"Old Wawayanda" at closing campfire, 1985

At my final closing campfire as director, at the end of the 2nd session in '85, Adam Diamond (then a camper) and I led everyone in a sweet-quiet last go-around at "Old Wawayanda." Eric Wechter made a cassette recording of this and other songs sung around my retirement from active FV staff duty and recently mailed me the old tape. I've digitized and reminisced while listening. Wooh. Here's the mp3 version of "Old Wawayanda." You can download, of course, or also just listen. Stay tuned to this channel for some more songs converted into mp3s from that old cassette. And thanks, Eric, for stirring up the memories.

Here's a 2007 version of the song.

first Wawayanda staff at Frost Valley

Here's the very first staff list at Frost Valley, 1958.

winter camp

Winter Camp (summer camp-style happenings over three or four days usually between Christmas and New Year's) really got into gear in the winter of 1973-74. It's gone in and out but in the past few winters has really flourished. Above is the flyer for the 1985 Winter Camp.

remember our newts?

Reid Bauer has written a short essay on Frost Valley's legendary newts. Click on the image at right for a larger view of the article.

1973

Page one of the 1973 staff list.

Charles Kremer (1914-2009)

Charles Kremer died on May 21 at the age of 95. The photograph here was taken on his 90th birthday at the Kremer home in Claryville. Here is a statement made by Charles' son John:

It is with a sad heart that I must write to inform you and the rest of the FV community of the recent death of my father, Charles J. Kremer; patriarch of the Kremer family, who provided many years of service to Frost Valley, spanning three generations. As you know, both of my parents, me, and all six of my siblings have work at FV over the years. That association is also responsible for the addition of three in-laws to the family!

After his retirement from the corporate world, my father found distraction from his life of leisure by briefly working in the maintenance department. He participated in the winterization of the early cabins and the first expansion of the old Thomas Lodge dining hall when Hemlock lounge, rest rooms and an enlarged kitchen were added. Our family has lived full-time in Claryville since 1972, but has summered in the area since the 50’s.

My father was a gracious man, quiet by nature, kind in sprit, and loving to his family and community. He was an ordinary man shaped by extraordinary times, and I think my brother Andy summed it up best when he said he will always be remember as the soul of our family just as our mother is the heart.

He died on May 21 in Minnesota, comforted by my mother, Marie, his wife of 65 years, and surrounded by his children and so much love. At 95, he led a full and remarkable life for which we are all blessed.

--John Kremer

songs of the Hird '85

'84 was the year we started to refer to Camp Henry Hird as "the Hird." It was now the older of the two camps - co-ed gathering of the oldest villages. "The Hird" (as in a herd of loud spirited people) seemed apt. Above is a song-sheet I made for The Hird in '85. "Hey Look Us Over" was a traditional Girls' Camp (Camp Hird) song we decided to keep, with slight adjustment. It didn't catch on and I think is no longer sung by anyone. "You Ain't Goin Nowhere" (or "Ooo Wee") had been adapted by John Mumford and me in '74 and got revived big-time in '84 and '85 and is still sung lots. (There are more verses that you see here.) "That's the Way that the Hird Goes Round," based on a John Prine song, was great fun. We sang it as part of a kind of after-lunch dining hall skit. We wrote verses particular about individual staff and a few of the older campers.

find someone who was once your own secret sweetie

Click HERE and you'll have a PDF copy of the two-page "Human Scavenger Hunt" we did after breakfast on the first full day of the 2001 (Wawayanda Centennial) reunion at Frost Valley. Most readers of this blog will know how we play Human Scavenger Hunt, but just in case you've half-forgotten: you run around collecting signatures of anyone who can answer the question or can do the task asked. "Find someone who brought the 'Pygmy' stories to Frost Valley." There were at least two of those people in the room that morninng: Bob Hettler and Ken Barton (from Camp Fitch, where the Lake Erie-bound pygmies were first sighted). Or: "Find all the members of the Sacker family who are here at this reunion." Easy--there were two: David and Diane. "Find someone who can briefly explain what this was all about: George Gruner's boycott of Wonderbread." That was in '73, the time of the CIA overthrow of Allenda in Chile and the connection between ITT Bakeries (who made Wonderbread) and the CIA. Okay, get it? Now click on the PDF, download, and see how we'll you would have done.

we're twittering

Click here to follow us on twitter.

get out your handkerchiefs

I wish we had an accurate count of the number of couples who met while working at Frost Valley and later married. Dozens, surely.

FV alumnus Max Flatow, previously mentioned in this blog, is an excellent photographer. That's one thing. Another is: two Frost Valley couples (each met at Frost Valley and both couples are currently engaged to be wed) are looking for some wonderful Frost Valley-situated photographs to celebrate their engagements. Enter Max. Below are two of the many photos Max took of them. They are: Dan Weir and Alison (Ali) Ryczek, and Jeff Daly and Kelly Zingone. For more, go here and here.

July 4, 1959

This is a photo I've admired for years. One of the great shots of the early era. It's 1959, July 4. To kick off the celebration, three staff re-enacted the spirit of '76: Mike DeVita, Dave King, Tom Squires. They led everyone from flag raising to the dining hall. (To orient you: that's the old Forstmann garage, then the Arts & Crafts shop, now the bottom floor of Hayden Lodge, off to the right. So the three are actually going, for the moment, in the wrong direction; they must have looped around.)

first lifers

Hal Ressmeyer and Mike DeVita saying goodbye to campers at the end of fourth session. These boys were in Forest all 8 weeks. Frost Valley's first lifers. Where are they now? Does anyone recognize them by name? Notice the lanyard hanging from the belt of the boy in black.

Rick Sanborn, CIT

Rick Sanborn. He was a CIT in 1959, Wawayanda's second summer at Frost Valley. He spent as much time as he could that summer at the waterfront. (Photo courtesy Mike DeVita.)

Outpost '58

This is cabin 12 (now numbered 8 and called "Infinity" when the eight is turned sideways) in its very first summer. Brand new! Note the carefully tended rocks around the porch "foundation." This was Outpost Village that summer, and for many years later until the late 80s. For most of those years the VC of Outpost lived in 12 (it sits in the center of the uphill flat-ish semi-circle that used to be cabins 11 through 15). In '58 the VC was Bruce Bohrer and that's Bruce.

"Roman Celebration Day"

1959. It's an all-camp program, one of those thematic gigs: "Roman Celebration Days." Ralph Holt leads Ceaesar (Mike DeVita) to the dining hall during the Roman Celebration Days. Camp secretary Marian is at his side (one of the few women in camp). The campers from Mike's cabin in Forest Village hold the cape as his attendants. And below is another shot of DeVita and his attendants, looking fairly dramatic and authentic.

Geyer, Kellogg inducted into hall of fame

Sorry for the iPhone picture--low quality, no zoom. Dave Mager took some photos too with one of his super-fabulous cameras, so perhaps soon I'll have some better ones to post.

This was last night, at the Newark Club. Frost Valley's annual dinner. We inducted two new members into the now two-year-old Frost Valley Hall of Fame: Helen Geyer and Jim Kellogg. (The photo shows Helen at the podium responding to the honor.)

Among the alumni present: Mike Marder, Sue Ettelman Eisenhower, John Butler, Lauren LaMauro, Mark Showers, Bill Abbott (trustee), Roger Leon (who was also the keynote speaker), Lisa Ernst (also our Development Director), Nicky Rinklin.

Here's a profile of Helen Geyer:

She is widely known and admired for her work as a film and television actress and as a model, and for her innumerable appearances on magazine covers. She is also widely known and cherished for her many years of volunteer work and civic leadership in Montclair, New Jersey—with the Montclair Art Museum, the Garden Club, the Presby Memorial Iris Garden, and of course the Helen & Bill Geyer YMCA of Montclair Family Center. We honor Helen Geyer tonight for these and other achievements, but to members of her Frost Valley family she is and will always be known and respected first and foremost for her devoted service as the first-ever womanon the Frost Valley YMCA Board of Trustees. Helen had been introduced to Wawayanda by her late husband Bill at around the time of the breakthrough that has been said to have been the single most important factor in preventing the then-62-year-old camp’s financial failure and irrelevance: the long overdue admission of girls to a new “Camp Wawayanda for Girls,” the building of the cluster of lodges, cabins and dining hall that came to be known as Camp Henry Hird. Forty-five years later, when Frost Valley again faced a turning point, a campaign commenced to revitalize and create a new core around those same buildings, it was appropriate that Helen Geyer was the first to step up and show support. Her contribution to this effort culminated in the naming of the former Girls’ Dining Hall—once renovated, it became the centerpiece of the project—after one of Frost Valley’s true pioneers: Geyer Hall. When all is said and done, family is Helen Geyer’s primary motivation for her decade of service; Helen often says that she and Bill have always thought of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren together as “a YMCA family.” Tonight indeed we honor…a great YMCA family.

