singing in the rain in the snow

Go to YouTube and watch camp director Bob Eddings lead his version of "Singing in the Rain" at the recent session of winter camp. While you're there, check out the "related videos" on the menu to your right.

three girls (audio)

Three contemporary campers talk about their summer '07 experience. It's a 5 minute and 20 second mp3 audio file, and you can listen to it by clicking here. Topics that arise:

1) how good the staff is
2) rainy Olympics
3) winning Olympics
4) what you do when you know no one in the cabin
5) coming of age
6) how your friends at home react
7) anticipating a summer as an oldest camper
8) the air we can breathe

the day Harry Potter arrived

There was a buzz around camp the day the new Harry Potter came out, late July '07. A good many parents had pre-ordered the book from Amazon; Potter-styled Amazon boxes, nearly a truck full, were delivered to the Ad Office in the morning. Several enterprising staff members got into the pile and pulled out their own copies and hustled off to periods off and rest hour to get started on the reading. Mail is delivered to campers at dinnertime and so for most of the Potterites there was a whole long glorious day of anticipation. At dinner VCs came with bags and armloads of books.

Two Sacky counselors - Emily and Nikki, above - were dressed for the occasion.

Then the reading began. Somehow, campers who had, shall we say, a lot of activities to do, including an evening program, somehow got the time to read. Laiya A. was one of them. Laiya was already famous for, two summers earlier, having finished the then-new Potter book within 24 hours of its arrival. She did the same, somehow, in 2007. On this night I was walking around, CQ fire to CQ fire, "on call" (a sort of director-level night watch, a CQ of CQ's). Laiya was in cabin 36. At nearly 1 am, my "on call" evening nearly done, I walked slowly through Sacky (cabins 36-40, old 6-10--it used to be Susky). There was one little light shining out of a bunk window in 36. Surely this was Laiya, pulling an all-nighter for her cherished Harry. I walked quietly into the cabin...all asleep except indeed Laiya, who saw me and got a big smile on her face as she peered at me from under the flashlight which she held up with one hand while the other held the huge tome. And she said: "Al. It's really really good." I said goodnight and walked down the hill past the mists gathering across the surface of Lake Cole. Our own old magic, but for just that night not the only magic in the area.

Back in '05, Laiya finished volume 6 at sunrise. She was sobbing, sad at the death that concludes that book, but also, as she explained to me later, feeling lonely that she as a reader had experienced this all alone. The others in the cabin, her dear friends, awoke to the sound of Laiya's sobs and knew exactly what was going on. They all climbed into her bunk and all of them starting crying in sympathy. Through Laiya's tears: a smile. These were her friends and whatever it was that happened in this novel, they would feel what she feels.

Even the reading experience, typically a solitary thing, is an instigation to communal sympathy and emotional sharing. We're all in this together.

the Wawayanda spirit, it never does die

Max Geiser in the dining hall with his MAC kids, last day of session 1, summer 2007.

thank you, Ken

On September 15, 2007, we gathered at the farm (for those who don't know - it's along the East Branch Neversink road, past Claryville and a mile or so short of the Straus property) in order to dedicate the main building there (currently serving as a dining hall and meeting room - as well as bath facility for the kids in the summer, who live in yurts without bathrooms).

The building is now named in memory of long-time FV trustee Ken Estabrook. Ken loved his grandparents farm as a young boy and years later dragged his family off to live on a farm themselves. Overall he was a very successful attorney in the Westfield NJ area was very generous to Frost Valley with his time and money. His dream, all the years he was on our Board, was that we would create a working farm so that suburban and urban kids coming to summer camp would have the option of living on a working farm for two or four weeks.

Go here and read more about Farm Camp. "Among the animals living at Frost Valley's farm are: Pigs, chickens, sheep, rabbits, goats, cows, horses and of course birds. Farm campers will interact daily with the animals, performing chores, learning how to care for them, and understanding their importance in the ecosystem."

