I mentioned the other day that David (Dave) Neu, now living with his family in New Hampshire, a counselor from the '80s, brought his daughter Amalia to FV for the first time. Needless to say, a big moment for Amalia - but, as I could easily tell, a big moment for dad too. Don't we all want our kids to fall in love with this place in their own right? Anyway, here's Amalia, at right, at breakfast yesterday - sitting next to Lily, who happens to be the daughter of one of my own closest friends. Just complete serendipity that the two girls would be in the same cabin and would become, already, such camp companions.
In the same village - Susky - we have Jennifer Mittelman, daughter of Jon Mittelman, a long-time staffer from the late '70s and maybe early '80s (someone, maybe Jon himself, will correct me if I'm wrong about that). Jon has two kids in camp, both for the first time. With Jennifer is our fabulously fun and talented counselor, Monica Robles - herself a lifer. I met Monica when she was herself a Susky camper! She always loved camp and was (and maybe still is) a big fan of my stories.
Finally in this very partial - ridiculously imcomplete - round-up a children of former staff in camp this session: here are Del Giannotti and Ceci Giannotti. Del, now a CIT, is the son of John Giannotti, who needs no introduction to readers of this blog! And Ceci, a first-timer but already a natural, is a Lakota camper. She is the daughter of John and Karen Giannotti's son, the late and much much much much missed Oran Giannotti. John's wife Toni and Oran's wife Dara and super-proud aunts Keara and Dani (Keara came along to drop off Del and Ceci) are all thrilled to pieces back home in South Jersey....the next generation of Giannotti family has arrived at Frost Valley and we all have a feeling they ain't going away very soon.
I'll try to get some pictures of - or word on - some of the many other children of alumni here this session. Forgive me if I can't get to them all. It's amazing what a serious percentage of our campers come from the FV community itself. Rebecca Tucker-Smith (we knew her as Tucker - sister of Josh Tucker) has brought her son Owen to camp; he's in Forest and couldn't stop playing Geronimo yesterday - after 1.5 hours wanted more. Rebecca thought it was cool to be "on the other side" of the "rope" at check-in. Lillian Rountree's son Cooper is here, all the way from Pittsburgh. Olivia Tilles is back (Peter's daughter), as is, of course, counselor Amanda. Debbie Reich (Susky counselor 1976) has a daughter, Elizabeth, here in Windsong. Kyoko Honma's two kids are in camp; they just love it here: Kazumi and Keizo. Jody Davies Ketcham's niece Katie Wiemeyer is at camp for the first time in Mustang Village (horseback riding village of girls in main camp). Philla Barkhorn's daughter Adelaide is here too! And Adam Gold, who used to come (with his brother Steven and Mike) as a camper all 8 weeks every summer, has his son Aidyn here again - himself an all-summer kid. I played Geronimo with Aidyn yesterday; he's gotten pretty good at that game. I feel honored to be in a position to watch the children of my former colleagues and (to be frank) "charges" and (as Dave King puts it) "my kids" - thrive here. I see their parents in them, for sure. The wonder in their eyes when someone does something unbelievably silly in a skit, or when a story is just that good that it makes you look up at the stars and thank them (the stars) that you're here in the middle of nowhere, which is very much somewhere.
