Hey Everyone! It’s your favorite program director, Josh, making my blogging debut.
So, what have I been up to since camp has ended? Well, besides a variety of seasonal shutdown and office work, I’ve been using my time to leave Chingachgook and do some great alumni networking all over the Northeastern United States!
As soon as camp ended, I packed my overnight bag for a weekend in the Adirondacks. I had been invited by an alum to participate in a Labor Day Weekend sailing regatta. Our racing vessel: an AMF Sunfish, just like we use here at camp. Sitting on a beam reach, rounding a mark, on a sunfish, it was just like being in our awesome sailing skill class at Chingachgook.
Next up was a trip to New York City. Arriving in Brooklyn, I met a camp alumnus who had sorted out a bike for me to borrow. The two of us spent the afternoon biking nearly 20 miles! We biked all the way to
Coney Island to ride the
Cyclone and
Wonderwheel.If you didn’t know, after almost 50 years as a national landmark, Coney Island’s amusement park closed down the following Sunday. I made it out there just in time, in the park’s final days!
That weekend I headed out to Boston for another round of alumni networking, meeting up with several alums now residing in the greater Boston area. We all had a fun weekend of talking about camp (all had been Chingachgook directors in the past!) and seeing some sights in the city. Did You Know: you can sail on a river? The Charles River offers a great community sailing program that I’ve taken advantage of. Any Chingachgook campers living in the Boston area who learned how to sail at camp this summer might want to check it out:
Community BoatingThe following week, Aaron and I took a trip to Philadelphia that you may have read about in an
earlier blog entry. Although I spent part of my childhood growing up in Philly, I was surprised to learn that Aaron had never been. I took to showing him some of the historical sites that make the city famous; including Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation. Afterwards, I knew I’d be doing Aaron-the-baseball-fall an injustice if I didn’t take him to a Phillies game. The Phillies won, and it was free hat day to boot!
The following day we attended a conference for YMCA camp directors at the
South Mountain YMCA and got to hang out with a bunch of camp-nerds just like ourselves.
Last weekend I departed Chingachgook for the looong drive to
Baxter State Park in Maine. The park is home to Maine’s tallest peak,
Katahdin. The great thing about all of this alumni networking is that I’d convinced some alums to re-join me on my ascent of the mountain, as an exploratory trip for Chingachgook's
Adventure Program. It was a long day of hiking, but we were rewarded with a great sense of accomplishment as we reached the sign marking the summit. The clouds even broke on the way down and we were treated to a beautiful view of Maine.
It’s nice to know so many campers, CIT’s, and staff are still enthusiastically glowing from their camp experience. Just this weekend in Saratoga, I ran into over 25 alums who stopped me to say hi and talk about camp. As always, we invite you and your families to visit. Remember, there’s a reunion on October 5th. It’s a great chance to hike Buck Mountain! See the top of this page for details.
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Next up was a trip to New York City. Arriving in Brooklyn, I met a camp alumnus who had sorted out a bike for me to borrow. The two of us spent the afternoon biking nearly 20 miles! We biked all the way to Coney Island to ride the Cyclone and Wonderwheel.
That weekend I headed out to Boston for another round of alumni networking, meeting up with several alums now residing in the greater Boston area. We all had a fun weekend of talking about camp (all had been Chingachgook directors in the past!) and seeing some sights in the city. Did You Know: you can sail on a river? The Charles River offers a great community sailing program that I’ve taken advantage of. Any Chingachgook campers living in the Boston area who learned how to sail at camp this summer might want to check it out: Community Boating
It’s nice to know so many campers, CIT’s, and staff are still enthusiastically glowing from their camp experience. Just this weekend in Saratoga, I ran into over 25 alums who stopped me to say hi and talk about camp. As always, we invite you and your families to visit. Remember, there’s a reunion on October 5th. It’s a great chance to hike Buck Mountain! See the top of this page for details.
Well, maybe all is not lost with searching for staff out in California. I mean Heather Siegel, skill class director and year round coordinator at Camp did come from this state. Trying to think outside of the box, I visited the Exploratorium, a science museum, to secure a scientist for Camp, but was wildly unsucessful. Additionally, I attended a Giants and Dodgers game, an aquarium and Universal Studios Hollywood all in the attempt to begin construction on the summer staff of 2009. What do you think? Who would be the best celebrity (human or animation) to be at Chingachgook next summer? Let us know!
Sure it might sound like an adventure, but the task of finding staff, campers, and even alumni is much harder then you might think. I decided this September to try and look in some unconventional places to build a winner for next summer. After Josh and I tried unsucessfully to find anyone at the Philadelphia Phillies game, I thought hmmm, maybe we have exhausted our options on the east coast. Let me head out to California to try my luck. So far I have met one person who had a sister that went to Chingachgook in the early 80's. