Hirdstock 2013: the afternoon

We've gathered in the name of peace and love and music for our annual "Hirdstock" festival. Farm Camp has come over in buses. Mustang Village (horseback riding group) participates too, as does, in part, the campers and staff of the Tokyo Program. It's about as "One Camp"-ish all-camp event as we get. Some former staffers (such as Nick Lomauro and Shannon Mooney) visit us just for Hirdstock.

The afternoon features booths for face-painting, tattooing, herbs and incense & other cool stuff - and, of course, an afternoon-long stage show in which dozens of talented campers perform. (Tonight, at the main Hirdstock concert, we will be back at the stage on Hirdstock Field, for an evening of music performed by staff.) Hirdstock is a day of characters, a fun rough approximation of '60s-era garb, with a mix of 21st-century random and eclectic. Here's a gallery of the Frost Valley people dressed up for the day some of us await all year.

Shannon Mooney, her first summer in ages away from FV, visits just for Hirdstock (at left).

Anthony from Lenape performs. This is his third session.

Amelia, Susky counselor through session 3, came back to visit just for Hirdstock.

CIT Alanna: a Ninja hippie.

Rae Nathanson's Hirdstock garb is simple - adorned with a headband garland of flowers.

Kam (Hird Director) looks to the East for his laid-back inspiration.

Shannon Crane, CIT Coordinator, goes with the floppy hat, loose sweater, peasant dress with banjo look.

Will Katz, PAC counselor, combines rasta pants with Hawaiian shirt.

profile of Dave King to accompany his Hall of Fame induction

In the long history of our summer camp, surely no member of the seasonal staff has served longer or offered a greater sense of continuity than did David Guthrie King between the late 1950s and the late 1970s. King-sized in every possible way -- tremendously energetic; ubiquitously checking on his staff at night with his huge flashlight; leading songs at every meal in the dining hall like a beanpole maestro; aware of every camper by name and background; always reminding us of the largeness of our mission and the transformative power of our values -- Dave had an impact on every single aspect of the Wawayanda camping experience. Many of the innovations and customs he introduced into daily summer life here are in use to this day, fifty-five years after his arrival for Wawayanda's first year at Frost Valley. That summer, 1958, he served as the first Village Chief of Lenape village. Soon he was the Program Director, and then, for many years, the Director of Camp Wawayanda. His wife Shirley joined him -- and herself performed every possible task and job, from directing Arts & Crafts to managing the Castle when it functioned as an inn -- and soon their children Kathy and Dave Jr. became Frost Valley lifers themselves. With the Browns, the Kings were the first Frost Valley family. When Halbe Brown assumed the executive directorship in 1966, his inaugural move was to ask Dave King to stay and help him. They became an inseparable team, dear friends and co-advisors. After a while Dave was appointed to the membership of Frost Valley's Board of Trustees. But soon his responsibilities in the public school district of Baltimore Country, Maryland -- where he rose to the position of Assistant Superintendent of Schools -- forced him to cut back to half summers at camp, and later to resign his trusteeship because of his extraordinary professional commitments. Yet even during Dave’s half-summer stints in the mid and late 1970s, Halbe Brown induced his friend to lead in innovative ways. One summer Dave’s job was to be the Village Chief of Seneca, a new village for children with disabilities -- a forerunner, ten years before its time, of the successful program we now call MAC.

Soon Dave’s work in Baltimore precluded any summer break, whereupon generations of "his kids," as he called them -- almost all of the camp leadership by then comprised his former campers now grown up -- gathered to say a sad goodbye. Yet the sadness of farewell was short-lived, quickly transformed into happy legacy, for what Dave King gave to this place in its early years was and is still here: a constant reminder of the values of respect, honesty and responsibility; the crucial importance of nurturing every single child as a future leader, and, when the moment comes, of giving him or her the actual chance to lead; the fundamental pleasures of story-telling -- of narrating our values as a way of passing them on to children -- and, crucially, the unforgettable communitarianism of singing songs together. The songs we sang for years with Dave can still be heard. The pure sounds of Wawayanda singing echo down the valley -- and among them, surely, the soft-hearted big man's favorite: "All night, all day, angels watching over you...."

