Mountain Arts Camp held at the Crazy Quilt in Newcomb

By Charlotte Underwood

NEWCOMB, TN (WLAF)- Kids were getting to be kids on a hot summer day, splashing in water pools, slip and slides, water balloon fights, watermelon and cookies and more thanks to the Mountain Arts Camp held at the Crazy Quilt Appalachian Outreach Center in Newcomb. The camp is an annual day camp run by the Crazy Quilt, which is operated by Catholic Charities of East Tennessee. The camp started on Monday, June 22nd and wrapped up on Thursday, June 25th with a “fun day” that involved lots of “water games”.

TOP PHOTO: The Annual Mountain Arts Camp was held at the Crazy Quilt Appalachian Outreach Center in Newcomb from June 22 through June 25^th and ended with a fun day full of water games, cookies, watermelon and more!

The Mountain Arts Camp is run by high school student volunteers from all over the country who come as part of the Catholic Heart Work Camp.

“There are about 250 student volunteers that all stay at Catholic High School in Knoxville and sleep there overnight during this week and they all get distributed to different sites during the week and this is always one of those sites. They run the camp, do different activities, they always have lunch and snacks, so you know the kids are getting something to eat and then on the last day, they get to have a fun day and that involves water balloons and other fun things,” said Chief Operations Officer for Catholic Charities of East Tennessee Paul Ritter.

These kinds of day camps happen all across East Tennessee with high school students coming in from all over the country to help with programs.

“We have three sites that they go to through our organization, but they also go to a lot of other different organizations. So, they come in from around the country, they stay at Catholic High School in Knoxville and then they get in busses in the morning and they go out to a lot of different sites,” Ritter said.

(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-07/01/2026-6AM)