And here is a profile of Jim Kellogg:

In the era of priority-shifting, ceaselessly reorganizing, moving-target nonprofit boards, Jim Kellogg’s steadfastness, focused commitment, and deep sense of the volunteer’s honor shone like a beacon across the national landscape; and thus Frost Valley shone too. Jim served as a member of Frost Valley’s Board of Trustees for three decades and for fifteen of those years was our Board President, succeeding Woody English. The two together can be said without exaggeration to have provided a vision of continuity unparalleled in camping. Not coincidentally this was the period in which Frost Valley’s summer camp program solidified its roots and re-attained greatness, the environmental education program was created, the conference program rose to a level of size and prominence that just two or three other camps attained, financial aid was awarded to needy families, international partnerships were constituted, and disabled children were mainstreamed into the camp without hesitation or blink of an institutional eye. Jim provided leadership when Frost Valley had to effect an efficient, never-look-back recovery from disaster by fire. Always looking problems and challenges straight on, Jim saw obstacles as opportunities, adhering without fanfare but firmly to the two-word version of Frost Valley’s mission: “Build Strong.” His service to Frost Valley has been part of a larger context of volunteer leadership and civic engagement. He has been the President of the Community Foundation of New Jersey, a member of the Bloomfield College Board of Trustees, President of the Children’s Specialized Hospital of Mountainside, and President of the J. C. Kellogg Foundation. Jim Kellogg’s distinguished career demonstrates an unmatched generosity of commitment to public service, eloquently bespeaking this core tenet: we must invest in others, so that everyone, regardless of economic background or circumstances, has the resources necessary to maximize his or her potential. Jim Kellogg truly does build strong, and when we honor him tonight we honor our most basic reason for being as an organization.

a glance at 1970

Here is page one of the 1970 Frost Valley summer staff list. Note that it's titled "Camp Wawayanda Staff" even though by that time we were referring to "Girls Camp" as "Camp Hird" or "Camp Henry Hird for Girls." Some habits died slowly. When people asked me around my hometown what I was doing for the summer, and I said, "I'm going to camp," and they asked where, I'd say "Wawayanda." Just that. They knew. If I'd said "Frost Valley," they wouldn't know.

Peter and Nancy Barnett were Westfield mainstays. Nancy must have been a very young staff member in '70. I believe it was only in '71 that she was a CIT. Jeff Bohn, an LIT here (that was the summer after CIT), eventually was a counselor in Totem: I remember him as slight-shouldered, thin, very long hair combed in a middle part, soft-spoken, mild-mannered, and peaceful (in a counter-cultural sort of way). Susan and Meg Ambry were the daughters of Ed Ambry, who later became very involved in the development of our Environmental Education program and served as a member of our Board. The Ambry sisters and Ed have been discussed in this blog, earlier.

Visiting Day, 1964

Isabel Banton Clowe (in the great glasses) is visited by her mother on Visiting Day at Camp Wawayanda in 1964. In those days: just park the old family station wagon alongside one of the camp paths, open 'er up and have yourself a picnic.

embrace nature

Today Frost Valley is featured in the New York Daily News. Click here for the article.

Dimitris from Greece

Dimitris Emmanouil, an international counselor from Greece, was a counselor with us for at least two summers--I'm guessing '82 and '83. At one point, I think his first summer, he came to me to say that his girlfriend, also Greek, was "stuck" at another camp and was very unhappy. Somehow we arrange for her to leave that camp and join us. If I'm rememnbering correctly, the two of them returned together the next summer as well. The photo here was taken in 2008. I'll try to dig up a shot of Dimitris at camp. He was quite the soccer player. Ah, I found one. It was already in this blog--that great 1982 U.S. vs. The World game. Below you see Dimitris in the middle of the shot - around him, counterclockwise, starting from the bottom, are Paul King, George Lordi, Tom Franzkowiak (Germany), Gorm Fosdal (Sweden), Todd Payton, Walid Sakr (Lebanon).

One of those summers, '83 I think, Greece was the host country of our Olympics. We made a big deal of that--since of course the ancient games, and the "modern" games since 1898, were held in Greece.


And now Keara Giannotti has come along with a photo taken one night at Cold Spring Lodge. Here are Bill Abbott, John Giannotti and Dimitris.


