You know its summer on the mountain when the arty funky buses pull into the Hoodland shopping center filled with kids who swamp local stores. These kids are from all over who visit our area to attend ski and snowboarding camps.

Shawn White, who won Gold in the 2010 Canadian Olympics for half pipe, brought untold publicity to the Mt. Hood area with our year round summer skiing and boarding. This was one of the areas he trained at throughout his career and we garnered great advertising for the Palmer Glacier, Timberline, and all our surrounding burbs of Government Camp, Welches, Rhododendron and Brightwood. We have two re-known camps in our area, Windells, in Brightwood and High Cascade in Government Camp. Shawn attended Windells.

Here is an article in OregonLive that gives more details on our summer treasure. At nearly $1500-$1800 per week for campers to attend, this gives a major shot in the arm economically to local business owners who garner the spending of the kids and often their parents who vacation in our state while their kids are in camp.

Mt. Hood has seen its share of business closures due to tough economic times so this is a welcome reprieve and a shot of cash for many of our smaller businesses!