Profile of Eric Blum for presentation of Volunteer of the Year Award

Neither chronic illness nor physical limitation - nor an eminent career as a medical professional in a distant state - could keep Eric Blum from returning each summer at length to the valley he repeatedly called "his true home."

He first arrived as a youthful and idealistic Junior Counselor with the summer staff of 1986. Because Frost Valley -- unique among all camps -- had its own dialysis unit, Eric could focus on his care of the children assigned to him and not on his own renal disease. He was a superb counselor and was hired back for '87. Before long he was recognized as among the most talented and dedicated camp staffers, and he returned summer after summer, into the 1990s. On this day we honor Eric not so much for those many summers as an excellent Frost Valley staff member, celebration-worthy as they were. We honor him today for what came next. It was only after Eric left the regular staff to devote himself to his career as trauma-care nurse at the Hospital of the University of Virginia, that he -- by his own account -- began to understand what Frost Valley really meant to him. He told camp friends that sometimes, while on shift break at the hospital in Virginia, he would close his eyes and see children playing in the field and smell a campfire. All year long he longed to “come home.” Each spring his trauma room colleagues helped him count down the days before he could return to Frost Valley. He worked out an arrangement, accumulating all of his paid vacation days (and adding not a few unpaid days), and managed to spend an entire month at camp every summer as a volunteer. In that annual month-long stint at camp, he did whatever mundane job needed to be done. Because he knew the camp operation so well, he became a crucial special assistant and relief to the directors, who by this point were his dear friends. Without complaint, nor ever a reminder that he was an unpaid volunteer, he performed the kind of tasks that no one else could do or even thought to do. Yet if you told him the value of what he'd done, he would shrug it off. He spent countless all-nighters supporting the medical staff during emergencies, always the perfectly trained extra pair of hands, always the firm yet calming bedside manner. To describe all this he borrowed a term from the Yiddish, dubbing himself the Camp Schlep. Each September he mailed a "Camp Schlep” t-shirt to those few Frost Valley colleagues whom he deemed flexible enough and willing enough to help camp run no matter what it took. Given Eric’s high standards of voluntarism, those who received these shirts cherished the honor. One year the Schlep shirt bore a slogan that might as well express Eric’s philosophy of life: "We improvise, we adjust, we overcome."

When Eric's final illness had nearly taken him from us, his Frost Valley friends visited him -- the last of these visits to bring to him the award we formally and posthumously confer upon him today: Frost Valley Volunteer of the Year. In his room, on that last day, as he clutched the award to his chest, his visitors could not help but notice that the walls and shelves were covered with his Frost valley mementos: his home here at home there.

Eric Blum epitomized the spirit of giving, of selflessness, of accommodation and sacrifice that is what ultimately makes Frost Valley YMCA the strong and stable organization with the capacity to enhance the lives of so many children and families, including those burdened by chronic illness. It is for this reason that, in addition to conferring on Eric this year's volunteer award, the Frost Valley YMCA Board of Trustees has unanimously resolved to name the award itself in his memory, and thus it shall henceforth be annually given as The Eric Blum Volunteer of the Year Award. We improvise, we adjust, we overcome.

Paul Guenther is inducted into the Frost Valley Hall of Fame

Here is the profile of Paul Guenther presented at the time of his induction this past weekend:

Paul Guenther served as President of one of Wall Street’s legendarily well-reputed firms, Paine Webber. In this position, and earlier at Manufacturers Hanover Trust, he developed a broad network of contacts not only in the financial community but across New York’s social spectrum. When he later served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Fordham University and, from 1996 to 2006, as Chairman of the Board of the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, this acute sense of the urban social and political landscape aided his efforts as a passionate supporter of the arts. The Philharmonic’s annual fund more than doubled during Paul’s ten years in charge, and this success was largely due to his almost magical connections.

