alumni children abound

Session 3 checked in today. Went so smoothly. I'm going to guess that there are FIFTY children, nieces and nephews, and grandchildren of former camp staff in camp today. It was like a reunion today. Bennett Brooks (long-time-ago camper) was here dropping off daughter Rory for an Adirondack "rambler" adventure trip. Glenn Kreismer (mentioned in this blog before) brought three of his kids, including his youngest son who is in Totem and is ready to go. The son of Jacqueline Dundorf Kremer and John Kremer - Ben - is here in Pac. And Andy Kremer's son Garrett is in Outpost. Steve and Amy Neubert Ketcham came with three kids for camp - a son for the farm, a son for Forest, and a niece also for farm. Stuart Duff's son Jamie is here to be a CIT. (Rumor is that Stuart will come for a week of session 2.) Lillian Rountree Lippincott drove daughter Jane for her CIT month, all the way from Pittsburgh. They stayed with Eileen Bradley last night, and I had the pleasure of seeing them together again, and took this happy photo (above). The Ketchams are below and, below them, are the Kremers.

Del Giannotti

He's a CIT (as mentioned in previous posts this summer) and today is from Wales but for the current week his "in cabin" assignment is Forest, and he's loving that. Last night he gave a devotion! Let's face it - everyone associated with FV who loves the Giannottis (there are many of us) is just plain proud that another Giannotti talent is let loose on this valley.

CITs become JCs

Last summer's CITs, now JCs. These photos were taken on the final day of staff training. Excitement....

when Sequoia first started

Here's a photo of Sequoia - during its first-ever summer. (Was it 1971 or '72?) The barn out there had been known as the "Trailblazers Barn" at first, home base for our Canada-bound canoe program. At some point in the 1960s it was also the home of the "CE's" - "construction engineers." Then it was "the CIT Barn" for a few years before the Crafts Shop barn was renovated into Hayden Lodge ('70). Once CITs moved into Hayden, Sequoia was created as the Adventure Village and that's--again--when this shot was taken (by Sven Grotrian). The guy you seeing wandering into "the lair" was Pat Ricciardi, one of the early and most avid Sequoia guys.

Ken Nathanson says the first Sequoia summer was '73: "I was in Sequoia the first year it was formed. The year was 1973. In addition to Pat and Sven, Rick Cobb was also a staff member that year. Perhaps in time another name or two will come to mind. It was perhaps one of my favorite years as a camper."

CITs minutes before they left

This morning, a gorgeous sunny day, the new group of CITs made last preparations before leaving on their 7-day hiking trip. I caught them in a happy moment, but I assure you there are some anxious ones as well.

3 alumni kids preparing for CIT trip

The CITs leave on their weeklong backpacking trip tomorrow morning. Here they are, packing at Out-trip. It happens that in this group there are three children of former FV staffers: Ken Nathanson's son Sam (standing, leaning into his pack, dark blue shirt, dark hair), Sandy Shapiro Bohn's son Braxton (blonde guy, sitting just in front of where the white-shirted CIT Coordinator, Anna, is walking), and my daughter Hannah (at the far right). How proud we are!

2006 CITs just before their out-trip

Diana Finkel: CIT coordinator to ultra-marathoner

Marc Hanna (1987-95) writes:

I was recently reminded of Diana Finkel when I came across her name in Sports Illustrated. Diana was my co-leader for the CIT's in 1994. She had endless energy and was one of those rare people who enjoyed absolutely everything she did. She couldn't sit still and couldn't stop smiling. During the camping portion she declared her role was to be the pack mule. It certainly wasn't navigator as she ateempted to start more than a few of hikes off in the opposite direction. She was also always up for a challenge, and I took advantage of that many times by saying, "I bet you can't........."

It seems her determination and deep gas tank are serving her well now since I recently saw her mentioned in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" section here.

She has become quite the ultra marathoner and recently broke the female course record in the Hardrock 100 by a whopping 2.5 hours. Two quotes of hers from an article on the race jumped out at me. On whether or not running 100 miles is fun - "Like I always say, it doesn't have to be fun to be fun." On how she was able to improve on her previous winning time by 4 hours and best the course record by 2.5 hours - "I didn't get lost as much. Last year, I got lost a lot. This year, I only got lost a little."

