Crowning Moment...

Tabby Savage, executive director for the McDaniel-Tichenor House, said this year the girls got a special treat; honey from a beehive extracted from the mansion’s side porch. Savage said campers learned about honeybees and were allowed to sample some of the honey gathered from the extracted hive.

Little princesses are assisted by older girls, known as junior gypsies and gypsies, Savage said. The junior gypsies are middle school age and most of the gypsies are members of Walnut Grove High School’s Beta Club. The older teens earn community service hours when they volunteer at Princess Camp.

Anna Scroggins, a WGHS student, said this is her second year as a Princess Camp gypsy.

“I’ve been assisting behind the scenes,” Scroggins said. She’s helped with snack time, loading and unloading carpool and cleanup.

Junior gypsy Hailey Sellers, a Loganville Middle School student, said she helps guide the campers from one activity station to another, and assists little ones to and from the bathroom.

“I was in Princess Camp and I went to DIVA Camp; so I wanted to help,” Sellers said.

DIVA Camp is for girls ages 8 to 12. This annual camp will be held July 11-14 this year. Like Princess Camp, DIVA campers are divided into groups and rotate through activity centers like etiquette and history, but they also learn about nutrition and “spa.”

Women that serve on the McDaniel-Tichenor House Board of Governors also volunteer to help with Princess and DIVA camps.

Eleanor Prather and her daughter, retired math teacher Martha Bell, are longtime volunteers.

“My mother got me into it when my daughter was little,” Bell said.

Bell said several of her former colleagues from Youth Middle School have brought their children to Princess Camp.

Along with the gracious high school girls who dress like princesses to greet the little ones, Fairy Godmother Terry Anderson interacts with campers. This year, Anderson had a guest, Miss Heart of Walton County, Delaney Gelsthorpe.

The Beta Club members who portrayed Disney princesses this year were: Abigail Ramos Rodriguez as Moana, Kaitlyn Kilgore as Belle (Beauty and the Beast), Karis Girswell as Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Brianna Fagan as Cinderella, and Lydia Hogsed as Rapunzel.

The carriage company that supplies the elegant white Cinderella-inspired carriage for Princess Camp, Back When Carriage Rides, is based in Winder and is operated by Joe Watkins, according to Savage.

The historic mansion was built in 1887 and was home to the descendants of Georgia’s Governor Henry McDaniel, who served from 1883-1886. The home is located at 319 McDaniel Street.

For more information, email info@mcdaniel-tichenor.org or call 770-267-5602.