Meantime, a few hours’ drive upstate, he and Diane had bought a property in remote Grahamsville, and in 1970 had begun to build a house they somehow even then knew would be meaningful to them and their children for a lifetime. The kind of connections one makes up here in the Catskills are of a sort quite different from those made in the big-city arts and finance world, and Paul began to cherish the genuineness and purity of the acquaintanceships and friendships he formed here. He still recalls in detail the finest class he taught in Sunday School at the local church. Among his brilliant students were several whose families worked and lived at Frost Valley. His own young children, needing diversion, enjoyed long rides in the country, so he and Diane drove the back roads, until one day discovering, up on the hill, the Forstmann Castle (to which Paul first responded: “Wow!”); soon they explored the whole of Frost Valley. Halbe Brown befriended him. Two of his and Diane’s children – Matt and Liz – attended summer camp. Before long he was invited by Halbe and Jim Kellogg (then President) to join the Board as a trustee.

When a reporter interviewed Paul at the time he announced his departure from the Philharmonic chairmanship, he noted: “"My father always said, 'Do what you want to do - but do it well.'” "Why did I leave Wall Street?,” he added. “I'd had a pretty good run. I've always tried to do what made me happy - I go where 'happy' is," Paul said. "So what if others had made more money? My parents gave me a strong sense of giving back." Paul Guenther believes in the vital responsibility of philanthropy and in the crucial importance of non-profit organizations in particular, and affiliates only with those that are capable of making a comprehensive impact. Today, in a sense, we celebrate with gratitude his decision to choose Frost Valley as a locus of his father’s philosophy of giving. In Frost Valley Paul discovered, as he puts it, “one-stop shopping for everything that’s good in the non-profit world: programs to foster environmental awareness and good health, helping city kids get to the country, helping children with special needs.”

As a trustee, almost immediately, he began to advocate for a better health care facility at the camp. What Paul dreamed of for Frost Valley long seemed beyond our scope, beyond our capacity to fund-raise and, in the context of other priorities, took some years to take hold. In all the years between his first advocacy of a new wellness center and the time it was built in 2008, Paul strategically give generous annual gifts to fund the planning process. He had by then succeeded Woody English as Chairman, and continued advocating wellness both as a matter of responsible health care and emergency responsiveness and as an opportunity to teach children how to take care of themselves in a world of endemic obesity, diabetes, and poor diet choices. Finally, working with Jerry Huncosky as CEO, trustees Hunter Corbin and Fenn Putman, and fellow donor Eva Gottscho, his dream was realized. Characteristically, Paul put his money where his mouth has been: he supported the building of Frost Valley’s new Wellness Center with an extraordinary, organization-changing gift of $1 million. No one who attended the opening of the Guenther Family Wellness Center will ever forget the look of hopeful pride on Paul’s face. “Do what you want to do - but do it well,” his father had said, “Go where ‘happy’ is.” Happy is the teenager with a heart transplant able to attend camp for two weeks, while his parents get a much-needed rest, because of Paul’s vision to build a facility in which pediatric cardiologists could properly work. Happy is the boy with a diagnosis requiring the dispensing of complex meds in complex daily intervals, who can hike out to his overnight camping site knowing that the nurses had the institutional wherewithal to care for him in case of emergency. Happy is the girl who can supportively learn about her own well-being, how to take care of herself, how to enjoy a wellness lifestyle, talking in a seminar room with her counselor and a nurse, in a facility that is no longer about applying band-aids or making due until the ambulance arrives.
Paul loves the broad scope of the Frost Valley project, and the community of staff and volunteers here simply love him for his audacity and commitment. “Frost Valley is unique,” Paul Guenther has said, “in that it touches so many people and so many different and wonderful ways and provides an incredible service to the entire metropolitan area.” Members of the Board of Trustees of the Frost Valley YMCA with pride of colleagueship and gratitude are pleased to induct Paul B. Guenther—visionary supporter of non-profit organizations and our long-time leader—into the Frost Valley Hall of Fame.

