activities