The Estabrook family traveled to Frost Valley for the dedication, and, over lunch which consisted almost entirely of farm-raised food, a number of Ken's friends shared stories about him.

I recorded some of these talks and hope you'll have a listen. You'll hear, in order: Fenn Putnman, President of the Board of Trustees; Jerry Huncosky, who is of course FV's CEO; Jenny Snyder, Farm Camp director; Alex Huncosky, Jerry and Patti's daugther and a veteran of Farm Camp; Ann Estabrook and finally Ken's sister who remembers their childhoods at the family farm.

Fenn Putman, President of FV's Board

Inside one of the yurts: Steve Roehm, Paul McGrath, Hunter Corbin, Lisa Ernst.

This is the building we dedicated to - and shall now be named for - the late Ken Estabrook.

Jerry Huncosky

Jenny Snyder

Alexandra ("Alex") Huncosky

sunrise at Giant Ledge

On the last morning of one of this summer's camping sessions, the Tacoma staff woke up the girls very very early (4 am?) and took them on a sunrise hike up Giant Ledge. Anna Armstrong, one of Tacoma's counselors, took this shot at the sunrise moment.

I think they cooked and ate pancakes up there. Could it get any better than that?

morning reflection

The photo was taken mid-morning on the middle Sunday of session 1 this past summer: Wawayanda has its Sunday Morning Reflection at - where else? - Reflection Pond. The Susquehanna staff leads a song.

The middle Sunday during summer camp has always been a blissfully slow day. Late wake-up, no flag raising, a late breakfast (these days an actual brunch), a chapel service or "morning reflection" organized by the CITs, and an afternoon of cabin activity or possibly an all-camp program. No regular activity periods. Remember all this?

Old-timers reading this will already be asking themselves, "Hey, why not in the beautiful outdoor chapel?" No worries. One of the camps uses the outdoor chapel - it used to be called "the Wawayanda Chapel." The other will typically use Reflection Pond. For many years there was a Girls' Camp Chapel. It was a clearing in the woods below and to the east of cabins 6-10 (now 36-40). It's long gone, having first fallen apart (the benches were not well made) and then bisected by the large trail that runs from above and behind Hird Lodge straight over to the dining hall. So now we have two chapels - the already-mentioned original outdoor chapel which seats about 250 people (named in 1961 [?] for the Kilbourne family - there's a stone marker indicating this in the back) and more recently the indoor Ketcham Chapel, which seats perhaps 90 people.

What did these counselors sing that morning? Well, it's not Kumbaya, that's for sure (no typed-out lyrics needed for that one). I overheard my daughter this past Sunday humming a tune that I know, and I asked how she knows it. "Oh, we sang it at Morning Reflection," she answered instantly, "and I can't get it out of my head." It's called "The Christians and the Pagans" and it was written by Dar Williams--very, very ecumenical. Here's the chorus:

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table
Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able
And just before the meal was served, hands were held and prayers were said
Sending hope for peace on earth to all their gods and goddesses

I asked her what core value this expressed and she looked at me as if I was an idiot: "Inclusiveness, of course!"

it's a boy!

The other day I reported on Stu Alexander's and others' efforts at stewardship of Frost Valley's butterflies. Well there's more butterfly news this morning.

Stu writes: "This photo is or our first born in the terrarium this year. It's a Boy! Good luck to Monarch # JBH 282 in safely reaching Mexico."

I asked Stu if we can find a better name for the little guy than "JBH 282" and I suppose he'll get back to me with that. Perhaps he'll be named Jose (for Reyes) or Carlos (for Beltran or Delgado) or even Gil (for Hodges).**

** Stu is a longtime Mets fan (taking crap from his Phillies-fan family), enjoying himself (as I am) at the moment. One Labor Day weekend years ago my kids and I were wandering the aisles of Veterans' Stadium during another awful late-season Mets-Phils game, looking for a decent hot dog, when I hear, "Al! Al! Frost Valley!" shouted from a few rows up. And there was Stu with his family, making the annual pilgrimmage back to Philly for some big-league baseball. How "big-league" it was is debatable. (Leave it to me. I just had to get baseball--humanity's most artificial activity of all--into this otherwise lyric entry on a baby butterfly...)

