DENVER (KDVR) — When deadly flooding swept through a Texas summer camp just days ago, it hit especially close to home for Arvada Mayor Lauren Simpson.
Before public service, Simpson spent three summers as a counselor at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas — the very camp where hundreds of young girls were recently forced to evacuate.
“It’s one thing when we see these things on the news and it’s a place you don’t know, so you kind of follow along, but when it is a place that you know, all the details start filling inside your head whether you want them too or not,” Simpson said.
Known for its focus on faith, friendship, and summer tradition, Camp Mystic has long been a beloved destination in the Texas Hill Country.
“It’s just a really special time, and they do some fun stuff to bring girls out of their shells, to help them recognize, to cheer them on, and it’s just … it’s hard … it’s camp! Like, it’s camp!” Simpson said.
For Simpson, the tragedy is even more personal. One of the cabins where campers went missing is a place she once called home.
“One of the cabins, twins two, that I lived in, for the August term of 2003, it’s one of the cabins where some of the girls have gone missing from,” she told FOX31.
Now a mom herself, Simpson said the heartbreak of this moment is hard to put into words.
“I haven’t been able to take my eyes off the coverage,” Simpson said. “It’s just been so heartbreaking, especially as the mom of a girl that age now.”
She’s also calling on Coloradans to show empathy and extend support however they can.
“I think right now it’s really important to just remember we need to support one another and it doesn’t matter who we are, we’re just people and we help each other,” she said.
That support is already taking shape in places like Aurora, where one woman — a longtime Texas resident — held a vigil for flood victims and launched a GoFundMe for families in need.
“The reason why I jumped in and got involved is because I’m a mother with two girls myself,” said Marilyn Sterrett, who now lives in Aurora. “And at the time we were living in Texas, my girls were around that same age, and that camp is something that I would have sent my kids to.”
Simpson said while her time at Camp Mystic was long ago, the connection to the place — and the people — remains.
“I love that Colorado is helping,” she said. “My heart goes out to any and all families that have connections there. It’s been some time for me, but I still look quite fondly on it — so I know the families there are hurting.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
