Welcome to the show. Im susan sikora. In 1990 barry and ilane Taylor Elaine taylor wanted to send kids to summer camp. Kids with hiv aids. The Taylor Family foundation was born. They built their own camp and invited more kids with chronic illness to join the outdoor fun. 23 years later still is still no cost to the families. To keep the camp going is the annual day in the park fundraiser. It will be next sunday, august 25th. We welcome back Taylor FamilyFoundation FounderElaine Taylor and celebrity host and the guy she cant get rid of for this event. Okay, well im sure and i know youre glad here there. We couldnt do it without him. In 23 years s this what you envisioned 23 years ago . No. It wasnt what he envisioned. We thought we were going to do a little fundraising for children with hiv. Then it just snowballed and the kids had nowhere to go. Then great good fortune, we met with the east Bay Regional Parks who is the landowner of the camp. We partnered and we built this amazing green facility. So during the school year, school camp. During 11 to 14 weekends a year we use it for medically fragile and developmentally disabled children. In the summer we take it over for the summer. Thats got to be a different kind camp in terms of activities, safety factors, medical support. What kind of things do these kids do . They do everything from the ropes course and going out to the reservoir and having a field trip. They have a horse program. We just started a Music Therapy program that is so successful and really for children like with autism, it unlocks them and allows them to capture their language and be a part of their little community. For kids that dont have that issue but maybe arent able to express possibly in a grief camp, it gives them a chance to write a song. Our therapists are licensed and trained and they know how to manage each program we do. For the child who has a disability and is distressed by it, it makes them feel calmer. It lowers respiration. It helps engage them in their illness and learn how to own it. You know what amazes me too, and im sure doug would agree. Its the list of kids who are there now. I mean, it used to be pediatric aids was the thing. Right. And then thankfully theres a handle on that. Much better control on that in terms of treatment and cure, really or success, certainly. Yeah. So these kids, while their numbers dwindled. You expanded the list and it was kids with cancer, kids with leukemia, kids with skin diseases that might be disfiguring and a hard thing to deal with. Yeah, preschool birth survivors. More for their parents than the children. We do a number of family camps. Then we do camps that are just the kids who are afflicted. Their siblings come with them. Even if the siblings arent sick . Its a support group for the siblings. Those kids kind of get back burnerred while the parents deal with what they have to deal with. They have no choice but to jump in and capture everything they can than child to make them well. Are the parents nervous the first time they bring their kids there . Yeah. If you have a child, you tend to be hands on anyway. But if theyre a sick child. What do you mean hes going to climb ropes . And youre going to take my kid where . When they pick their child up and their child is beaming ear to ear, theyre just theyre grateful and theyve had a respite too. Their child now has this sense of community and knows can keep in touch with friends theyve met who are just like them. I went one sunday. I finally got over there and watched this. And doug, youre there and theres a number of other celebrity hosts. Big community of people who have been supporting this for a long time. Rc david is there. This is what i watched though. I couldnt believe this. I watched you raise, im not kidding. I was sitting there with my husband. She just raised 50,000. And i dont think it was maybe 6 minutes and change. And they come after her. Well, you know, truly the proof is in the pudding, really. This is an organization elaine and barry taylor and their wonderful family and friends and this Big Community have created a gem. That has touched the lives of truly tens of thousands. Almost countless children, families, surrounding communities and so many ways. To see it in action, to see these kids and see their families is hugely touching. Of course that day is the big fundraiser. You depend on that to keep going . It is it. It makes our budget for the whole year. We do some other smaller things, really small. But this is it. We need to raise 1 million that day put 3000 kids through the camp. Thats not just for ropes to climb. I guess you have doctors and people who are medical experts. Theyre all volunteers. But its all of the food service and the license and trained profession also. The housekeeping and transportation for some children and now we have another program where kids who are really in crisis in their family, we have an Urgent Need Fund for them. What you mean . Like theyve lost a child and they werent expecting it and to have burial costs that they never thought about before. So were there without making families jump through hoops. They can actually get help immediately. Lets get to the fun here. Whats the hot stuff . Because i mean, when youre watching i never know what youre going to say. Im going to say this quickly. Whats fun is the whole day is fun. The whole day. It is one of the great days of the year. You come out to the camp. We get a wonderful day in the park. Theres shade to be under. Enthusiasm, shade, great food, great wine, great things. Silent auctions, live auctions. You feel just great. And at the end of the day you are exhilarated and hopefully contributed many other ways. So we got some great items. Give me your top three. We have the final of the voice. You get to go to the studio and be part of the studio audience and watch the voice. We have the eagles in new york. We have a river barge cruise. Anywhere europe . Europe. Ramped up quite a bit. We really work hard to try and find these. Those are the big ticket items that youre going to bid on after. But we should also say for people who dont have that kind of funding, you can take your checkbook, your mastercard, whatever. Buy raffle tickets. And the silent auction too. Were out of time. Day in the park. Benefit Taylor Family foundation. Thats next sunday. 