Sam Nathanson, counselor and son of alumnus Ken Nathanson, talks about his FV life - from shy kid to wild extrovert

Christian R., a participant in the STEP program (MAC), talks about his Frost Valley experience

Howard Quirk is inducted posthumously into the Frost Valley Hall of Fame, introduced by Cathy McFarland Harvey (video)

Dave King accepts Hall of Fame induction (video)

Eric Blum memorial weekend, September 20-22

Here is a letter sent to alumni today:

Dear Frost Valley alumni & friends:

As you know, a long-time Frost Valley staffer and dear friend, Eric Blum, passed away this spring. He first came to Frost Valley in 1986, worked on the summer staff through the 1990s, and since then spent a month at camp every summer as a volunteer.

This past weekend, at our annual summertime gathering, the FV Trustees formally named Eric the Volunteer of the Year and the renamed the annual award in his name, so that it will henceforth be "The Eric Paul Blum Volunteer of the Year Award."  To see a video of the moving tribute to Eric presented at the trustee meeting this past Saturday, visit this:

http://frostvalleyalumni.blogspot.com/2013/08/bill-baker-jerry-huncosky-present-frost.html

We are setting aside the weekend of September 20-22 for a memorial celebration of Eric's life and relationship with Frost Valley.

The memorial service will take place on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. with a lunch to follow.

On Saturday night there will be a giant cookout, in Blum's honor - or, as he would call it, a "Meatfest."  After the cookout, there will be a campfire with cigars and Blum stories, hosted by his closest FV friends, commonly known as "the Grumpy Old Men." 

Please join us!  Call the Reservations Department at 845-985-2291, extension 450.  There are reduced rates for those coming to memorialize Eric.

Here at Frost Valley we are into the final week of summer camp. Today is our annual all-camp program, "Hirdstock"! Love, peace, and tons of singing.

For some recent doings, consult our alumni blog:

http://frostvalleyalumni.blogspot.com/

With best wishes from your Valley,

- Al

introduction to Dave King as he is inducted into the FV Hall of Fame

annual summer trustee meeting - Hall of Fame induction - many alumni lifers visit

Lourdes Montoro greets Dave King in the dining hall.

From left: Bob Hettler, Dave King, Kay Hettler, Shirley King - at a dinner party thrown by Jerry Huncosky for those who'd arrived Friday for the big weekend - Saturday's summer trustee meeting, the return of many former directors and staff, induction of three new FV eminences into the Hall of Fame, and the awarding posthumously of the Volunteer of the Year Award to Eric Blum.

After dinner on Friday, we assembled with Lakota and Outpost in Geyer Hall for a Challenge Night judged by the most eminent panel of judges ever assembled: from left, former Camp Director Kay Hettler, former Camp Director Bob Hettler, former camp director and Director of Camping Services Jeff Daly, former Hird Director Kelly Zingone Daly (and their daughter Mary in the hoola-hoop, star of the show), Lauren Lomauro (former VC of Lakota), my wife Jane Treuhaft, current counselor (and Prague trip chaperone/counselor) Kirsten Williams, and Wawayanda Director for many summers, Dave King. Many of the campers told their counselors afterwards that it had been the best Challenge Night ever.

Jeff Daly and Bob Hettler demonstrate Hunker Hawser. I think Jeff won the demo.

From left: David King Jr., Bob Hettler, Ken Hamlin ("Hambone"), and Kay Hettler. Hambone was (among other things) the camp driver and Dave King's "camp clerk."

Arriving Saturday for the trustee gathering and Hall of Fame ceremonies, from left: Jim Ewen (whose first years at Wawayanda were, I believe, 1959 and 1960), Frank Rutan, Ellen Rutan, and Peggy Hope. All of these folks put in, each, more than a dozen years at Frost Valley. Jim was a VC and Camp Director, among other jobs; Frank was an LIT Director, among many other jobs; Ellen was the Horseback Riding Director among other jobs; and Peggy Hope came up through the villages as a camper and then spent many summers working in the kitchen as a chef.

