Director's Update
Summer 2011
Posted June 29th, 2011 by Richard Snowberg
I am pleased that we have been able to update our Clown Camp website with the fine professional services of our daughter-in-law, Michelle Dodd. We now have extended historical information on the program on the website as well as over 400 photographs of the staff members that served our registrants over the past 30 years. In addition I’ve had her post many of my previous columns that I wrote for either camp notebooks or for the World Clown Association’s Clowning Around magazine. You may also enjoy many stories written by camp participants through the years.
I now have an update on Dorothy Miller. She is now living at the Sunrise Assisted Living facility at 12828 S. La Grange Road, Palos Park, IL 60464. Her telephone number is 708/ 361-3577.
I did complete a trip to Borneo this past May. I have been selected as the World Clown Association’s 2013 convention chairperson, and my visit was to review the site and seek direction as to how we can move forward with our WCA annual convention in this exciting part of the world. What really has excited the WCA and myself is that the local government has gifted us with a grant to promote and support the convention. The grant amount is $50,000. Sam Tee is working with me, and was also with me during my visit. (Borneo is composed of Malaysia, as well as two other countries.)
As you know the International Clown Hall of Fame now resides in Delavan, Wisconsin. Director Greg DeSanto is doing a fine job of orchestrating a revival of this very important museum that recognizes the best of clowning. I have developed a database of digital clown photographs that I’ve turned over to the ICHOF. In addition I’ve gifted them with a laptop computer, two printers and two carloads of historical information from my camp archives.
After returning from Borneo, Jan and I spent a day in Delavan to take part in the local premier of the movie Water for Elephants. Greg had worked with the film’s producers regarding historically accurate portrayals of clowns in the 1930’s and the Circus World Museum provided both information as well as 15 circus wagons for the film. Several local persons, including the director of CWM appeared in the film as extras. The city of Delavan mounted a movie premier which included a visit to CWM to see the wagons that appeared in the movie. A light meal was served there and then it was on to the theatre. Here a red carpet ran from the street into the John Ringling Theatre. The evening’s program included a grand organ concert, a film showing the making of the film and then the film. The theatre was packed with around 800 persons. Following the conclusion of the film Greg and Karen DeSanto answered questions and shared stories of life while living in a circus train. A charity auction of a signed photo of the movie’s star performer was sold benefiting the ICHOF. We had a really great time at this event.
We are spending our summer at our home here in Golden, Colorado. As many of you know I formerly performed with our two sons at many summer Wisconsin festivals, fairs and company picnics. Now I’m preparing for a 4th of July performance here in Golden. In this show I’ll be utilizing our 11 year old grandson, Blaise. He is actually performing one of the routines I performed with his father, Eric, and one routine that son David performed with me. I’m enjoying rehearsing with Blaise and both of us are looking forward to this event.
Spring 2011
Posted April 21st, 2011 by Richard Snowberg
It was an honor to have lead the Clown Camp® program for 30 years. On this page I’ll provide a log with periodic updated information relative to the greater Clown Camp family as well as activities with which I’m involved.
During the last six months of 2010 we lost three members of our instructional staff family: Jack Frank, Frosty Little and Dee Burda. I was able to attend and speak at Dee’s funeral in Friend, Nebraska this past fall. We know that these fine individuals are now clowning forever after.
At the conclusion of Clown Camp we had over $22,000 left in our camp scholarship fund. Since the program has now concluded its regularly scheduled programming I decided to leave $1000 in our name to the Univ. of Wisconsin-La Crosse for a future academic scholarship. The remaining $21,251 was transferred as a gif to the Wishland Pony Express fund benefiting chronically or terminally ill youngsters. (This is the fund which we have supported since 1987.) This funding will help the organization realize a goal to have a self sustaining endowment which will utilize interest earnings annual to support all wishes for many, many decades to come. I thank all of you for making this gifting possible
This early winter I had a nice chance to visit with Terry Davolt as he was in Denver working the Native American Showcase and Market. It was great seeing him and visiting about ‘old times’.
