Southern Spirit August 14, 2015 | Page 9

7 August 14, 2015 Young musicians sound off in Winston-Salem The drumline goes through its paces in concert at the Washington Park Corps in Winston-Salem. The Salvation Army Academy of Music and Arts Summer Conservatory in partnership with the WinstonSalem, North Carolina, Symphony presented a midsummer concert at the Washington Park Corps. Admission was free and the public was invited to an evening of good music. The summer conservatory is an intensive seven-week music day camp that helps students in the program learn to play a brass instrument (trumpet, horn, baritone or tuba) and a second instrument of their choice depending on availability (guitar, piano, drumline). The conservatory also now offers violin as a second instrument through a partnership with the Winston-Salem Symphony. Students learn basic music theory, sing in a choir and take part in a Bible class. The summer conservatory is open to children in grades 4-12 who can commit to attend all seven weeks of the program. New students need no prior brass or musical experience. Students have plenty of time for recreation daily. Field trips are taken once a week as part of the curriculum. These include visits to the mall, bowling, movies and weekly trips to the YWCA Gateway pool. In addition, the most advanced students had the opportunity to take part in several ministry trips to local assisted living residences and two Sunday ministry trips to area Salvation Army corps. The program began Monday, June 15 and concluded with a final concert and a graduation ceremony held on July 31. Camp Walter Johnson still finding ways to grow bigger and better Continued from page 1 campers have air conditioning in every building and spend more time than ever inside. Built in 1974 in a secluded area in the central North Carolina countryside and named for the local man who donated the land, CWJ sits on several hundred acres of woods alongside High Rock Lake. Before construction of the 20,000-square-foot chapel and classroom building was completed in 2010, worship services were held outside, whether under a shelter or at the cross beside the camp’s central lake. The facilities host conservatory programs and evening programs. When the chapel was completed, the rest of the camp facilities looked out of place in comparison. The chapel won CWJ the TYI contract and once that was in place, work began to make the rest of camp match the level of a brand-new state-of-theart facility. The interiors and exteriors of most of CWJ’s other buildings, including cabins, staff lodges, the dining room and welcome and conference centers, were brought up to par. Many of these buildings were gutted, with new bathrooms, kitchens and flooring brought in to replace the old. Changing the color of the exterior buildings from the trademark faded blue-gray to a lighter brown has brightened the area and serves as an outward sign of the inward changes. A new house was also constructed on High Rock Lake for divisional and territorial leaders, a new low ropes course was built in the woods for team-building exercises, a fishing house was built and a new deck was added to a lakeside building. The projects have taken nearly five years to complete with more work still to be done. Almost all of this work was done in-house by the 10-member permanent staff team. While the facilities have been the focus of change, Shea and Lisa don’t want the buildings to overshadow the camp’s original purpose – to give kids a chance to enjoy outdoor activities in the countryside. Enjoying the outdoors is not an easy task in the humid Carolina heat, especially when the outdoors doe