Carolyn Shelburne (also more than a dozen summers - later as Program Director and Camp Director), Dave King, and Maureen Heath Kosa. Mauren recently retired as a teacher in Pennsylvania; at camp she led Adventure Trips, led the LITs or FCCs, among other things.

Rob Kaplan-Sherman, who was a camper in my final five years as director, eventually ascending to the ranks of the staff; Eileen Barnes Hahn, also once a Wawayanda Director; and Dave Bieler who worked with Eric Blum closely and joined us to help celebrate Eric's extraordinary voluntarism.

Two photos above: the group of CITs who went to Prague, to participate in an international YMCA teen leadership celebration, returned with Jeff Daly, Kirsten Williams and Vicky Williams to make a presentation to the trustees and guests.

Mike Ketcham greets Dave King. Mike's first Wawayanda summer was in 1948, when his father brought him and brother John (then quite young) to family camp at the Old Wawayanda.

Dave King with Jody Davies Ketcham - later that night, just before Dave and I went off to tell Forest two stories.

Breakfast Sunday morning, from left: Jane Treuhaft, Carol Wellington, John Wellington, Carolyn Shelburne, Barbara Spitz, Leslie Black, Maureen Heath Kosa, Al Filreis, Jody Davies Ketcham.

Many recent staff visited this weekend as well. Among them (from left) Lisa Colton, Emma Coniff, Jen Calli, and Lee Griffin. Lee was delighted and astonished to see that his campers were now the village chiefs. The generations move fast here.

the noonday grace (video)

Darryl Farrell, Amani Danielien, Mike Ketcham and I sing the noonday grace before lunch at the annual summer board meeting yesterday.

Bill Baker & Jerry Huncosky present the Frost Valley Volunteer of the Year Award to Eric Blum posthumously (video)

Howard Quirk is inducted into the Frost Valley Hall of Fame

Here is the text of the profile of Howard Quirk written to accompany his induction into the Frost Valley Hall of Fame yesterday:

He was a minister and a counselor; a raconteur and an entertainer; a story-teller and witty tour guide. Above all else, Howard E. Quirk (1924-1994) was passionate about people – the people whose futures he brightened as long-time executive director of The Victoria Foundation of Newark, New Jersey; the people whose eyes he opened during his famous “vertical tours” of St. John the Divine Cathedral; the people whose lives were touched by his association with Frost Valley. In the five years before his death in 1994, Howard had become, as Halbe Brown once put it, “the heartbeat of Frost Valley.” He worked full-time as a volunteer at Frost Valley’s office in Montclair. He directed our Endowment Fund, and served as liaison with the Tokyo-Frost Valley YMCA Partnership Program.

Before volunteering at Frost Valley, Howard had led the Victoria Foundation from 1968 to 1989. “In the world of foundation grant-making,” he once wrote, “there is no direct correlation between effort and success.” Still, he contended, we must try – and make the supreme effort. And try hard he did.  By the time Howard retired from the foundation, Victoria was awarding $10 million in grants each year. Howard’s leadership enabled the Foundation to sponsor projects such as Tri-City, North Ward Education & Cultural Center, Kids Corporation, Unified Vailsburg and PCCI (Protestant Community Center Inc.) – several of these programs quite familiar to Frost Valley people because through them, with Howard’s and his staff’s tireless help, we brought to summer camp children whose families could not afford the tuition but who desperately needed time away from the city.  In a reflective note describing one grant request asking Victoria to fund support for victims of child abuse, Howard mused: “What is being done to explore and alter the forces that dehumanize society? Foundations are not under the same pressures as government to produce instant results. Why not, then, take advantage of this extraordinary latitude and invest time and substance in looking beyond and beneath the usual? We should be addressing all-encompassing issues.”

