like an older sister: what can be better for a girl at camp than chatting with her former counselor?

Adventure Village (Sequoia) gets lessons in handling a canoe

The campers of Adventure Village (Sequoia) learn to handle a canoe in anticipation of their canoeing trip in the Adirondacks.

Ketchams at Wawayanda, 1948 and 2013

Isaac and Cole Ketcham are in camp this session. Isaac is in Forest village, while Cole is at Farm Camp (I'll see Cole tomorrow when I go over there to lead a Challenge Night). Here's Isaac, all thumbs up, with Emiliano, his counselor. I shared this with Amy and Bill Ketcham, the boys' parents, and also with Bill's uncle Mike - the boy's beloved great-uncle, who, of course, is a Frost Valley lifer.

Receiving this photo of his nephew's son at the camp of his life stirred memories in Mike, and so he looked around for some definitive evidence of his own long-ago start. He found a photo of his and his siblings' father Frank at the old Wawayanda camp - in 1948. Family camp in August 1948. Mike and John's (and their sisters'?) first time ever at Wawayanda. Here's what Mike has to say, first of the great photo of Isaac and then about his Wawayanda origins:

"And the tradition continues....  Thought everyone might be interested in the attached.  Looks like the Ketchams began their Camp Wawayanda/Frost Valley tradition in 1948, not 1950 as I had previously thought.  This is a photo of John, my dad (aka Boppy), and me on the dock at the Andover site at family camp.  John would be about 9 months old, making me 2 years and 10 months.  That dates the picture to August of 1948."

And here is the photo Mike sent:

another window

One of the many great things about our having built a Wellness Center near the dining hall: campers can come to pick up their mealtime medications easily, without being late to the meal. (Previously it had been so difficult to do this efficiently that we had the nurses giving out medications in the dining hall - not the best arrangement to say the least.) So the Wellness Center makes all this easy. Well, no as easy as it should be. We built one window to create a kiosk at the Guenther Wellness Center, so that campers could come to the porch of the building and pick up medications from the kiosk, a nurse inside the window while the kids wait outside. But the one window wasn't enough, and lines formed, long lines, so that, after all, the campers were missing the first part of the meal. Solution? Knock another hole in the wall and build another window. That's what was going on when I snapped this photo yesterday. By now the two windows are open and the lines are short. After all these years we keep trying, one thing after another, to get this just right.

Geronimo!

A classic scene. Photo by Dan Weir, who joined us for this huge game of Geronimo with Lakota village.

making friends in the dining hall

Time-honored tradition: making friends in the dining hall. I can't say it's quiet but it certainly is a place for real conversation. Today I walked around what seems a huge room with a loud crazy mess of interaction going on, but then I focused on particular instances of young people really getting to know each other - talking mostly in particulars. There's nothing abstract about it: what we did; what we hope to do tonight or tomorrow; who did what for the first time; etc. I apologetically break up some of these conversations to snap a photo, but it's okay: the smiles on their faces show how good this scene is. The dining hall is vital to the Frost Valley magic.

MAC leadership 2013 (minus Kat, alas)

Joe Medler of YAI is here visiting, as he often is during the summer when MAC campers are in session. Gail Morris, who now works with YAI and is of course a long-time Frost Valley camper and staffer, is here three days each week. Kat the VC of Mini-Mac (which operates in Wawayanda) was not at lunch with us, but everyone else in MAC leadership was around, so we gathered for this nice photo of the team. Back row, left to right: Gail, Joe, Amani (MAC co-director), Nikki (VC Mac Girls); front row, left to right: Olivia (VC of STEP), Rae (MAC co-director) and Colin (VC MAC Boys).

video tour of camp while everyone is at dinner

Outpost cools off on a sunny day

sunny first day of second session

First full day of second session: sunny! How much easier is the first day of a session when it's not raining? A great deal easier. Just now at lunch I talked with a good many happy kids. What did you do this morning? Waterfront. How was it? GREAT! I mentioned a hole in the bottom of Lake Cole last night at Wawayanda's opening campfire, and whispered into the ear of counselor Sam Nathanson what it was that used to (but no longer) crawl out of that hole, whereupon Sam went a little goofy and ran around as if the knowledge was too much to bear. Naturally, today, most of the kids in the camp are asking Sam to tell them what emerged from that hole in the bottom of the lake, but Sam won't say. Nor will I. It's such fun to hear them asking. They
know it's a fiction, but they also know that it would be fun to know and fun to find out that one just can't know. Kids love camp fictions. Anyway, happy faces all over the dining hall. Over at the director's table, while they dine, their radios rest and convene. Tools of the trade. If it were lunch on a construction site, the leavings on the table would be toolbelts and hardhats. Here, radios.

