Below are photos I took at Saturday's "Summer Meeting." The event combines a summertime meeting of the Frost Valley trustees with a ceremonial gathering for lunch - with Hall of Fame inductions, the announcement of the Eric Blum Volunteer of the Year Award (which was given to me this year, a complete and utter honor!), and presentations by campers and staff. The audience consists of trustees and their families, some alumni, the Hall of Fame inductees and/or their families and friends, some parents of summer campers, et alia. The photos of people behind the podium were taken by Dan Weir, by the way; full credit to Dan with his zoom lens!
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| The night before the Saturday gathering, a bunch of us met at the Castle for a dinner, which began with wine and snacks on the newly renovated Castle porch. Here is where we all got a wonderful surprise: Bev Gross Sutton, whom we knew in the 1960s at camp as Bev Gross, arrived with her partner Gordon. Bev had not been back to Frost Valley in 45 years. 45 years! She was, as I have mentioned elsewhere, a legendary Girls' Camp leader. And this was emphasized time and time again over the weekend, as women who themselves became camp leaders repeatedly described Bev is formatively inspirational. Here we have three of Bev's former campers standing with her. Yes, these three - Jody Ketcham, Debbie Ketcham Goodeve, and Billie Ketcham Heather - were all actually campers in Bev's cabins, either in Pokey or in Susky. This was quite a reunion. Later I will post the audio recording of a discussion I had with the four of them plus Barbara Hale who was also in Bev's cabin. It was quite something. |
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| Now Barbie Hale (far right) and Carolyn Shelburne (white jacket) join the Girls' Camp gang. Carolyn arrived at FV just after Bev Gross left in the late '60s, but, as Carolyn noted, everyone asked her then, "Did you know Bev Gross?" |
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| After the Castle dinner on Friday night, from left to right: Carolyn Shelburn, Rick Kaskel, Bill Primack, me, and Phyllis Kaskel. |
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| At breakfast on Saturday morning. Bev was still stunned by being back at Wawayanda. The Wawayanda kids and counselors were eating just then in the main room, so I went and ask Phoebe, the Pokey-Totem VC, if she wanted to meet her predecessor Pokey VC, and she did. So she and camper Audrey came back. Turns out that Billie Ketcham Heath was also a Pokey VC, so here you have three of them, reaching across camp history. |
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| At the luncheon on Saturday: Andy comes over from the Farm and offers a remarkable "Farmer's Market," a cornucopia of veggies from the Farm's gardens. Amazing. |
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| John Lucus Ketcham, looking just like his late grandfather John Ketcham, hangs around the Eva Gottscho memorial bench at Reflection Pond, while the Ketcham family, and friends, gather to bury Casey Ketcham's ashes on Memorial Island. |
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| Jim Ewen (also a close camp friend of Bev Gross) sitting with Carolyn. |
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| The Schnauffers, legendary Family Camp folks who have probably been to FV's weeklong end-of-summer family camp longer than any other family. Their grandson Carson was an Outpost camper this summer - and what a winner he is! |
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| Jeff Daly and Mark Gottdenker. I was pleased to see Eric Blum's dearest friends at the even where I received the award named for Eric. |
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| The whole crew of folks associated with FV's extraordinary dialysis program over the years. What a reunion. Probably there's never been such a gathering ever. This summer the program was operating in its 40th consecutive summer. |
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| Rafik Ghobrial (whom staffers from the late 1970s will remember as Rafik Melek) is now a prominent liver transplant surgeon, and director of his department at his Houston TX hospital - quite eminent in his field! His original interest in transplantation developed during his first summer as a counselor at FV, when he spent time working with kids with chronic kidney disease and met the doctors and nurses associated with the unit. Here Rafik is presenting the Hall of Fame induction for Dr. Ira Greifer. Ira is ill and was not able to come to FV to receive the award. Rick Kaskel accepted on his behalf, and soon Rick and Jerry Huncosky will visit Ira and present it to him in person. |
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| Three prominent pediatric nephrologists and one super-eminent transplant surgeon: from left to right - Rafik, Lou Reisman, Rick Kaskel, and Bill Primack. I will have more to say about them when I post a blog entry on the induction of Ira Greifer into the Hall of Fame. But for now it suffices to say this: can you imagine a camp - a summer camp! - that would draw such eminent medical people all these distances to come to note the occasion of the 40th anniversary of a camp program? If you know anything about how busy these medical high-ups are, what demands there are on their time, how little room they have for traveling, etc., and how high-level and intense are the hospital politics, you'll really appreciate my own mouth-dropping sense of this gathering. And they are all such sweet generous people, whose medical care has saved the lives of hundreds and probably thousands of children suffering from renal failure, and who pushed well beyond making it possible for these kids to live - who indeed sought the establishment of a program that would enable the kids to have a "normal" experience with healthy peers. In the first photo above, Rafik is bowing down to honor the kidney guys (a mocking gesture, to be sure). |
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| Now Stuart Kaufer has joined the crew. As dialysis technician and for many summers the coordinator of the dialysis unit at FV - a legendary character beloved by everyone in camp, counselors and directors and not just medical people - Stu spent every summer from 1978 through 1984 at camp, working countless hours and totally devoted to the kids. |
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| Jim Ewen and Bev Gross, dear camp friends seeing each other for the first time in 45 years. |
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| Lou Reisman and Jane and I took a walk around camp after the luncheon. Here was chatted with leaders of the MAC program, Gail Morris, Rae Nathanson, and Amani Danielian. |
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| Nadia gave a talk about her experience as a kidney transplant patient who attended camp as a camper and is now a junior counselor on the staff. It was a beautiful speech! |
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| The dialysis crew again. That's Judy Eichinger, Eva Gottscho's daughter, standing to the left (our right) of Rafik. |
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| Here we are, singing grace in three-part harmony. "Father for this noonday meal, we should speak the praise we feel..." We sung it "Girls Camp" style, which today is the only tune used at camp. The Wawayanda tune has mostly been forgotten. Mike Ketcham wanted us to sing that one, but we ended up singing the version with the easy harmonies. |
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| I'm speaking here after receiving the Eric Blum Volunteer of the Year Award. I had the pleasure of speaking directly in front of my wife Jane, my son Ben, and my daughter Hannah. I thanked each of them for tolerating my mania for returning to camp every summer! |
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| Mike Ketcham talks about his father Frank. |
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| Rafik Ghobrial talks about Ira Greifer and miracle of the dialysis program as it was created (with great risks) in 1975. |
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| Rick Kaskel accepting Ira's induction on Ira's behalf. |
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| Paul Guenther, former long-time Chairman of FV's Board and the major donor to the Guenther Family Wellness Center, introduced my award. It was an honor to have Paul do that. |
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| Bob Lomauro is a member of FV's board now. His wife Lisa and daughter Lauren joined him. Lauren of course was a long-time camper and staffer, and she was my daughter's counselor when Hannah was a camper in Lakota. After the festivities, Lauren visited the weekly Leadership Meeting (VC meeting for program planning) and there found her former camper....planning Lakota's final week's schedule! |
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| Here's Lauren with John Butler. John just returned to the NY/NJ area after several years at Stanford. He hadn't been back to FV in quite a while and seemed to enjoy getting back into the swing of things. |