pull a spoke shave, learn a work ethic

It's Labor Day today and I woke up wondering whether what the day symbolizes has anything to say particularly to us. But of course it does. We all worked hard at the valley--very hard indeed (think about how much time off per day we got--very little)--but I'm thinking about "labor" in the traditional sense: physical supportive work that makes things function well, the infrastructure labor of the sort that mostly we take for granted. Were leaders, citizens, good family people being made of this kind of work just as they were in the counseling and helping-kids roles we normally associated with camp? You bet, and so for Labor Day '07 here's a story about the work ethic.

When John Kremer read the entry called "They Made Things Work", a flood of memories and emotional debts overwhelmed him. Here's what he wrote:

I just wanted to thank you for the effort, and memories of your blog. The photos and the musings sure bring back the memories. I especially like the recently posted photo of Carl and Marie Hess, Bill Van Zandt, Chuck and Ron, and Lou. This one pictured managed to capture some of the most influential people in my life.

I vividly remember as a teenager (14 or so, which would make it about 1975) getting up the courage to ask Carl for a position on the summer maintenance staff. It was in the FV office, and after some pointed questions to make sure I was serious, and worthy, he said yes. I was thrilled. That summer I became Bill Van Zandt's "helper". Ron was on the staff, as was Chuck, so it must of be about the time this picture was taken. I worked will Bill rebuilding many of the porches in the upper girls camp cabins, some of which are still in use. I spent long hours cursing camp in the yellow truck with Bill. He was a quite a character, as I'm sure you know. I'd known him for years, as my Mother [Marie Kremer] and Sisters worked with him when he was camp cook, but despite the familiarity, he still scared the hell out of me! Rough, grump and hard on the outside; with a heart as big as the Catskills. I learned much from him, not the least of which is a work ethic that still drives me today. I learned to use a power saw, swing a hammer and, pull a spoke shave. I came home with all my fingers, so the lessons took! I learned the importance of loving what you do, as he spent 20+ years as an administrator in the NJ Prison system, in a job he hated. I learned the horrors of war, as he often recounted his time in the Pacific during WW II. He, Carl, and later Chuck White, entered my life during those impressionable teenage years when my parents know nothing and as looked for guidance as I struggled with the transition from boy to man. They were all there, mentoring, supporting, and accepting me. I owe so much to them and by association to Frost Valley. The life lessons taught to me by that place and the people I encountered there will be with me forever. For that I am truly blessed.

John met Jacqueline Dundorf at camp (we called her "Jackie Sacky") and later they married. The photo above shows them, with their son, on the last day of session 4 this summer, coming to pick up their daughter after her own camp experience. I'm sure at some point John will tell them about the guy who made daddy so straightforward and disciplined--the late, great & sorely missed Bill Van Zandt.

4 kids from Rochester

Several times I've reported on the new Frost Valley-Rochester Partnership, which is perhaps too-elaborate a phrase for the project through which Andy Wiener and his friends raised funds and arranged to send four kids to camp each for two weeks this summer. Here's a photo of the kids and here is Andy's prose about them:

Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod, of course!), Age 12. Almost as tall as me. Kind and soft-spoken. When I picked up the kids, the assistant camp director pulled me aside just to tell me how great a kid he is.

Taylor C., age 11. When she saw my own two girls and I approaching to greet her, Lea and the other RC kids, she ran up to Sophie and gave her a huge hug. It was immediately evident what a warm girl she is and what a great time she had.

Jahtejia L., age 11. When she saw us coming, she came to give me a big hug. She really appreciated the experience.

Leonard G., age 11. This smiley guy must have spent the whole 2 weeks bouncing off the walls! He had so much energy!

For more on Andy and this project, go here.

new alumni coordinator

Our wonderful Alumni Coordinator Gwen Marshall is leaving the area--heading to the southwest with her husband John**--and we wish her well, and thank her for all her efforts with and on behalf of alumni in the past year.