David Sacker's daughter is a camper!

David Sacker has waited a long time for daughter Catherine to come of age - and now she has! She's is Susky this session....a little nervous on this first day of camp but she's got lots of support and will, I'm sure, have the time of her life. Check-in today went smoothly but it's VERY humid, and so everyone was sweating like crazy, walking up and down the hills, finding villages, making beds with fresh linens inside the cabins.... David started here as a camper in '86 and stayed for many years, finishing up with a several-year stint as a Lenape counselor. Below is a photo of David and me and Catherine in the dining hall at check-in. Then David saw Kyoko - a Tokyo Camp counselor from 23+ years ago. The remembered each other from the Olympics, when Sacker was the Head Coach of Japan. Quite a reunion.

Paul McGrath, former Frost Valley trustee, has died

J. Paul McGrath, who served as an assistant attorney general of the U.S. and was for some years a member of Frost Valley's Board of Trustees, died recently at the age of 72. During his time as a trustee, he prepared a report that led to a reorganization of our committees. He was active as a volunteer for many worthy organizations, including the YMCA in Florida, where he spent part of his year. We will miss Paul. Here is a link to an obituary.

assistant attorney general of the United States,

CITs

Some of the CITs on check-out day (yesterday). Happy people together.

thoughts at the end of session 1 (or: Bud Cox at the top of the ladder)

Rainy session, but terrific. Fewer-than-you'd-expect homesick kids, given all that rain. Lots of scampering inside as it thundered, but also: lots of playing games in the rain, with spirit. Overnights somehow (mostly) got out and back. Chuck Masters, the perfectly named out-trip outfitter, kept up with the rush. Adventure Village (its VC really does like to call it "Sequoia") was fabulously anarchic as usual, and actually did some Adirondack trips for canoeing and backpacking. Hemlock was boisterous and active; Windsong was a good-intense, positively emotional sisterhood; Forest was huge and happily swarmed the fields and hills; Pokey-Totem was adorable; Lakota consisted of phenomenal women; and so on. The villages: unique, trademark distinct, respecting the (really) tens of thousands of "ancestors" who have passed through them in the many decades prior to 2013. One ancestor I kept missing, at the turn of every corner along every path, was Eric Blum. But that's to be expected, as the loss of him is so recent. At the closing campfire, Bud Cox somewhat surprised us by showing up (at both camps' fires - Wawayanda first and Hird next), dragging his big ladder, atop which he belted out a great version of the old standby, "Going on a Lion Hunt." I was impressed, really, by the way the older kids completely abandoned themselves in this silly ritual. Bud was, shall we say, at the top of the game. He is also at the top of the ladder of FV society, according at least to one Hemlock boy. (I'm myself hilariously near the top, so you can consider my making this list available here a bit of silly self-promotion.) Yes, the aforementioned Hemlock camper made a Frost Valley "hierarchy chart" and gave it to his counselor, Del Giannotti, who gave it to his father John Giannotti, who passed it along to me. Here it is, word for word:

Poky/Totem
Susky/Forest
Lakota/Outpost
Sacky/Hemlock
Tacoma/Lenape
PAC/Windsong
CITs
JCs
Counselors
Village Chiefs
Camp Director
Time Lord (Al)
Guy on a ladder singing a song about lions

Finally, the "guy on a ladder" is a mythologized figure, as he himself says all the time, and so is the whole idea of the hierarchy, and the Hemlock guys were having some good fun with it.  Bud would tell you he's just a guy who associated with FV,  like so many others, but in his case never wanted to leave - now in his 61st summer at Wawayanda. His preferred spot on the ladder: counselor. And, in his time, he was a superbly focused and caring counselor. I personally remember it.

