Stateline, Lake Tahoe– The Leadership Outloud (LOL) Camp takes place at Lake Tahoe August 2nd-4th. For over a decade, Stand Tall teams and youth leaders from across the northwestern Nevada region have attended an annual Healthy Communities Coalition sponsored summer camp at Lake Tahoe. The camp is the central training event for Stand Tall teams, and also includes lots of swimming, canoeing, good food and fun games. Typically, during the 3-day camp, students from the Lyon, Storey, Churchill, Douglas and Carson region are trained in evidence-based strategies for preventing use of tobacco, alcohol, prescription and other drugs in their communities, as well as in strategies for promoting good nutrition, mental health, and fitness in their schools and towns. Youth also practice leadership, teamwork, and public speaking skills. In addition, they learn how the Nevada Legislature works, and how to advocate for health and wellness in their communities. This year, 100 teens from Stand Tall, Comstock Youth Works, and other groups are attending.

For more information about HCC’s Stand Tall teams in Fernley, Yerington, Silver Springs and Dayton, contact Tammy Sutton at HCC at 246-7550. For more information about HCC’s Comstock Youth Works, contact Anji Winebarger at HCC at 246-7550.

LOL Training 2017: This year, camp attendees will take training in building community assets, suicide prevention (Safe Talk) , and tobacco use prevention (Truth Campaign), in addition to lots of fun team building exercises, a talent show and dance.

And Art! This year, teens from Lyon, Carson, Mineral, Douglas and Churchill counties who are attending the leadership camp  will be treated to a cyanotype workshop with Sue Mark and Bruce Douglas of marksearch. Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a beautiful cyan-blue print.

Youths will gather and arrange items such as leaves, ferns and flowers and use them to create their own unique pieces of art that will also be photographed and displayed as an online exhibit by Healthy Communities on its website.

What is marksearch? Sue Mark + Bruce Douglas of Oakland= marksearch. Sue Mark, with a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy and linguistics and a Masters of Fine Arts, creates national and international projects about local history, culture and community challenges. Bruce Douglas is a fabricator and professional mechanical engineer who has meshed his values of building community and using recycled materials to build things such as functional, quirky human-powered vehicles.

For more about their work in Japan, Portugal, the U.S., etc, see marksearch.org. Sue and Bruce are working with northern Nevada residents as part of their residency at the Resident Artist Program in Silver City Nevada.