re: Reports of over 20 young camp girls missing In TX floods

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Why do things like this happen?

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Former Astros and current Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman posted a screenshot asking for help finding a girl named "Virginia Hollis" with a caption of three praying emojis.

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People want to blame somebody but when it comes to Mother Nature we’ve all lived through events that were devastating that you can’t plan for except in hindsight.

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I've seen some screenshot posts on FB from other sites where the posters were posting things like they were happy this happened to TX and TX deserves this. How can any sane human with a modicum of morals think such things about kids and adults dying. It's sick.

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Kjnstkmn

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“Mystic girls,” as campers are called, include the daughters of former Texas governors Price Daniel, Dan Moody and John Connally, according to a 2011 article by Texas Monthly. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters also attended.

First Lady Laura Bush was a camp counselor. Counselors typically are college-aged, some work there right after graduating high school.

Because the river cuts through Hunt, it’s a popular place for summer camps. Camp La Junta, an all-boys summer camp, is just a 7 minute drive north of Camp Mystic. Camp La Junta has confirmed that all campers are safe.

Young Camp La Junta camper Ruffin Boyett told KSAT “the cabins were flooding” and walls “broke down” in the middle of the night. He said campers waited on rafters before swimming to safety. Ruffin’s younger brother had to swim out of his cabin since floodwaters reached the top level of the bunkbeds.

“We had one choice and we had to swim out of our cabins,” he said.

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During the past two days, camp alumnae have rapidly shared information through group chats, struggling to understand how this could have happened at a place they thought of as a refuge.

“It’s my favorite place in the entire world,” said Lauren Garcia, a former camper who is now a physician assistant in New York City. “It really is like just a safe haven. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

Garcia describes foggy morning horseback rides, competitive canoe races and riverside lessons on fishing, as hundreds of girls disconnected from the outside world.

The camp has for nearly 100 years offered 30-day programs to improve the spirituality and self-confidence of girls. Generations of families have passed through Camp Mystic’s valleys. Garcia’s mother, aunts and sister all stayed in the numerous camp housing facilities with names like Twins, Bubble Inn, Gigglebox and Chatterbox.

Campers spent Sundays doing religious readings near the river before holding a small service on Chapel Hill, a nearby ridge with a cross overlooking the valley.

“We don’t know what will happen to it,” said Shelby Patterson, a University of Virginia fundraiser who attended the camp for eight years. “There is a mourning for what happened, a mourning for what we still don’t know and all the girls they still haven’t found, but also a mourning for the special place that you know may not exist past this.”

The camp boasts of helping girls make lifelong friendships, barred from using social media and cell phones for the duration. Garcia spoke of a recent dinner held in New York City for alumnae. Two women in Patterson’s recent wedding were camp friends.

The camp has been so sought after that women speak about friends signing up their daughters for the wait list as soon as they are born.

Austinite Kim Barnes was a Mystic camper, as were her mother and her daughter. The family’s time there spanned 70 years. Barnes and her daughter have been texting back and forth since news of the missing girls broke Friday.

“My daughter was sending me some pictures of her as a camper — the same age as some of the little girls who are missing, and it just brings me to my knees,” Barnes said.

Tweety and Dick Eastland are spoken of with reverence by past campers, and were seen nearly every day teaching or roaming the grounds, even after handing over many of the reins to other family members. Tweety taught baking and is known for her “infamous” cookies. Dick taught fishing to younger campers, and former campers described him as a caring, grandfatherly figure.

“I caught a fish, and he’d hug you,” Garcia said. She recalls him taking a picture, “and he would say, ‘Put it closer to the camera, make it look real big.’”

“It’s just beyond heartbreaking,” Patterson said of Eastland’s death. Not every older man “needs to impart his wisdom or give time to a gaggle of girls, and it's just so special that he chose to spend his life that way.”

It isn’t clear what remains of the camp, which had some housing areas adjacent to the river, but for campers like Patterson, the camp will always be a foundational piece of their lives.

“And it was such a gift to be able to go to such a beautiful place and unplug with your best friends every year, something I'll always hold with me.”

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