It was just announced to the FV staff a few minutes ago that a new Alumni Coordinator has been hired. Many of us know her and already admire her: she's Melissa Pauls, who, despite her young years, has been pretty much everywhere around the U.S. and done many remarkable things (even worked for the N.Y. Mets for a season). We know her from two great summers as our waterfront director and, for the summer just ended, as Assistant Program Director. (She and Kam Kobeissi--shown in the above pic with Melissa--were both Assistant Program Directors, supporting Steve Parsley as Program Director.) Melissa's got huge stores of energy and is very, very, very smart (IMHO).

I personally am looking forward to working with Melissa in her new role. I hope you will welcome her to the alumni community: mpauls [at] frostvalley [dot] org.

** John Marshall is a Frost Valley guy, too, by the way. For some years in the early 70s John was one of the program staff at the Montclair Y and, as such, was in charge of the many large weekend groups (including the father-son program called "Indian Guides") that came to the valley in those years.

Annie Old School

Annie Galligan is a rigorous Frost Valley traditionalist. But she's only 17. How is this possible? Well, she just finished her eleventh summer in the valley and loves it completely. She spent much of the summer in Sacky, although she did an unusual 2-week stint in Forest (yes, with the 10- and 11-year-old boys). One evening during session 3 I told a late-night story to Forest ("The Doubletop Plane Crash Mystery," featuring appearances by Ed Monda, Bud Cox, Dave King, Tom Ashbaugh, Bill Abbott, Jeff Daly, and Floyd Hird--quite a cast), and at one point looked around at the faces in the firelight and saw Annie standing there. "Hmmmm," I thought to myself, "I know Annie is Old School and seeks out every opportunity to hear about the old days, but this is really a stretch--that she'd come from her village to hear Forest's story." Then I learned that she was in fact a Forest counselor! My daughter (13 years old and a Sacky girl) thinks Annie Galligan is about the coolest thing going. "She knows exactly who she is," she says. How would I know her if I saw her? I asked. "Well, probably she'll be wearing clothes you wear at Hirdstock--except it won't be Hirdstock that day." Annie and her Sacky pals ran a village "Throwback Day" and it was once again the 1970s in camp. They sang an interminable version of the Announcements song, for one thing.

I recently caught up Annie while Sacky and Hemlock were having a lunchtime barbecue under the big tent. They were playing serious old Rock, grilling, and chilling. Old School backrubs were being dispensed. Someone was braiding someone else's hair. Several girls and boys were lazily throwing frisbees and chatting. It seemed the perfect moment to find out what makes Annie Old School so utterly grok the past. Here's the recording of our conversation.

Photo: from left to right, Dave O'Brien, Woody Kass, Harry McCormack, Lauri Bourette, and Annie Galligan.

giving kids the second chance

Pictured here: Bob Eddings (left) and Steve Parsley.

I've mentioned the remarkable Bob Eddings in these entries before, but finally caught up with him and had a good conversation, part of which you can hear here.

"Old Wawayanda" dedicated to the '07 staff

The song "Old Wawayanda" is alive and well--its spirit never dies, indeed--and we've been singing it all along, but finally two nights ago had a chance to record it. Here is that recording. The preface is my dedication of the song to the 2007 staff. I asked three other FV generations to help me lead it: Jeff Daly, Chris Harper and my daughter Hannah--and attempted to convey to today's campers and staff that there's a lot of you folks out there who would have given eye teeth to sing along with us or at least to convey the same feelings. That spirit never does die.

An earlier entry includes the lyrics to this song.

notes on the leadership generations

Dan Goldman has a significant 12-month full-year job in Manhattan, but not so significant that he couldn't get the heck outa town for a week to come...back to the valley to volunteer in any capacity needed. Dan has become one of those jack-of-all-trades. In '06, however, he was between jobs (or some such thing) and worked as a counselor. But otherwise lately it's been hit or miss: Dan tries to be there when he can.

