The Atlanta School is offering a summer camp to hone both expository and creative writing skills for Middle and Junior High School students from July 7 through July 18, 2008.  We will be focusing on basic grammar skills, writing essays based on summer reading assignments, and exploring approaches and techniques for creative writing projects.  During the afternoons, we will be watching movies and writing reviews, going on field trips with the goal of inspiring creative writing, and perhaps going for a swim or two.  From July 7 through July 15, the camp will run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Those participants who have not been picked up by 3:15 p.m. will be in aftercare in the main TAS building until 5:00 p.m.  On Wednesday, July 16, we will be leaving for a two-night camping trip in the north Georgia mountains where we will read our creative writing projects around a camp-fire and play in the woods!  The cost of the Quill Camp is $450.00.  It’s not too late to register!  Call Paulette at (404)688-9550.

Whew!  We’ve done it!  The AT, baby!  Just a walk in the woods.  For six days, Doug and Jennifer led eight intrepid TAS Junior High students and alumni from Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, to Hog Pen Gap – a 40-mile trek that included the summit of no less than 10 named mountains.  There are too many tales to tell, but suffice it to say that our hikers’ collective sense of accomplishment is well-deserved and the spirit of adventure is alive and well.  We are planning on hiking from Hog Pen Gap to Unicoi Gap over a long weekend in the fall, and we are planning on hiking from Unicoi Gap into North Carolina next spring.  Newcomers are welcome!  Keep checking the TAS webpage.  For that matter, check the page in the near future for photographs.