Rick Wormeli speaks for many of us when he says...

Here's Rick Wormeli, responding to the news of Irene's impact on Frost Valley:

Thanks for this, Al. I worried about FV all weekend. We came through fine here in northern Virginia, but other places in Virginia did not fare as well. I watched the Outpost singing that you captured on video as they prepared for Hirdstock -- Wow, was that wonderful and Intensely moving, especially after just viewing the pictures of the end of Pigeon Lodge. I spent a summer in Pigeon Lodge back in ‘82 or ‘83 with Iscusfa, the Performing Arts Camp, with David Sunshine, Carrie Fiedler, and PR McCollum, among others. We also stayed there for some off-season planning weekends for the Directors throughout the 80’s. ‘So many memories of Pigeon and Biscuit Creek….and the music in cabin 37 pulled at every counselor heartstring.

What an amazing emanci- pation, what a conduit for serious connection, Frost Valley is! The powerful messages and the lifting of humanity found in Hirdstock, the Olympics, closing campfires, and just being with one another -- wow. ‘Nostalgia, yes, but none of it superficial. The best of those times are who we are today, contributing to the world. Looking at all your posts renews the fire to re-create a Frost Valley connection and experience with others beyond the Catskills. I need to weave FV sentiments and virtues more purposefully into my work with schools, when sharing the journey with friends and family, and even with strangers sitting with me in airport lounges waiting for delayed flights or when debating those with different politics than my own. Something’s right with the world when Frost Valley has such a positive impact on those who walked its paths.

With so many worthy organizations and positive experiences for children and adults in our society running out of steam or crippled by the economy, it’s refreshing and hopeful to see Frost Valley still maintaining its vision and growing strong. And you’re right: FV is a reminder of the ethical/compassionate/courageous things we do today and pass on to our children. It’s hard to know where FV ends and I begin, and that’s a really nice feeling.

Thanks again, Al, for taking the time to post the observations and photos. They all mean a lot to those of us who can’t get back for the summer.

For more about Rick, go here. In the photo above, taken at the 2001 reunion, Rick is in the middle, third from left. Left to right: Dave King, Digger Shortt, Rick Wormeli, Al Filreis, David Allen.

staff list for "The Hird" 1985

Here (click on the image for a larger version) is the beginning-of-summer staff list for "The Hird" in July of 1985. The roster changed a bit as the summer went on, but only a bit. It was a superb staff--the best group of VCs I ever directed. I believe this was the first summer of PAC, possibly the second--only called "Quinnipiac" at the start of the summer. Notice that there were just two staff there--Dave Gold and "Flash" Gordon--for all those boys in Hird Lodge. What's odd-seeming is that Hemlock's sister village, Sacajewea ("Sacky"), is not here. It's not that Sacky was in Wawayanda that summer; Sacky was in The Hird, run by Wendy Brady, but not until session 2. (Session 1 that summer had low enrollments. Sacky's staff was spread throughout other villages.) Lenape matched with Tacoma and Pac with Windsong (also new--it has been "Sunburst" before that and "Cherokee" before that). Note too that in 1983 Lenape lived in what had been for many years the home of that village--cabins 16-20 (currently numbered 13-17 and currently the home of Hemlock), but in this year, '85, we moved Lenape over to where Tacoma had always been, cabins 46-50, atop "the Hill," so that all of the Hird could be together on that side of camp. Tacoma now moved into 31-35 where Pokey had been and Sacky was where Susky had always been (36-40), while Hemlock was with Lenape on the Hill, in 41-45. All this moving around was made necessary, or made possible at least, by the destruction of the main "boys" dining hall by fire on New Year's Eve 1982. I'll save that story for another post, but gosh, my memory of all this detail scares me; looking at this mimeographed staff list of a group of good young people 23 years ago, it all seems ridiculously clear. I note finally this was also the first summer of "The Hird" as such, after "Camp Henry Hird" or "Camp Hird." We were a herd...for sure.