2026 Youth Cosplay Camp

"For those interested in learning more about cosplay, the term comes from the meshing of the words 'costume' and 'play' which identifies a social hobby in which individuals dress as their favorite characters from popular media, movies, games, anime, and even their own original creations.

While wearing costumes, 'cosplayers' as we are called, go to conventions where they can attend informational panels, compete in costume contests, meet their favorite actors, peruse the artist alley, and much more.  They can even attend more casual events like going on a picnic, a hike in the mountains, walking around the mall, or just hanging out at home and setting up a photoshoot to bring their characters to life and document their hard work. Cosplay is a creative endeavor that can be as simple as buying a costume online and wearing it casually, or making the entire costume from scratch with deep research into historical aspects of the costume, crafting techniques, and lore of the media from which it originates.

Cosplayers can engage in the community casually with a small group of friends, larger social groups, or even professionally, getting hired to attend conventions to judge contests, host educational panels, be 'face' characters at movie premiers, and making costumes for other cosplayers! The opportunities in cosplay are endless and lead many down the route of seeking a career in theatre, sewing, cosmetology, film-making, voice acting, content creation, education, and much more. Cosplayers can learn many important life lessons about time-management, fabrication, budgeting, organization, public speaking, interpersonal relationships, art, and research techniques through their crafting and interactions with our diverse community."

-Rouxan Cullen-Rockwood, RMEQ Youth Program Coordinator

The week of July 13th was filled with crafting galore for our first annual Youth Cosplay Camp!  During this week-long day camp, our youth explored the topics of sewing, character design, foamsmithing, and thermoplastic fabrication!  Youth worked through many activities and intensive panels learning in-depth practices and techniques to further their skills in cosplay.  Earrings, bracers, rings, swords, crowns, and collars were made as our final projects from campers!

We would like to thank our wonderful sponsors for making this camp possible: SewHaven (www.sewhavenltd.com), Blick Art Materials (www.dickblick.com), The Foamory (thefoamory.com), McGuckin Hardware (www.mcguckin.com), and Mehron Makeup (www.mehron.com).  Our youth got to work with the finest materials and take home a bunch of goodies to further their crafting journey's because of the impactful donations made!