11 30 a. M. To 5 30 p. M. If you want to do the silent auction, i suggest you go earl yesy. Its at camp rarro arroyo. The number is on your screen. Doug mcconnell, open road. Youll find him online doing his great stuff. Elaine, what can i say . Continued good work. Thank you for having us. Thank you for doing what you do for these kids. Stay with us, more ahead. Welcome become. For 30 years tom has been stalking mother nature. Hes a National Award winning outdoor writer whose passion for exploring the Natural Beauty of california is only matched by his love of writing about it. If youre ready to pitch a tent, hike a hill or sleep under the stars youll want to add toms moon california camping, the 18th edition into your gear. Tom has also completed his first novel. A mystery titled the sweet redemption. Welcome to the show. Good to be here. I got to do full disclosure. I have not camped out. I guess the first question is who makes a good camper and who doesnt . Everybody does. All you have to do is figure out how to sleep good. Create a nest and submerge in it and have the best nights sleep of your life. Most people go out and sleep about 8 hours, but it comes in 10 installments. Practice at home. Ill take a sleeping bag just about any day to a bed. All right. I assume its quiet out there, certainly. And pristine, hopefully you go to some place theres not a million people. Is there a better time to go . Right now its the summertime. The secret is simple. 95 of the people go to 5 of the areas. Join my 5 club. Its that simple. That time happens right now as the nfl starts, School Starts up. Every place starts opening up. Just last weekend at lake tahoe it was a zoo on saturday. But during the week it wasnt too bad. Whats the tolerance for roughing it that we have to have . Can you sleep on an air bed . If you do that, you camp pretty much anywhere you can drive to. Theres people who think, and maybe this is going to sound ridiculous. If you havent camped you might share this. Am i safe out there . Am i going to look into the eyes of a bear and then its too late . Ive seen about 500 bears. I had an encounter a couple weeks ago. The truth is, yeah, youre way safer than anywhere. The most dangerous part of the trip is driving to the trail head. And you get that out of the way and whole beauty of camping is your launch point for adventure. What sets you free . Does work . Talking on the telephone . Driving in traffic . Thats how most people spend most of their time or watching television. What sets you free . Hike, bike, fish, wildlife watch, go to a viewpoint. Wildlife photography. What sets you free . Do that and your life opens up. Do you recommend doing this with kids . Absolutely. What age . Start them as early as possible. Make sure theyre warm, dry and feel safe. Now safe, lets get back to that are you going to be creepy crawly things going around getting into the tent . Good tents or cabins which you can camp in cabins as well. Youre not going do have bugs come in. And the other thing is the beauty of it is when youre a child, what you see is so different from an adult. You have this blank slate in your mind. Its like anything is possible. So just the idea of picking a rock up and seeing the bug thats under it can change your whole world. In terms of the gear that youre going to buy, i would assume you have some kind guidelines so that people dont jump in and then theyve spent a ton of money they shouldnt have and they have all this stuff. What do you have to start with . You just accumulate stuff over time. If you have no gear at all and want to see if its for you, you can go to big basin redwood state park. They have camping cabins and you can rent all of the camping gear for your trip. So it stays there when you leave. Then you test it out. You slowly accumulate sleeping bags and lanterns and a cooler and a stove. Pretty soon youre set. You mention the peace and quiet and the good sleeping. Are people out there with apps and phones and ipats and this stuff . Is there an elaine toquet about using it out there . My goal is to get where those things dont work. And there are places. National parks dont have cell towers, for instance. You go to south lake tahoe, you see people sending messages, texting, doing their thing. My thing, well all you have to do is get in a kayak, get in a canoe, get on the water and youre away from that. Okay. All right. And expensive to do . Its up to you. It can be expensive or it can be nothing. I can go to a camp site tonight thats free and have all the gear so it costs nothing. However, you could go to post ranch in and it costs you 3500 a night. I think well skip that one. I went there for a glass of wine once. You can take your own wine in the woods though. State parks be careful . Some state parks have no alcohol zones. You update on your website if theres a change. If something is closed that wasnt when this went to print. Thethis is just california. Just california. Ive been to every spot. 275 recreation destinations. My thing is to communicate that experience and break the barrier with the reader and participant. Of course you have a novel right nower called sweet redemption. Writing that was different. Very few people know how to tell a story any more. Thats what i do in my newspaper job. I was hiking and thats where i started getting the idea. I sat down with four homicide inspectors and a Deputy District Attorney prosecutor. Told them my plot. And i wanted them to tell me how they would cat catch me. They say the ending is a twist. Im not going to go there. The book is called california camping. It is the moon outdoor series. The author has been doing this for a long time. He says you want to get a good night sleep, camp out. Tom, thank you for being here. Well see you out there. Maybe. Stay with us. More ahead. Although that charming girl with the pearl hearing has left the city, there is a must see exhibit. A marriage of art and navigating the sea, impressionists on the water showcases masterpiece paintings on loan from several world collections. Include paris, amsterdam and our nations capital. You can see the