Below are two photos of Diana during her Frost Valley days.



The photo just above shows Diana with then-CIT Yoland Philpotts. Yoland was a FV'er from 1988 through 2003. Yoland writes: "After that CIT year with Diana and Marc, I went on to climb the counselor ranks and was VC of Pac in '99, CIT coordinator in '00 and again in '02. These days I'm in medical school at Einstein in the Bronx."

I don't want to leave

On the last day of session 2, I spoke with a group of long-time campers. They reflected on what their FV experience means to them and talked about what's next. Here's an audio recording of our conversation.

30-pound packs, and out they go

The CITs go out for an 8-day backpacking trip during one of the two sessions in which they're at camp. This blog has had much to say about that trip over the months and years, and so I won't add anything much this morning. The current group left for their experience on Monday, and here they are, about a half hour before departure. Former staff might want to note that there is one child of an alumna here. Can you identify who she is? Hint: you'd have to have been here in the early to mid 80s to know this girl's mom, or to have been here in the past six or seven years to know from the girl that her mom was once on the staff. If you know the answer, email me at afilreis AT gmail DOT com.

CITs out

Here's Nikki, a longtime camper, now a CIT, getting a last drink of dining hall water before she and her colleagues leave on their long backpacking trip. Yesterday. It was a cool, sunny day--perfect for the first day on the trail for these future counselors.

take off your thirsty boots

Two photos taken during one of the CIT out-trips last summer. Photos by Kristen Williams, who notes: "our whole group at North-South Lake campground."

Roy Sheinbaum

Roy Sheinbaum, writing me out of nowhere:

I definitely knew you at camp in the late '60s to early '70s and I believe I was in the same cabin with you at least one time and may have been a CIT with you in 1971. I was able to figure out that 1971 was the year I was a CIT from your account of the new building which housed the CITs that year. I have not thought a lot of Wawayanda in specifics but more about how great of an experience camp was for me. I do know that my long lost Wawayanda W patch from my last year there had the number 7 on it. 7 Summers of my life, so many incredible and character forming experiences, and I kind of assumed that like everything else the camp must not resemble what it was back then. Then somehow I got the inspiration to google 'Camp Wawayanda' and was blown away by what I found. I'm sure that the timing of this has something to do with the fact that my son is returning home from camp tomorrow (Camp Coleman, a Jewish camp in Georgia).

Among the materials I found on the site and on your blog was an account of watching the Apollo 11 moonwalk on a small black and white TV, set in a window of the Castle in July 1969. All of us were sitting on the lawn and barely could see the screen, but we were witness to history the likes of which we will probably never see again in our lifetimes. That was the summer of the flood and Woodstock. I have told the story of where I was watching the moon landing many times. I was interested in the preserved staff contract; I myself was an LIT probably in the summer of 1972. I know I made 200 dollars for 10 weeks of mostly washing dishes often while listening to the Allman Brothers 'Eat a Peach'. I saw the closing campfire agenda and do remember Jim Ewan the camp director. I have an extremely fond memory of a guy named John Thomas who I think was once camp director. Around 1970 I know I was elected 'camp director for a day' and got to make all of the announcements and run flag raising and got to feel the 'power' for a day. I don't remember many names but I am still friendly with Mike Margolin who I went to elementary through high school with. Mike told me that he took his family to Frost Valley during the fall one year. Some names I do remember are Ko Van Woune (a dutch guy who was a counselor), Danny Shapiro, Dan Tilles, Rich Friedland, Ellen Eisenberg; others escape me. I remember the overnights to 'High Falls' and some of the other sites. I don't think I truly appreciated what a special place the camp was.

I lived in Philadelphia and was an anesthesiologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital from 1986 until 1999, and worked at other hospitals in the Jefferson system until 2003. I got my medical degree from Columbia U. in 1982 and my bachelors from McGill University in 1978. I moved down to Florida in 2003 and now I practice in Broward County and live in Parkland, FL with my wife Sharon and stepson Seth.

