The Paly administration and Site Council are concerned about Camp Everytown’s budget due to a sharp increase for scholarship applicants and a lack of funding from Site Council, according to Principal Jacqueline McEvoy.

Student activities adviser Allye Mullins said that the total cost of Camp Everytown amounts to about $23,000 each year, not including district charges for buses and teacher substitutes.

According to Mullins, scholarships became the biggest financial headache this year. The cost of an individual student, which is $250, takes up the largest portion of the bill. When the number of scholarship requests rose from 15 out of 75 students to almost half of the total participants this year, scholarship funds dwindled greatly. Mullins said that a significant amount of fundraising will be needed to ensure full student scholarships next year.

“Some schools just tell their kids that if you can’t pay, you can’t go,” Mullins said. “In my opinion, this goes completely against the camp philosophy. You need economic diversity, as well as religious and racial diversity. I would never tell a kid ‘no’ to that.”

Mullins also mentioned that the addition of an $8,000 burden will be added for transportation and teacher substitute costs next year due to Site Council’s withdrawal. For next year’s Camp Everytown, additional fundraising will be needed to guarantee full scholarships for students with economic disadvantages. Also, additional fundraising is required to fulfill the $7,500 down payment for the activity. So far, only $4,000 of the down payment have been secured.

According to McEvoy, the topic of Camp Everytown was discussed in a Site Council meeting sometime this year.

McEvoy has two concerns about Camp Everytown. One is the “very expensive endeavor” of Camp Everytown’s costs, and the other is the question of how to spread the experience of Camp Everytown to the larger student body.

“I am asking, ‘Is it [Camp Everytown] still fulfilling the needs, and if we want to continue the program, how?'” McEvoy said.

According to McEvoy, Camp Everytown is an event that needs annual, stable sponsoring. Other programs, including the Together Everyone Achieves More program (TEAM) and sports teams, have stable, non-profit funds that keep the programs running every year.

In the past, Site Council has helped with Camp Everytown’s costs, but it will not support Camp Everytown next year. McEvoy said that Site Council usually only supports newer programs to get the programs running before it removes the funds to force programs to find more self-sustainable sources of funding.

McEvoy says the small group of students who attend Camp Everytown each year needs to bring back the experience to the larger student body. McEvoy appreciates the formation of student groups, such as the Unity Club, which is devoted to continue Camp Everytown’s experience, but feels that larger steps can be taken.

In the Site Council discussion, McEvoy suggested alternate ways to replicate the experience of Camp Everytown if the program cannot survive financially. One suggestion was to implement an on-campus version of Camp Everytown.

“Ideally, I think we should do both programs,” McEvoy said. “The 60 students who attend Camp Everytown could do a workshop [on campus] to share their experiences.”

Actions for fundraising are already taking place. Sophomore Kevin Ward, president of the Unity Club, is working on closing the $3,500 gap to fulfill the down payment cost and is working on raising additional money to provide scholarships for students.

In addition to sending letters to alumni and parents, Ward is working on other activities to raise money.

“Right now, we are planning to do a talent show,” Ward said. “It is going to be a really diverse thing: we are going to have Indian dancers and different ethnic performers to try and raise money.”

Additionally, Ward is collecting testimonials as a way to get other people to care about Camp Everytown and donate money to the cause.

“People write how Camp Everytown has changed them or how it has touched their lives,” Ward said. “They dip their hands in paint and print them on a piece of paper and write their names. So let’s say we go to a company and we were to show them, ‘Hey, this is how Camp Everytown touched everyone’s lives,’ then it would be much more effective when we have something tangible to show them.”

As for the idea of having an on-campus version of Camp Everytown, Ward feels that it will take away from the camp’s philosophy and experience.

“It [having an on-campus version of Camp Everytown] automatically takes away the effect of being somewhere isolated and experiencing something away from distractions,” Ward said. “When you are isolated, you have to work with and learn about each other. To take that away destroying and diluting the whole effect of Camp Everytown.”