In the end the cabin counselor is either at the top or at the center of the "hierarchy"- or, actually, in every position. Every good director is a counselor in essence. And every counselor makes a temporary but, in a child's mind, a lasting new family.

One parent, of a Lakota girl, sent me the following note through Facebook messaging:

C. had the best time at camp, I think she talked for a hour straight without taking a breath when she got home. I asked her if she got homesick this year and she said "I didn't get homesick at Frost Valley, I will get Frost Valley sick at home." She added it really felt like family there... She had a wonderful time!

I didn't get homesick at Frost Valley. I will get Frost Valley sick at home. There you go.

another Tilles steps forward

Danny and Peter Tilles grew up at Frost Valley and spent many years thriving here. (Danny was a CIT with me in '71.) Peter's daughter Amanda is now a counselor in Pokey-Totem. What's amazing to me is that Peter's younger daughter, Olivia is already herself a CIT. Our kids are growing up. Below you can see Olivia in the midst of Susky girls during one of the very loud Susky cheers at lunch yesterday. She's in the green shirt, with glasses.

friends of the Ketcham Chapel at Reflection Pond

I happened by the Ketcham Chapel yesterday and spent a few minutes reading the plaques on the wall in the foyer - remembering the names of most of those who contributed to the chapel project during the time of its construction. Readers of this blog will perhaps recognize some of the names. Whether or not you do recognize them, you'll no doubt feel appreciation for their generosity in the effort to honor the Ketcham Family and their collective years and tremendous efforts in support of Frost Valley. (Click on any photo for a larger view.)

Gottscho Foundation Board visit

We were very pleased today to greet members of the Ruth Gottscho Kidney Foundation Board for their annual summertime visit. The dialysis unit was running at full tilt, and board members and several guests had a chance to meet and talk with a number of the children who are here this session, doing all the activities, in spite of their renal disease. Next year we come upon the 40th anniversary of this program, which is was founded as a partnership among the Gottscho Foundation, Frost Valley, and (at the time) Einstein Hospital in the Bronx (now Montefiore). Near the middle of the photo, in blue shirt and sunglasses, is Judy Eichinger, daughter of Eva Gottscho, founder of the foundation and chief creative instigator of the project back in 1975.

grilling for Windsong and PAC

Nothing but high-level staff types to doing the grilling for the campers and staff of PAC and Windsong as they near the end of the session. It happens outdoors - with grilling taking place under the Halbe & Jane Brown Pavilion - and the campers (Windsong in particular) get "dressed up" insofar as that's possible at camp. From right to left: Kam (Hird Director), Lesley (Windsong VC), Nick (PAC VC), Alan Moss (activities coordinator), and behind Alan you can (barely) see David S. (our Activities Director). With all that talent, the burgers should be tasty.

video on Frost Valley's core values

Please click here and watch a new video about Frost Valley's values.

improvised rainy-night evening program

The two Hannahs in Lakota improvise a rainy-night evening program. They winged it. They utterly made it up as they went along. And yet, somehow, their instructions were almost delivered entirely in sync. How do they know what the other is going to say before she says it? It was quite a performance and the campers were mesmerized. They took a wash-out evening and made it tons of fun for everyone. This photo shows them in action; click on the image for a larger view.

Aaron Wallman is back!

Aaron will be getting married here at Frost Valley in early September. And when he gets set up as a doctor, after his CHOP residency, we are all hoping he will figure out a way to do at least a two-week stint as camp doctor in future years!

there's a blacksmith at Farm Camp

today, July 9, is Oran Giannotti's birthday

The other day I saw John's son Del walking by with his campers. I called out to say hello to him from maybe a distance of 40 feet. The way he was with them - they way he walked - his head-bent-slightly-down focus on them - reminded me of Oran, whom I of course remember well and fondly as one of my counselors when I was director in the early to mid 80s. Seeing Del now, I almost called out, "Oran Giannotti!" instead of "Del Giannotti!" Oran's spirit and sensibility are still with us here.

