Today is check-in for 4th session. Several FV alumni will be here to help greet families, show them to their children's cabins, haul luggage, etc. Milton Pittman is here to help, as is Bill Abbott. (More, I hope, on Milton in another entry.) The entire Ettelman clan will be here too: the families of Laura Ettelman (now Gunter) and Sue Ettelman (now Eisenhauer). Both were once campers and staff, and I'm pretty sure Sue had the longer run--a long, long one in fact.As many reading this blog will know, Frost Valley is nearing the end of a major capital campaign, raising funds (a larger goal than ever) to renovate the old Girls' Dining Hall, build a new lodge immediately to its west (more or less where Ricciardi Cabin used to stand), and build an entirely new Wellness Center complex on the hill in front of the dining hall and just above the laundry, Brown Pavilion and hardcourts. Many alumni and alumni families have helped by making contributions. I'm sure at some point I'll have a chance to acknowledge them in separate entries, but today, with the Ettelmans returning as volunteers, I'm thinking especially of their generosity. Their donation made possible the beautiful new kitchen in Geyer Hall (formerly Conover English Hall--the aforementioned old Girls' DH). During the dedication of Geyer Hall back in April I took some pictures of the kitchen with its new sign honoring the Ettelmans, but they didn't come out. Above is a shot of the family taken just outside Geyer during the outdoor part of the April '07 dedication.
I wouldn't be a good Trustee if I didn't add: if anyone reading this wants to be part of the campaign, please write me at afilreis [at] writing.upenn.edu or click on the little envelope icon below this or any entry. Alumni are entirely funding the main "Alumni Reception Room" in the new health center and to the "Joy White Nurse's Office," a comfy & spacious space for the nurse that we're building in memory of the utterly remarkable woman whom so many of us loved as a second mom and who served FV with great heart and soul as nurse for 18 years from 1973 until 1991