Howard Quirk passed away in October 1994, just as his Frost Valley voluntarism was really getting underway. His successor at Victoria was Cathy McFarland Harvey, now herself a long-time Frost Valley trustee. “Finding and hiring Cathy in 1971,” Howard once wrote, “and recommending her promotion in 1974 may well turn out to be my greatest single move with Victoria.” Though his death was untimely, Howard was able to make certain that his legacy and impact here would be strong and continuous, through his talented successors at the Foundation; through the very idea of high-level voluntarism at Frost Valley (which he inaugurated); through the extraordinary success of our various urban partnerships, enabling kids who would hardly otherwise have a chance to come to these mountains, to grow and to make friends; through his memorialization in 1998, in the naming of Quirk Lodge and of its main meeting room, Victoria Hall; and, now, through the honoring of the late Howard E. Quirk, a generous and much-beloved man, with induction into the Frost Valley Hall of Fame.

Carly Einstein

I'm so pleased to see that Carly Einstein, once a Frost Valley mainstay, having such a good career in career services advising.

ah, August!

meeting Bud Cox on the road at 6:30 am

Bud is up early (no surprise) and I met him on the road yesterday morning at 6:30. We talked about everything and next thing you know it's 7:30. And what a glorious day it turned out to be.

Dave King around the campfire

Dave and Shirley King, and daughter Kathy and two of their grandchildren, Megan and Dylan, arrived last night. Just a few hours later Dave was already telling a story, as scheduled and long and excitedly anticipated by the 2013 campers and staff, who have been hearing about Dave all summer and indeed for several years (since his last summertime visit). The photo below shows him leading a song ("Deep and Wide") before telling a story to Susky Village last night. Today Dave and Shirley will meet three villages in succession at the Castle - for the most authoritative (and no doubt the most gripping) "Castle tours" you can get.

Welcome home, Dave and Shirley.

Carly Einstein remembers Frost Valley

Carly Einstein, former FV summer camp mainstay, blogs. Today her blog entry is about how much she misses Frost Valley and camp in general.

Pokey affection

Marlee Breakstone (JC) with some of her Pokey-Totem camps.

4th session, time for reflection

The VCs of Hemlock and Lenape take a moment to reflect during a period of boating.

Dave King arrives today

Dave King - and Shirley and both their children, Kathy and David Jr. - will be arriving tonight. They'll be visiting until Sunday morning. On Saturday at noon Dave will be inducted into the Frost Valley Hall of Fame. Tonight I've got him scheduled to tell a story to Susky at 9:30 and, if he wants to stay up late after a day of traveling, a story to Lenape (who will be camping out above Sequoia) at 10:45. What a night it'll be! (Lenape is camping out tonight and tomorrow they will hike up Doubletop Mountain, so Dave and Bud Cox and I will be telling them a improvised collaborative history of the camp's relationship with its mountain.)

Here are some links to entries in this blog one should read to get primed for Dave:

Dave's 50th year at Frost Valley, 2008

Dave talking at Morning Reflection/chapel

An audio recording of an interview with Dave

Dave as VC of Lenape in 1958

An overview of Dave and FV

one of those magical nights

It's 11:25 PM as I write this, and it's been one of those magical Frost Valley summer nights. First off, it's very cold (likely to be 40 degrees), and, as I've mentioned, all the Wawayanda villages are camping out. With Katy Bowen and Kat Schneider in one car, and Dane Mainella and myself in another, we caravanned over to the East Valley to run Challenge Night for Farm Camp. Stopped at Blue Hill Lodge/Cafe for a dinner, after which I picked up some deli sandwiches for some counselors whom I knew would have sacrificed their own dinners to make sure the kids on the overnights had plenty. I'd bring those back to camp later. Meantime, onward down the East Branch Neversink road toward the Farm. It's paradise there. We arrived, set up for Challenge Night in the new expanded dining hall, and then hung out while the farm campers finished playing games and doing after-dinner chores. I looked around and noticed that a bunch of directors happened to be there too. Kam, Hird Director, had stopped by after making a visit to the PAC/Windsong two-night overnight at Pete's 