A note from Dimitris a day after I posted the above....tells me that he and Aliki are happily married (after 29 years), that they have three children--one of whom is old enough to be a counselor at Frost Valley. When we knew Dimitris in the early 80s he was studying to be a dentist, and in fact helped out around the Health Center quite a bit. Today he is indeed a dentist.

our sculptor

John Giannotti is getting recognition once again for his sculpture. Click here for more.

be there on May 13

Our annual gala (cocktail reception at 6 pm; dinner at 7 pm) will once again be at the Newark Club, which is a four-minute walk from the Amtrak train station in Newark. Every alumnus and alumna should make an effort to attend. It's lots of fun.

We will induct three new people into the Frost Valley Hall of Fame. Last year was the first year of the Hall: Halbe Brown, Eva Gottscho and Woody English were inducted - Woody, posthumously (but his family was there); Halbe and Eva was on hand to receive the honor. Who will be inducted this year?

You can print the two images above - fill out the form and fax it. Or you can download this PDF file.

After last year's ceremony I wrote a bit for this blog and included an audio recording of the inductions.

where did "Straus" come from?

The East Neversink River valley estate we've owned since the mid-1970s--which we call "the Straus Estate" or "Straus House"--was in a sense the result of the convergence of two families through marriages -- the Straus family and the Guggenheim family. Yes, the latter is really the family that also gave us the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as modernist art-acquiring adventuress Peggy Guggenheim. On the Straus side we get several generations of Rogers who formed and sustained Farrar, Straus & Giroux publishers. The image above is a piece of a large New York Times article from 1914 about the coming together of the two establishment clans. Here is a PDF of the whole original article.

horsewoman departs

Lisa Kenna has left Frost Valley after five summers and several stints year-round too. Here's part of what Lisa wrote me recently:

Frost Valley has really inspired me in so many ways, I have made so many life long friends there. I completed my fifth FV summer last year and will be sad not to return this summer. Although I will surely return someday soon. I miss my horses, the community, Jim Tisch, the beautiful Catskills and the Frost Valley atmosphere so much. Right now I am currently teaching English in South Korea with my boyfriend Shane, who I actually met at Frost Valley while doing my 18-month Visa contract. We both worked EE and I also worked in the barn on the weekends. I have added your page to my 'blog list' on my 'Korean Adventure blog' as a must read.

Here are three photos of Lisa during her FV time. The photo above was taken by Dave Mager last summer. Great shot, no?

inclusiveness is no abstract value

in hard times, we are reaching out

Below is the text of a letter that every parent of every camper received this week - sent by our CEO, Jerry Huncosky. And here's a scan of the letter on letterhead. Please, please read it - and I predict that you will have new reason to be proud of Frost Valley.

Although times are tough for Frost Valley itself, we have done the only thing you'd imagine us to do. We've followed our principles, and we've now told the parents of our campers that they should not let the recession keep their sons and daughters from enrolling in camp this summer. We've asked them to call and we'll work out some kind of financial aid if necessary. The response so far as been tremendous - and you can imagine some of the stories, told through tears, that Jerry has already heard.

But if you haven't lost your job, and if you aren't as affected by the economic downturn as others around you, now is the time for you to make a donation of $10, $100, or perhaps one that will fund a camper's stay for a two-week session ($1500). If you can, as it were, spare a dime, go here and make an online donation now.

Now here, as I say, is the text of that good letter.

- - -

Dear Camper Parent:

We at Frost Valley are feeling the strain of the bad economy in many ways, and we know that many of you are having the same experience. We are, however, happy to report that our enrollments are very good and that attendance at all our programs—weekend family groups, retreats, and school groups etc.—remains strong. As our camp enrollments continue to come in for the summer of ‘09, we find our enrollment ahead of last summer and are pleased that many of our sessions are filling up.

Nonetheless, we are not seeing some familiar names on our registration lists for camp. We hear at second and third hand about some of our Frost Valley families who have not yet registered their children, and so—making no assumptions about individuals as a matter of principle—I thought it best to write this letter to all our camp families.

We appreciate, indeed cherish, the faith you have placed in us over the years by trusting your sons and daughters to us for weeks at a time. We also recognize that this could be the year when you need us to reach out to you. There’s one thing we know for certain about this recession, and perhaps it’s the only thing we surely know: your children—our campers—share no fault in the making of hard economic times. We all agree that they should be as unaffected as possible. For that reason, I want to reach out to all of our families and ask that they not let any financial difficulty prevent them from having a great summer at Frost Valley. If your child attended camp in prior years but the bad economy might keep them from coming back in ’09, I encourage you to call our summer camp staff or me personally and let us help you get your child enrolled. I and our staff and our Board of Trustees all believe that the strength of our program lies in the continuity of experience—summer to summer, even decade to decade—enjoyed by our campers and staff. Camp is one of life’s rare continuities. Your child is part of our camp family and we want him or her to come back here again.

