David (Dave) Gansler was one of the young "phenoms" who came of age at Frost Valley in the late 70s and early 80s. As he approached JC/counselor age he found himself associated with the then-new teepee/Sioux village called "Lacota," created by the late Leon Van Heusen. I've told this story here before, so forgive me. Gansler (and Heather Sachs and others) learned the Lacota ways and did a marvelous job with this experimental village, which was located in real Plains teepees (with Lodgepole Pine poles) on what is now called "the Hayden soccer field." "Van," as we called him, became ill and had to leave camp, and later passed away. Dave Gansler, though young, took over as VC of Lacota, which had been Van's dream, and made it work beautifully, and then, over several summers, became truly one of the leaders of Frost Valley. So smart and so intense. (And quite a challenge to his Camp Director when he believed said director was wrong - that would be moi.)
Anyway, last summer I invited Dave to be a guest at the summer Trustee meeting at camp, in part to help us honor Jane Brown, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Dave brought his son Jeremy, whom he was hoping would fall in love with FV and the people there.
A year later - Jeremy Gansler is a counselor in Adventure Village (living in tents in Sequoia) and is doing very well. In this photo Jeremy is in the middle, looking like his dad. At left is Dylan Monahan, the brilliant and hilariously quirky VC of Advill.
A few hours after I posted this entry, I heard from Adam Weiss. Adam was a Lacota camper. Now he's the dad of twin girls - who will be back at FV for their second summer next session. They will be in....you guessed it....Lakota. He's trying to explain to the twins that Lakota doesn't live in teepees as he did. Adam wrote:
"I was in Lacota!!! I had Dave, Heather, and Ira (or was it Rich?) as counselors. We all had a crush on Heather. The photo I’ve attached (1978) had to have been from the same summer as the one posted on your blog. Somehow I wasn’t in that session [and so am not in the photo]. I recognize several of the campers. My girls are going into Lakota this year and I had to explain to them that it was a different village way back then. It was a great experience and unfortunate that the Indian village concept was discontinued."