Since I began to listen closely to Frost Valley voices (long before starting this blog) I've been impressed at how relatively articulate these people are about the value of their experiences. I say "relatively" and without pointed judgment mean only to say that relative to the way most people talk about their most important experiences, these people can really describe what they feel and what's important. Maybe it's just that there's a FV dogma we learn and then can repeat when someone asks. But maybe it's that we learned the value--itself a value--of talking about values.

I spent an hour or so with Dan the other day at camp, and here is a good piece of that conversation.

it takes a village to raise a child

Notwithstanding its overuse, the African proverb is surely true, as perhaps--given the term "village"--we've known, especially us, for a long time.

At any rate, Andy Wiener agrees and has done something about it - done something to connect his adopted city of Rochester, NY, to his favorite community of villages. He formed a relationship with an urban elementary school, worked with Frost Valley's development and summer camp offices, and then raised money among family and friends. Enough money to send four kids from Rochester to camp this summer on full camperships.

When I talked with Andy on the last morning of session 4--just yesterday--he hadn't met two of the kids and hadn't heard anything about their experience. We hope to post something here as a follow-up, but in the meantime I think you'll enjoy hearing what Andy has to say--about his time at camp in the 80s, about being the parents of two campers, and about this new Frost Valley-Rochester Partnership.

So do please hear Andy Wiener. And here is Andy's description and how and why he created this project.

there for you

These three long-time camp friends, Chrissy Mohle, Chris Harper, and Lexi Cariello--all three were first-time VCs this summer, of Sacky, Windsong, and Mac Girls respectively--worked up assorted songs in 3-part harmony and sang them here and there throughout the summer. They saved Bon Jovi's "I'll Be There for You" for the last--for the final closing campfire. I guess this time you're really leaving. I heard your suitcase say goodbye.... Here's my recording of their song.

The song was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and released in 1988 on Bon Jovi's album New Jersey and released as a single in '89.

saying goodbye (and thank you) to Mac

Matt and Lexi were among the leaders of Mac this summer. Readers of this blog, even those whose era precedes that of the Mac program, which began in the mid-80s, should by now be familiar. "MAC"=mainstreaming at camp. The campers in Mac village (really, three or four connected villages) have one or several disabilities and range very, very widely in abilities, but one thing they all can do is come to camp for at least two weeks and love every minute of it. Frost Valley has become justly famous for the almost total integration of able and variously disabled kids. They play together, they get to know each other well, they love each other, and, on the last night of camp, they all join together singing and crying at the closing campfire.

Back to Matt and Lexi, shown above. Matt wrote a song as a means of expressing his and Lexi's and the other Mac staff's thanks to the Mac kids for how much they teach and give to them. If you listen to the song, you will believe that this is truly the feeling most if not all Mac staff have by the end.

I've edited the audio recording of the song together with Lexi Cariello's short village chief speech ("VC blurb") which she and the other VCs gave at the very end of the campfire. What Matt and Lexi sang earlier and what Lexi says at the end go beautifully together.

Yes, the sniffling you hear in the background of this audio is just that: the stifled sobs of a group of Windsong girls who were sitting behind me as I held up my little recorder to catch this great moment. Surely the sobs add to the aura.

I hope you know I'm always on your side,
and I hope you know you shouldn't have to hide...
Everythhing I've done for you you've done for me
in so many ways...

Geyer Hall

On a warm, sunny day in April ('07) we gathered at the valley to honor Helen Geyer and to dedicate the newly renovated building named in recognition of her stunning generosity. She made a large gift toward the current capital campaign, yes; but over the years she has been a dependable and heartfelt supporter of what we do. As I've perhaps mentioned earlier, Helen was the first woman to serve as a member of FV's trustees. She loved this particular weekend. This picture captures the moment of the ribbon-cutting. From left to right: Paul Guenther (chairman of our board), Hunter Corbin (long-time trustee and chair of our development committee and head of the Hyde-Watson Foundation), Jerry Huncosky (as everyone knows, FV's talented CEO), Helen, and Fenn Putman (President of the trustees).