paintings through october 13th. We welcome back museum curator. Nice to have you here. Im so glad i went to see the girl with the pearl earring. Fabulous exhibit. Im so glad. Shes gone. This is here. How does this start . Do you begin with a theme of water . Well, we recognize that the americas cup races would be happening this summer. Exciting event for our city. We wanted an event that would appeal to visitors coming to watch the sailing races and those who want to come and see art. Okay. And legion of honor, you walk out the door you can see the bay. One of the best views of the Golden Gate Bridge in the city. And also nice views of art. Lets talk about some of the art here. Youre good at borrowing art. Well, we built these relationships with world collections. I think its our responsibility as a collection to also lend art to other exhibitions. Were so grateful. As a show, usually a combination of some from here and some from there . Yes, weve done several different kinds of exhibitions in the last few years. You might remember in 2010 we had a series of masterpieces from paris. Those came from one place. Well have an exhibition next year thats masterpieces from our National Gallery in washington, d. C. But the 85 works on the water come from all over the world. You can think about if youre hosting visitors from another country and theyre coming from all over the place. This actually is a painting by renoir. The boat were looking at we have a real life size boat of that very same type at the entrance to the show. Wow. Okay. This is really taking on dimension here. With the curators, assume you have to have a relationship. Obviously theres trust involved that everybody is going to handle these masterpieces that are irreplaceable with the utmost of care. Absolutely. That said, do you have to deal with i dont know, would it be egos of curators . Who gets to be first, who gets to be last, who gets stuck in the middle, do i have a good shot . Once you get the art, in terms of placement. Sure. Well i think as curators our job is to care for the works of art. We try and suspend our egos. I dont think wed get any work done. This painting, talking about egos. This artist, i dont know that he had a large ego. If i were him, id be proud of my accomplishments. Not only is he a fabulous painter, he designed the boat hes sitting in in this painting. Hes steering it with just one finger, demonstrating not only could he design and sail this, but its so easy he only needs one finger to do that. Youre a curator. Art is your thing. You know a lot about this. Should i be doing any particular kind of homework before i come to the exhibit to enhance my enjoyment of it . I think thats the wonderful thing about experience. Experiencing an exhibition. No right way to do it and no wrong way to do it. If you want to get our catalog, thats great. You dont have to do that. You can come and enjoy. This painting were looking at now is also by the artist. We have an exciting announcement about this painting that will be coming in a couple of weeks. Not something i can reveal just yet. Do you have a favorite in the show . I have many favorites in the show. I think that for me its a real revelation. This painting is typically on view at legion of honor. Sailboats on the sun. Sailboats have become something i was really intrigued to learn more about him. Not as well known as the other artist. He should be. Hes very talented. Would you take kids to this . Absolutely. Every now and then you have kids who are stars and they want to see this stuff. Dont even have to sell it. Others are going, this is boring. I dont want to do it. What age is good and how much should you prep them and how long should you stay . I think one of the appealing things about the show thats different is that there are these actual life size boats in the exhibition. So i think that would be very interesting. There are boat models also. We have some photographs. Look at that and move on to the next thing when they get a little fidgety. Is there a certain amount of time thats too long for young kids . I dont know. I think kids will tell you when theyre ready to go home. Okay. Best times to go. We are still in tour season. We have a lot of great weather ahead. We get another month of summer at least in september for sure. If not through october. Yes. But we still have people coming. Its nice to see them and were glad theyre here, but maybe we dont want to do everything with them. Legion of honor opens at 9 30 in the morning. Weekday, probably one of the more quiet times. Any time you can make it would be your worth why while. Is it handicap accessible . Absolutely. Do you have the tapes . Audio guides. Those are pretty good. I happen to really like our audio guide. I happen to be a voice on it. Maybe im not an impartial contributor. But i think for me i really like using audio guides. The act of looking is something that takes a great deal of attention. It takes away from looking at the work of art, which you will only get to see in this. If you can listen to something, you can understand a bit more about what youre looking at and also people youre learning something. Theres also a thing where you can actually push it ahead if you want to move on. You dont have to go on any set course. There are numbers. You can go to any picture that has a number. Thank you for telling us about this and for more information about this beautiful exhibit, you can call 4157503600. Going to leave you now at a look of clips from the upcoming dance festival. Im susan sikora. Thank you for watching. A vi. I dont want people to think this is how oakland is. Youre grad youre able to run and help somebody else. A violent week wednesday yenned in oakland. A car break in ends with a shooting. Neighbors went after the suspect and helped the wounded. In the Weather Department we have shock developments. Potential for thunderstorms means high fire danger. Well have details coming up in a minute. The bay bridge was a big test. I think in some case wes failed that test. You can have it fast or cheap, but you cant have it both ways. On again and off again, the new bay bridge has an opening date. What does the bolt drama say about the states ability to do big projects