Conversely, if you have not been affected by the recession, we are asking for your help now. Won’t you please support a camper whose family is struggling? If you are able to send a few dollars, or if you have the means to support an entire camper fee, now is exactly the time to help. This is a year for us to come together, the way strong communities do at such times, to pitch in and help each other.

Again, please don’t let the recession stop you from enrolling your child in camp today. Let us help you do so, before their favorite sessions fill up.

You can reach us at 845-985-2291. My personal extension is x220 and I enjoy hearing from parents of our campers in any case. Let me help you figure out how to make a Frost Valley summer possible for your sons and daughters.

Here’s to sunnier and warmer weather soon!

Jerry Huncosky
CEO

bowl-a-thon for camperships

Even if you can't be there to bowl--even if you are a far-flung friend of Frost Valley--please consider sponsoring a lane or making a donation.

And be sure to listen to this wonderful radio ad that is running this week: mp3.

chapel in winter

The chapel under snow - as caught earlier this winter by Tom Cometa who was up at FV for his annual snowy weekend.

Girls' Camp kitchen crew

This photograph belonged to Marie Kremer, and at some point her son John Kremer got it and has now passed it along to me. Remarkable shot! This is the Girls' Camp kitchen staff. Bill Van Zandt is in the center, first row, and to the right of him (our right) is Dot Van Zandt.

To date this pic I'm going to have to do some educated guessing. First, where is it shot? They are gathered just to the west of the Girls' Dining Hall (now Geyer), right smack where Lakeview Lodge is currently located. Up at the top of what many know as Hirdstock Field. Behind them and to our right you can see Ricciardi Cabin, which was built in 1967 or 68. And the staff shirts, I think, are from '67. And notice the hill is grassless and stony, which would be still from the construction of the dining hall in '66. So my best guess is 1967.

The crew here are a few professional cooks but otherwise they are the LITs and possibly also the CITs. I hope folks from there era, seeing this, will identify some of the people.

- - -

Later, Myra Margolis Katz send us this: "The picture of the LIT's and CIT's was either 1968, or 1969, I think second session 1969. (I was a LIT first session 1969). The girl in front with the dark hair and blond streak is Suzanne Steinberg."

Biscuit Creek trail

Sun-dappled trees along the Biscuit Creek trail.

facebook

There are a number of Frost Valley-related Facebook pages, and of course Facebook users who read this blog can find them for themselves, merely by entering "Frost Valley" in the searchbox. But today I wish to point out the main FV Facebook site and hope that all Facebook-using fans of FV will become indeed a "fan." Here's your link.

volunteers

Last weekend some former EE and conference staff gathered--as they do every year--to volunteer. Left to right in the photo at left: Steve Metevier, Torey Sweet, Vicki Sweet, Glen Horton (orange hat), Kenis Sweet. Sharon Zimmerman was there but is not in that photo.

From left here are Dave Haight and Dee Ward and Sue Haight (Dave's wife). From right are Carmel Dorn and Bud Cox. Looks as if Bud's the only one eating the lunch!

met in '99, engaged in '09 - same spot

Last Saturday, on the Biscuit Creek Bridge at Frost Valley, Chris Lane proposed to Lindsay Chandler-Alexander. She said yes! This photo was taken not long after the moment. Lindsay thinks she was at FV summers from 1992 to 2001. Chris was there from '98 to '02. Lindsay says: "We met in the summer of 1999 which was my JC summer and his second summer at camp. We decided to start dating on July 15th under the Biscuit Creek Bridge and 9 and a half years later that is where Chris proposed to me! Frost valley means the world to us. It is where we met, fell in love, and now where we got engaged. We couldn't be happier!"

Another Frost Valley romance turns into marriage. How many have there been? I can think of a dozen without even trying.

Of course Lindsay is in a long-line of a Wawayanda/Frost Valley family - the Chandlers of Long Island. (I remember Dave Chandler and Cathy Chandler very well - from 40 years ago.)

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."

winter paradise

A staff guy from last summer--Dave Seddon, Forest VC--came back to the valley from England and took this blissful pic at the entrance to camp.