Last night I awoke at 3 AM feeling chilly. Sleepily I grabbed a second blanket and slept soundly and happily another 3 hours. Yes, folks, here at Frost Valley it was a two-blanket night. A starry sky, the sounds of full streams...perfect night for an overnight, as Susky and Forest found out in their sleeping bags around fires at their various campsites. And this morning, well, it's gorgeous. Campers and counselors in sweatshirts at breakfast.Today folks start to arrive ahead of tomorrow's annual summer Board of Trustees meeting. In the past few summers, we've transformed the summer meeting somewhat. Now it is essentially our "annual" meeting (which used to be held in May in NJ). We invite many guests (80 expected tomorrow) and we use the occasion to induct two or three or four people into the Frost Valley Hall of Fame. Tomorrow we will honor:
Jane Brown
Emiko and Tatsuo Honma
Charles R. Scott.
I'm honored to be giving the introduction to Jane. Bud Cox will speak about Charles Scott, who was, of course, the first director of Camp Wawayanda in 1901 and directed the camp for 21 years. Scott formed the first lifesaving corps at a camp in 1910 (of course also at Wawayanda) and he was the first president of the American Camping Association. He visited regularly through 1954. It was then, that summer, when he died suddenly in the dining hall--surely a fitting end, if an end had to come. (Bud was actually there that day in '54 - a camper at 10 years old in his first summer.)Marie Hess is here for her usual all-August stint, volunteering as hardily as ever. She's amazing. David Gansler, who hasn't been here in years, will be a guest at the meeting tomorrow. Jeff Daly, now directing a Y in the Philadephia area, makes his triumphal return. Lourdes Montoro is here as well (also as usual in August).
The current Pokey-Totem VC, Sian Martin, went to her dentist for a check-up during a recent holdover weekend. Inevitably they got to talking about Sian's summer job, whereupon her dentist, John G. Pitman, told her that he too had been a counselor here, back in the 60s. I remember him! He was (is) British and was a member of the "Athletics" staff in 1967 or '68. I remember John advertising the Athletics program at Flag Raising by singing "They call us Ath-a-LET-ics" to the tune of Donovon's "Mellow Yellow." So this morning I will send John an email and see if I can get him to be back in touch with his old camp.
