Summer Camp

View Boothbay Harbor, Maine in a larger map Reporting from Boothbay Harbor, Maine Early morning in a kayak on Linekin Bay. My paddle goes plash-plash. A gull gives me the hairy eyeball to warn me away from its nest. Across the water on the peninsula that ends at Ocean Point, a woman sits like a statue on a dock. I round Cabbage Island in pure, clear sunshine, no wind. The vessel rocks gently. That's summertime on the coast of Maine the way I remember it from a childhood vacation many years ago. But that's not the way I found it when I arrived for a long weekend at Linekin Bay Resort late last summer.

It was only three weeks before summer camp was to begin that Gricel Mendoza, program director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley, broke the news to Taylor Evans: She was one of the 15 members chosen to attend a weeklong session at Pathfinder Ranch. The 13-year-old's freckled face lighted up with delight. "Yay!" she exclaimed, reaching over to hug Mendoza. "Thank you!" "It's been so hard for me to keep this from her," said her mother, Toni Mickelson. She had known about the news earlier but kept silent so that Taylor could personally hear it from the club's staff members.

The Painted Turtle camp in Lake Hughes affords two preteens with hemophilia the chance to have fun. Kirin and Bailey Heftye are both handsome, healthy-looking preteen boys. Under a shaded area at an El Monte Starbucks, they frequently interrupt each other to discuss their favorite activities at summer camp. But they are not your typical 12-year-old kids, nor is the camp they attend each year your average summer camp. Kirin and Bailey are twins, and the camp they look forward to attending in early August is the Painted Turtle at Lake Hughes . It's a camp for children affected by serious health conditions including hemophilia, a lifelong, inherited bleeding disorder caused by low or nonexistent levels of blood-clotting protein.

Santiago Burgos has many fond memories of summer camp, but he most distinctly remembers the campfires. Every night over the crackle of the fire, all the campers would burst out in songs together. "In camp, everyone just sings out loud," Santiago said. "Not everyone can sing, but they can shout. It's such an open environment. " The 16-year-old junior at Dr. Olga Mohan High School in L.A., mellow-eyed with dark, longish hair that curls down to his collar, calls himself a shy individual who was once afraid to open up to people.

Norwegians turned to their churches Saturday to try to find comfort in the aftermath of twin attacks that took the lives of at least 92 people, many of them teenagers, and left citizens of this typically calm Scandinavian country in disbelief. Bishop Laila Riksaasen Dahl of the Church of Norway diocese in Tunsberg, along with other clergy, met with survivors and relatives of those slain when a gunman went on a rampage at a youth camp on Utoya Island. Riksaasen Dahl told the Norwegian daily Aftenposten that many of the young people had seen close friends gunned down, or had themselves been victims of the shooting.

A horrific shooting rampage at a youth summer camp left at least 80 people dead as Norway reeled from apparently related terrorist attacks in a nation long known as the home of the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition to the shooting at a youth camp attended by hundreds on the island of Utoya, a massive bomb exploded in downtown Oslo, killing seven and injuring dozens. Police director Oystein Maeland told reporters early Saturday they had discovered many more victims after initially reporting the death toll at 10, the Associated Press reported.

As 17-year-old Baby Hernandez walked through the corridors of Hope Street Family Center in downtown Los Angeles, she felt tingles of nostalgia. "I remember a lot of things here," Baby said, sharing a knowing smile with her mother, Elvia Gonzalez. Baby and her 15-year-old brother, Angel, grew up crawling and running along these brightly lighted hallways decorated with colorful artworks by kids. "I still remember when Elvia first came to us as a teenager," said Sherrie Segovia, mental health coordinator of Hope Street Family Center, a community outreach benefit program of California Hospital Medical Center that provides services such as child care, literacy programs and family support for working families downtown.

Defenseman Derek Forbort , the Kings' 2010 first-round draft pick, was so eager to attend their summer development camp that he paid his way and shelled out for his hotel and meals. He had to do all that, actually, because he plans to return for a second season at the University of North Dakota and NCAA rules prohibit players from taking any extra benefits. "It kind of stinks," he said of paying all the bills, "but it's worth being here. It's good to get a little better taste of what the pro game is like and trying to adjust to it. " The 19-year-old from Duluth, Minn., was the tallest player at the two-day development camp, which ended on-ice activities Tuesday with a scrimmage and intensive practice in El Segundo.

For the light-scoring Kings, having the leading scorer of the Ontario Hockey League and the top scorer in Canada's major junior leagues on the ice at the Toyota Sports Center on Monday was a little bit like Christmas in July. The first scrimmage of the Kings' summer development camp was a big day for right wing Tyler Toffoli , who led the OHL with 108 points last season, and right wing Linden Vey , who led the three major junior leagues with 116 points. Each took a step forward last season and both want to use this camp to get noticed and get a step closer to the NHL. "You just want to come in here and show the progress you've been making," said Toffoli, the 47th overall pick in the 2010 entry draft.