Pavillion. Dan Weir had stopped by to have some time with Andy, the Farm Camp Director. Quite a convergence of characters, so we took a photo. Then Challenge Night itself: a big success; such enthusiasm. The Simon Says challenge was hilarious. One girl, maybe 9 years old, managed to hold it together completely, never disrupted by my Simon shananigans. She was a winner. The final challenge: sing a sweet beautiful song. Usually this flops somewhere along the way, but all six singers were lyric, enthralling, and really quite moving. Two counselors sang an old-style version of "MM-mm I wanna linger..." Then an ice cream sundae party, and then, with a candle and some other low lights the only lighting in the barn-like dining hall, I told a story to a transfixed audience of goggle-eyed slack-jawed farm campers; they were completely into it. This was an old standby of mine, but not of them had heard it: "J.C. Pony and the Haunted House." Has Forest got the spirit? Yeah, man!

Dane and I drove back to camp, seeing a million stars above us and letting the frigid air into the car. Stopped at Big Tree Field to find the counselors who needed the sandwiches. Hung out with them a bit, and ran into Lincoln McLain, the entertaining Adventure Director. By now it's 10:30 PM. Lincoln was there to wait for the arrival, in two FV buses, of the group that represented us at the Prague Youth Festival for the YMCA, led by Vicky Williams, Jeff Daly and Kirsten Williams. They'd been gone three weeks. The buses pulled in and the Praguers barely spilled out - dead tired, feeling like it was 4 AM. Dan Weir showed up as we stood around with an exhausted Daly. Just then Sacky's staff joined us there, standing in front of Margetts Lodge. And just then, too, Lourdes Montoro, our many-year August volunteer, closed up shop on a night when she cooked up her magical chocolate concoctions enough to boost the staff morale several notches. Sacky's staff had won last session's "Project 332" contest: which village raised the most campership money (rather, which village received the most donations in their honor). The winning village staff gets to spend a late evening at Dan Weir's house, where he might barbecue for them, or serve them tons of Chinese food. Several cars awaited Sacky, and they piled in, while the Praguers' buses pulled out, taking those tired souls to (well....) yurts for their several hours of sleep in the bitter cold, and Lourdes closed up, Lincoln went off to check on Adventurers, the Big Tree Field overnight dwellers went back to their sleeping colleagues - all of which left three stranded Sacky staff needing rides to Dan's. So I obliged by driving them there, although first we had to fetch my car which I'd left part way into the Big Tree Field. Over the years I've tried in this blog to narrate the magic of nights like this. I never feel I quite convey what it's like to be somewhere so remote and at the same time such a nexus of good people doing a lot of things all at once. I like the phrase leave it all on the field. There's an intensity I feel around me about such nights, as if everyone is trying not to think that there aren't too many more such nights ahead this season. Let's just do all this until we're done.

The annual summer meeting is coming up in a few days. Dave King will be among those honored in the FV Hall of Fame. A number of people who know the above-described intensity will be back in the Valley - folks like Mike Ketcham, Carolyn Shelburne, Barbara Hale, Bob and Kay Hettler, Dave and Shirley King themselves, Ken Hamlin ("Hambone"), Barbara Spitz, Peggy Rub, and others. I wish they would spend a week and re-experience these sorts of nights. It makes one young.

Alkota Village

I'm honored this week. Lakota Village is running under the adjusted name "Alkota"! I've received many academic honors here and there - teaching awards, etc. - but I have to say this is an accolade that runs directly to my heart. They gave me my own clean copy of the weekly schedule, with its little Al sketch-icon in the top left corner.  Here is a link to a PDF copy of this schedule.

 

fourth-session coldness

Because we have some one-week-only campers (a special "try it" session during the first week of the usual two-week-long fourth session), it seemed a good idea to do our overnight camp-outs during this week, so the first-timer could have a camping experience. So most of the Wawayanda villages (Pokey-Totem, Forest, Susky, Lakota, and Outpost) will be hiking out this afternoon. And the weather shows: partly cloudy, then sunny, then a clear night. Perfect. Just one problem, a little: cold! It will go down to 44 degrees tonight. The stars will all be out, but everyone will be snuggling in their sleeping bags.