I have recently spoken with Dorothy Miller, who until recently was in a rehabilitation center receiving physical therapy. She has now moved into her daughter’s home.
I will be at the World Clown Association convention in New York City in March. I hope to see many of you at that time. A week following the convention Jan and I will travel to Tokyo. I will be joining RONE and Gigi for one performance, and I’ll be doing nine hours of lecturing. About half of what I’ll be doing will focus around caring clowning. Following this ‘work assignment’ we will go to a spa resort for a few days of relaxing.
Sometime in the next four months I’ll be traveling to Borneo where I’ll do a site visit for the WCA. We are looking into hosting a future convention in that part of the world. I’ve been corresponding with Sam Tee about this program, and he has gotten some very attractive financial support from the Malaysian government for this venture.
We spent two and a half months in Colorado this winter and are now back in La Crosse until summer. At that time we’ll go back to Golden and spend the summer.
Housing & Scholarship Information Update Info
Posted February 18th, 2009 by Richard Snowberg
Greetings from the Clown Camp office. The application deadline for Mark Anthony Scholarships has now passed. Our review committee will very soon begin the review process of all applications.
We have now exceeded 100 registration participants for this summer’s program. All of the apartment accommodations have now been reserved. If you have a registration in the mail, or otherwise have not registered and want this type accommodation, we will add you to a ‘wait list’. It may be possible to get additional persons into the apartments if either we receive cancellations or are allocated more units by the university.
Clown Camp is not full. We still have a good number of standard residence hall accommodations still remaining.
Clown Camp Ends in 2009
Posted January 5th, 2009 by Richard Snowberg
After finishing our 29th year of providing Clown Camp this June in La Crosse, Wisconsin, we will not be continuing this program. It is our intention to provide periodic programs outside of the United States. Likewise we may produce some shorter programs with specific themes or content throughout the coming years. For example we may be returning to Florida to offer another caring clown focused program in conjunction with Give Kids the World. However we will not continue to offer the wide scope programs with 20 or more staff members so many have come to enjoy.
As a result of our decision to discontinue the program we expect to very quickly have a sold out program in June. Currently we have less than 100 spots left for registrants to be accommodated in university housing. If you wish to participate, don’t wait much longer to register.
We do intend to make some changes in this summer’s program so that we can share highlights, stories and images from the past 29 years. Our plans are to lengthen the evening sessions with more special features. Keep revisiting this website for more exciting developments.
Florida Camp Cancelled, La Crosse Camp Going Strong
Posted December 1st, 2008 by Richard Snowberg
Because of the sad state of the economy in the North America, we have experienced very low registrations for our proposed 2009 Florida program. We are thus canceling this program and removing all of the information on this program from our website. We really regret having to take this action, but we only had four registrants as of December 1st. There just wasn’t the interest in this offering that we had anticipated. Those persons who had registered, have been offered a full refund, or a transfer of fees already paid toward our Wisconsin program.
There is no concern over the hosting of the La Crosse program as we already have around 40 registrants already signed up. We have a signed contract with Viterbo University and are very excited about hosting the program at this new site. The classrooms we will be using are first rate, and every session, including the general sessions provided in a theatre, are all in the same building.
Our new website is now here at www.clowncamp.org. Anyone going to one of our previous sites will automatically be transferred to this new site. Here we have expanded opportunities to offer much more information.
Now is the time to download our scholarship form and start preparing your application. We will be awarding around 20 scholarships, and the extra funding can help you cover a portion of your fees. The submission deadline is February 15th, but you may send in your application at any time.
2009 Brings New Facilities and an Additional Location!
Posted November 11th, 2008 by Richard Snowberg
Since 1980, we’ve trained over 6,000 clowns and in 2009 will provide two programs: one at La Crosse’s Viterbo University and the second at The Villages in Central Florida. Each program will feature the same high-quality professional clown arts instructors and performers thousandsof students have experienced in previous years.
Whether you are new to clowning, or an experienced performer, you will find valuable instructional offerings at our programs. Each session provides multiple class offerings as well as at least twice-daily professional clown performances.