Lakota and Outpost - hoopla (cheers)

program staff keep learning, every day

Every morning after breakfast and before the first activity period, the program staff (now called "activity counselors") meets in front of Margetts Lodge. One of them leads the others in a game or activity. It's great for comraderie - not that that's lacking in the least. It's also great to prevent silos - each program staffer doing, again and again, their own thing, their specialty. It creates among them a sense of the Frost Valley anyone-can-do-anything spirit.

fireworks tonight over Lake Cole

Jess

Jess Gonzalez was here visiting this week. Here she is (in back) with Sandra Shapiro Bohn (left) and Katy Bowen (right). Jess is teaching at a school in Newark. She played Geronimo with me the other day, and noted that several of the kids playing were students in her school. She has created the connection between the school and FV. Thanks, Jess!

July 4th carnival celebrates international counselors

always smiling

One of my very favorite campers this session. He's in Forest, and always - I mean always - has a smile on his face. He spent the entire hour playing Geronimo the other day...smiling. I saw him at dinner earlier this evening. He was inexplicably dissecting his baked potato, carefully removing the skin bit by bit. Eventually he ate the skinned potato and hot dog without the bun, dipping the latter in a paper cup of ketchup. He had it all figured out. I'm not sure how the pipe cleaner headdress fits in, but in our conversation he made no mention of it. It's just part of the day's get-up, I guess. What a guy.

superhero farmers

Over at Farm Camp yesterday, it was Superhero Day. We arrived for a quick visit as they were finishing their costumes. We gathered some of the guys together for a group shot of the diverse supers. The guy with the mustache (which is made, by the way, of sheep's wool)? He was Monsieur Poison Baguette. I don't know if you can quite see his baguette, but it was long - and real. I know where he got the sheep's wool. But the baguette? The cooking over the farm is very good, but do they really supply baguettes?

Kaskel reunion

The Kaskels were all here for the weekend. Rick, when he leaves tomorrow, will have spent the better part of a week here serving as our pediatric nephrologist in residence, to support the dialysis/kidney program this session. Phyllis joined him a few days ago. Then daughters Jessica and Erica - both long-time campers and staff - also arrived. Jessica and Erica's niece Lauren made the trip too, although she was going to go back home, pack for camp, and then come back next weekend to start her four weeks as a camper in Sacky. Well, no. Once she was here, she couldn't imagine leaving. So the okay came from the directors, and then there was the shopping trip to Walmart, and now - as of today - Lauren in in Sacky, doing the unusual five-week stint at camp. I took advantage of the rare moment when these four Kaskels were together at FV, and got this nice shot of them just before Jessica and Erica left.

morning reflection

Middle Sunday of the session. Sleep late (yay!), dine over brunch (not breakfast and lunch) and sit quietly during Morning Reflection, one for each camp, coordinated by the CITs. Here's this morning's Wawayanda Morning Reflection, at Reflection (appropriately) Pond. The Hird M.R. took place at the old Wawayanda Chapel. Here some staff sang the Beatles' "Blackbird."

vintage FV patriotism

Adriene Rosenberg (left) reunites with her former camper (from last summer) Hannah W., who is a lifer here. Hannah, now in Sacky, won a vintage FV t-shirt at a recent Challenge Night. It's a red, white & blue "Frost Valley / Y / USA" half-sleeve T, dating from the 1970s (I'm guessing). This was the day to sport that shirt, since we celebrating Independence Day on the 7th.

Benjamin Brown continues his family's legacy here

There's a Brown in camp - Benjamin (at left in the pic), son of David who is the son of Jane Brown and the late great Halbe Brown. Ben is thriving here, I'm glad to say. I took this picture during the all-camp carnival this afternoon. He was taking a break and had some wonderful things to say about his FV experience so far - a long way from his home in Alaska, but still - home for sure.

Ben's older brother Sam is also here - in Adventure Village (Sequoia).

Halbe Brown's grandsons are here. Yes.

your 2013 Wawayanda Directors

Megan Lawrence and Alex Draper. (Alex is sporting Australian pink eyeblack, which I acquired at this afternoon's July-4th-on-the-10th "It's a Small World" carnival, featuring booths sponsored by international counselors, among them two Aussies who persuaded us that eyeblock Down Under is pink. My own face was applied to by these characters.)