August '73 CITs

I seem to be on an early 70s roll, so let me keep going for a bit. Below is a part of a photo reproduced in the 1973 camp yearbook of the August girls CITs. Top from left to right: the late Melanie Mackin, Lisa Ernst, Carole Wolff, and Linda Caplan. In the middle kneeling below: Melanie Brown (Halbe's niece). Lisa is now our Director of Development.

alumna nurse here now

Marianne Black (now Marianne Norelli) is here working in the new Wellness Center as a nurse. The networking must be doing its job. Here's Marianne:

"I was a camper/CIT in 1975, 76 and 77. Both of my daughters are at camp this year Rachel is in Tacoma (her 4th summer) and Juliet is in Lakota (her 1st summer), my other daughter Cara did not attend this year since she is travelling. I am also working as an RN at the new Health Center. Staying at Frost Valley has brought back many memories and I was looking forward to coming "back to camp" for the 2 weeks. As always the girls are having a great time and are always busy. The new health center is beautiful, I do not know how the nurses handled so many kids the summers before. I have some old FV books incase you want to post any old photos."

tribute to mom

The theme at this morning's Morning Reflection was "tribute." CIT Briana (Bri) and her sister Kira, a Tacoma camper, sang a song together in tribute to their mother. Everyone there was much moved by it.

why be a CIT?

CIT: camper in training (a camper who is being trained) or counselor in training? Whatever. CIT. The acronym is good enough. In a desperate move to streamline the sound of it, we once took to calling ourselves a monosyllable that sounded like "sits." And we wrote a song, to the tune of "You've Got a Friend": "You've Got a CIT ['sit']."

Canteen, crafts, stables or swim,
We'll answer to your slightest whim,
And we'll be there, yeah, yeah, yeah,
You've got a CIT....

I spent some time with the CITs last week and they told me why they wanted to be CITs. Click here and hear what they have to say.

CIT journal

Click on the image above; you'll get an enlarged image and should be able to read one entry in a collective journal kept by the CITs and their directors during late June and early July during the summer of 1982, 26 years ago.

The mimeographed journal was discovered by Lenny Aberman during a recent bout of spring cleaning at his home. "The leaders for the trip were Dawn Helfand and Glenn Horton. Some of my fellow CIT's included: Andy Gold, Jean Potter, Mark Mueller, Jason Comstock, Marc Robinov, and Cathy Guild. The others, Rob, Audrey, and Chris, I remember, but unfortunately, not their last names."

As you see, the entry above was written by "Rob." Here are Dari Litchman's speculations about Rob and others: "I have a strong feeling it was written by Rob Iverson - Rob and his sister Kelly became my close friends that summer. We are all Montclairians! I was a Sequoia camper that summer and we shared the village with the CITs. It felt so cool to hang out with the CITs at their campfire. Our VCs were Fran Grayson and Stuart Duff. I remember some of the other names of the CITs from Lenny's message. (Jon Bell and Andy Wiener were also campers with me that summer in Sequoia.)"

those good days are a hedge against today's sadness

Jodi Rossman (Jodi Rockower) at Giant Ledge. It's 1993 or '94 and she's with her co-CIT Director, Sam McTiernan. "Sam and I were a great team," she recalls, "and we had some great CIT's."

She's happy remembering Sam and that trip, but our dear friend Jodi is sad these past few days, having lost her father, Gerald Rockower of Oswego, New York, on November 15. If you knew Jodi at camp, or if you just want to be a member of Jodi's extended FV family, go to this site and leave a note for her and the family in the guestbook for Mr. Rockower. Jodi, take care of yourself and your family over this Thanksgiving.

Write to Jodi at Jodir(at)nycap(dot)rr(dot)com.

he carried her tent for her

A few summers ago Sandy Bohn (formerly Sandy Shapiro) and John Wellington were both judges at Challenge Night. One of the challenges involved the telling of stories about two very dear camp friends. The kids took their turns but then these two judges revealed that many years earlier they had been CITs together, and they proceeded to tell a short version of the story of their CIT (actually "LIT") backpacking trip.

The trip had been a difficult one, and John ended up carrying Sandy's tent for her. Here is a video recording of these two old friends, reunited at camp recently, telling of tough moments and enduring friendship.