Helen's granddaughter was camper and counselor in the mid-80s to early 90s and her great-grandson was a camper here this summer for six weeks.

If you haven't seen this thoughtful, lovely renovation of the old Girls' Dining Hall, you really should. One nice feature: while digging around the lower level, Tom Groschell, our director of construction, noticed that if we dug out under the main part of the building we would have a large space for storage or activities. Sure enough, they dug. So now we have a large activity space (for one thing, we can do indoor archery there, as well as floor hockey) and--get this--a work-out room/gym for staff, complete with new cross-trainers, stepmasters, exercise bikes, and even a wall-mounted large-screen TV that receives cable reception.

that was the month that was

Eric Blum has written a diary-like entry, breathlessly and emotionally describing his second, third and fourth weeks here this month. I've linked the entire entry and hope everyone will read it. It's best read in full. Here are three small sections: first, about the last day of third session at the waterfront; second, about the moment after closing campfire that evening; third, part of this closing thoughts, written last night, the last evening of the last session. For more on this last passage, you should really read the whole entry; my excerpting doesn't give the full gist of what Eric's final thoughts are. Okay, here are those selections:

I have also have had the pleasure of working with the waterfront staff on a number of occasions, these folks are down at the waterfront in all types of weather providing a fun and safe place for the campers and staff to cool off or just hang out on the dock. On the last full camp day while I was 'guarding for I believe susky/forest the last buddy check was called and as the campers were exiting the water, a group of susky girls realized that this was thier last time to jump into the green section for the entire season-as they were approaching the the dock to make that 1 final jump into lake Cole I had to stop them, since it was time to go, I did my best to stand my ground in enforcing the "rules"-however in the end not even I could deny these kids one last chance to take the plunge and I conveniently "turned my back" (keeping the campers in my peripheral vision of course) while they "broke the rules" and laughed about it the whole way back down the dock to get their buddy tags-does camp get any better than this.

Thursday night as always was closing campfire, for Wawa and the Hird. I unfortunately had to be out of camp for most of that time and missed the actual campfires; however I did make back into camp in time to see the villages making their way back to their cabins, as campers have been doing for over 100 years. It never ceases to amaze me the emotions that are displayed. I witnessed a camper who had been bound and determinded to go home at the beginning of the session who was now crying not because she missed her home and parents but because she knew how much she was going to miss camp and all the new friends that she had made. AS I watched the processionals I couldn't keep myself from humming "Four Strong Winds" while watching the moon rise over Wildcat.

And finally this passage from near the end, written on the final night of camp (last night):

As I realize that this is getting very long and I have just returned from the Hird closing campfire, which means the only thing left now to do is watch the buses and cars roll in for one last time as the campers and staff leave this summer behind physically to return home to their normal lives, I will leave you with these few final thoughts from an "old timer" here at the valley. Many changes have occured over my 22 summers here--some I like, others I'm still on the fence about, and still others I must say I don't care for. This past session I have had the opportunity to catch up with some alumni from my years as a counselor, Milton Pittman and Andy Wiener, to name a few. Both of these guys haven't been back to camp while it's been in session for many many years. I could see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices that even though the camp has physically changed, the spirit of this place remains the same, from generation to generation.

A little later I'll add a photo or two to go with this. I'll also hope to add an entry about the abovementioned Andy Wiener, who has been visiting the past two days and whose two daughters are fourth-session campers. Andy has done a remarkable thing: he and his wife and friends in Rochester, creating the Frost Valley-Rochester Partnership, worked with an urban school and sent four kids to camp who couldn't otherwise afford to come. They have been here this session. Talk about giving back. I'm so impressed by what Andy has done--and by the steady conviction with which he's done it--that I'm thinking of attempting the same for several Philadelphians next summer. What about your city or town? Could we do the same there? Think about it.

Meantime, enjoy Eric's diary. And many thanks to Eric for being our diarist.