Dawn Helfand and her brother Russ and sister Robin were all campers. I believe Russ became an FCC (the year after CIT--"Future Camp Counselor") and Robin, I think, worked in Arts & Crafts one summer and also led an Adventure Trip. Dawn stayed around the longest of the clan: started as a 10-year-old camper and spent her last summer at Frost Valley as the director of Camp Hird. Along the way, as a Tacoma camper, her cabin's JC was Lisa Ernst.
Later Robin - then Robin Glicker - began to send her three kids to camp and these wonderful guys, Dawn's nieces and nephew, have become mainstays. Allye, Jessie and Drew.
During the summer of 2006, Dawn and her husband Jim Huebner passed through and stopped by to see Dawn's sister kids - and I was delighted to see them myself, and snapped this shot of Dawn, Jim, Drew and Jessie.
Dawn's time:
1977 - JC
1978 - hired as counselor but became co-CIT Director
1979 - FCC Co-Coordinator (July), counselor (August)
1980 - FCC Director (July), VC (August)
1981 - not at camp?
1982 - CIT Director (July), Adventure Trip leader (August)
1983 - Hird Director
(From the 1983 staff list I see that Robin Helfand worked in the kitchen for the first half, and then led an Adventure Trip the second half.)
Now how ever did Dawn move from JC one summer to CIT Director the next? I remember what a phenomenon she was--how early on we saw her excellence--but I hadn't remembered such a jump. Surely that's never happened otherwise. (Well, as always, there's more to the story than the staff list tells. Here's Dawn's memory of it: "The JC --> CIT story, as far as I can remember, is that I was hired as a counselor, but recruited to assist Leslie Black as CIT Co-Director upon arrival at FV. I was SCARED (given that I was a scant 3 years older than the average CIT) but did it and, as they say, the rest is history.") (The photo here shows Dawn--upper left--in the 1977 staff picture.)
Dawn now has a psychology practice and has written a series of What-to-do guides for kids (and their parents). What do Do When You Worry Too Much is a kid's guide to overcoming anxiety, and What do Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck is a guide to overcoming OCD. And there are more. She's currently writing What to Do When You Dread Your Bed: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Problems With Sleep. Pay a visit to Dawn's web site.In the staff photo, who is the other person, below Dawn? I believe she's the sister of Joe McLaughlin--Joe who married Margaret Kremer. Am I right?