Just now I was walking around in the fields, watching Outpost setting up a soccer game. They were in sweatshirts and sweaters and extra layers.

MAC devo for Lakota

"MAC devo" is a regular activity here during recent summers. A member of the MAC staff comes to a village to talk to the kids about the MAC program - about what it means to be at a camp where "mainstreaming" children and young adults with disabilities is a regular feature of daily life. Often there's a discussion about the common use of the "R"-word, and why it's wrong and hurtful. Lakota had a little trouble scheduling a MAC devo in the evenings (when devo - or devotion - is usually done) so they decided to do it after lunch today. So here's a photo of the Lakota girls just before Olivia F., VC of STEP, came by to talk with them.

delivering camper mail is a priority

This morning, in the rain, we all took notice as three burdened figures crossed the field. They were Frost Valley's CEO, COO and CFO. Remarkable. But, let's face it, delivering the campers' mail is a high priority!

the face of a counselor

LJ, one of our counselors from the U.K. this summer, told her Lakota campers that they could make up her face. Well, then, ummmm, they got carried away. So here's the result.

try it for one week - Susky cabin 50

Most of the girls in cabin 50 this week (the first week of session 4) are "trying" camp for one week. You can tell from this photo - taken on the first day of the session at lunchtime - that there's already plenty of togetherness going on up there in 50. Some of the one-weekers will tell us, by midweek, that they want to say for the rest of the session. Judging from my conversation with them today, and from a beautiful game of Geronimo played in the sunny cool air this morning, I rather think many of them will stay.

what Katy Bowen saw from the car

Here's what Katy Bowen posted to Facebook a few minutes ago:

'Look at this picture, what do you see? I see Al bringing Susky together in what's more than just a game, Ben Stanford teaching campers how "footy" is really played, Shaylyn Decker so engaged in her campers needs even if it means laying on the floor kicking legs in the air as they appreciate the clouds. I see Sacky Hemlock getting to know their brother/sister cabins through P.A games, campers Mainstreaming at the hard courts and to top it off we are surrounded by beautiful scenery. So next time stop mid walk and get asked.. "Hey Katy what you looking at" there's your answer my friends.. 4th session!!'

Tehuti Barrett!

Tehuti Barrett and his wife brought their daughters to camp - Jasmin (Pokey) and Brianna (Susky). It was wonderful to see Tehuti - who was a camper in the early 80s, and perhaps started in the late 70s, when I was director. I remember him and his brother, as 10 year olds, very well. He was completely and utterly thrilled to have his girls starting their own Frost Valley journeys.

opening day, session 4 - a day for recent former staffers to return for a visit

From left to right: Eliza Berman and Steph Bloom, former staffers and lifers, saying hello to Nick Harley (current VC of PAC).

Seth Kallin is at right, visiting us after a few years away. Next to him, from left, are Kat Schneider and Kari Weinglass. Kat was a VC, etc., a few years back and his returned this summer to be the Assistant to the Director of Camping Services; Kari Weinglass, who directed MAC and was involved as staff in MAC for years before that, is back for August, also assisting the directors.

Allie Gendreau, left, CIT Coordinator; and Parker Van Nostrand, right, VC of Forest - happily reunite with long-time camper and staffer (VC and CIT Coordinator) Chrissie Mohle. 

JCITs

We call them "JCITs" - CITs from the first half of the summer who are asked to stay to work (for the first time - really be employees) as Junior Counselors. The phrase they use is "called back." As in: "I got called back as a JCIT." When this happens, and they don their staff shirts (blue this year) for the first time, it's a cause for celebration, especially on the part of their recently-former CIT Coordinators. As you see in the two photos above, taken just moments after the new staffers put on their blue shirts.

closing campfire, session 3

With the Hird, on Thursday night, the final night of session 3, singing "Old Wawayanda."