Building Community
Saturday, July 21st, 2026
HIGHWAY 20 circa 6:42pm—The curving highway bobs my Explorer like a buoy floating between shade and sunlight, illuminating the dust-caked windshield at each hill peak. A few of us are escaping to the coast for the weekend after an exhilarating and exhausting Session C. Our soundtrack is the Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, whose title track served as one of our all-camp songs this session.
Last night a number of us counselors stayed up past midnight to put the finishing touches on a flock of monarch butterfly puppets for the campers to carry in the opening parade of today’s Big Show. The monarch butterfly being a symbol of migration, it was a child-appropriate way for us to carry forth a message of anti-fascism in the year 2026. The campers themselves put in the majority of the work to create the butterflies. Over the past two weeks they visited the puppet grove day after day to mold chicken wire, add layers of paper maché, paint wings, and apply untold fathoms of black duct tape. The final result was a visually memorable addition to the summer.
Today I asked a few parents to share their highlights from the Big Show.
“Exciting, inspiring, heart-warming,” said Brian from Oakland. “The skill with the dancers was off the chart!. The songs at the end were great too. The Nirvana song with the alternative lyrics, very camp. I’d describe Winnarainbow as welcome-maxxing. People feel comfortable and are accepted here, which isn’t always the case in the rest of the world. ‘Come as you are’.”
“It was cool to get a wave from Wavy,” said Paul from Alameda. “He was there in the audience doing his thing. I’m the father of a fourth-year camper. It feels amazing, and the weather is also amazing! Nice and cool, comparatively.”
“It’s great to come back year after year and see the evolution of our son’s interests,” said Ella from Alameda. “From clown, to mime, to et cetera, he has touched all these different skills.”
“The clowns were incredible,” said Margret from Palo Alto.
“It’s a unique place, that’s for sure!” said Oscar from Palo Alto.
“The best part of the show was everything my son was in,” said Gabby from Oakland. “He’s so talented, so amazing, so cute, so friendly. The only bad thing is that now that he’s coming home, it’s gonna be hard to match the high level of Camp cuisine.”
“It’s incredible to see the development of several kids over multiple years,” said Boots from Oakland. “You can see they still have that fire of childhood even though they’re starting to get teenager-y. You can see the thread of Camp Winnarainbow shining through with all the community being built here.”
Stay hydrated,
—J. Payseno, Editor