Willowbrook summer arts camp receives Tualatin’s Community Enhancement Award
Published: Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 3:00 PM Updated: Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 3:05 PM
TUALATIN — Space wasn’t an issue at the first Willowbrook summer arts camp in 1982. The 20 or so kids who attended found plenty of room to roam around Tualatin’s historic Sweek House and the large lot surrounding it. The arrangement lasted only 10 years, as Willowbrook outgrew the house and moved to Browns Ferry Park. Today, the six-week arts camp’s enrollment regularly tops 1,700.”It’s been quite amazing,” said Althea Pratt-Broome, who founded the program. “I never expected it to grow beyond this,” she said of the Sweek House, where she has lived since 1955.
With the program entering its 30th year, Willowbrook has become a Tualatin fixture, attracting participants from around the world. The program was honored last week with the city’s second-ever Community Enhancement Award. The first was given last fall to Tualatin’s Lumiere Players theater company.
What: A six-week summer arts camp offering theater, music, crafts and other activities
When: June 27 through Aug. 5
Where: Browns Ferry Park, 5855 S.W. Nyberg Lane, Tualatin
Phone: 503-691-6132
The honor was as much in recognition of Willowbrook’s founder as it was for the program itself, said Richard Hager, a member of the Tualatin Arts Advisory Committee, which chooses the award winners.
“Althea’s been so dedicated to this program for so long,” Hager said.
Pratt-Broome, 89, smiles sheepishly about the honor.
“I was very surprised my name was on it,” she said.
Pratt-Broome founded Willowbrook after she “retired” — she uses the term loosely — from running a separate arts program in Southern California. In Tualatin, she hosted children in her own home, her own backyard, for the first decade, as Willowbrook continued to thrive.
By 1992, Willowbrook had grown too big for Sweek House and the 3 1/2-acre lot it sits on, bringing in as many as 250 children in a day. The program moved to Browns Ferry Park – at that time little more than an undeveloped empty field and an unused barn.
“It was all lumpy and bumpy, and the kids just had a ball,” Pratt-Broome said.
Willowbrook continued to expand at the park in east Tualatin, where it remains. Pratt-Broome retired a few years ago, and today the program is primarily run by her daughter and son-in-law, Rebecca Pratt and Richard Hall.
Things look quite a bit different from when Willowbrook first moved to Browns Ferry Park. A paved entrance connects to pathways through the rest of the 28-acre space nestled against the Tualatin River. Before kids arrive, Willowbrook sets up some 50 tents and multiple stages on four acres of the park.
“It’s like setting up a city in a park,” Hall said.
Willowbrook offers arts activities of all kinds, including theater, music, dancing, ceramics, crafts and nature studies. More than 175 staff members help put the program on each year, plus other volunteers.
The program hasn’t been without challenges, Pratt said. The 1996 flood wiped out much of Willowbrook’s equipment and supplies, before a Herculean community effort raised thousands of dollars to put it back on its feet, Pratt said. The recent economic downturn has hit enrollment in the past couple of years, she said.
Willowbrook’s organization has allowed it to evolve into a self-sustaining program, according to Pratt. While many former campers have gone on to notable careers in the arts, others have returned to as staff members and teachers, she said. An apprentice program allows older students to help while they’re still campers.
Pratt said she often hears from Willowbrook alumni who credit the program’s influence, even if they only attended a year or two.
Hager, the parks committee member, got to know Willowbrook when his daughter attended years ago. The decision to nominate Willowbrook and Pratt-Broome for an award was an easy one, he said.
“It’s a special place,” Hager said. “It’s a chance for the kids to spread their wings, to look at their options.”
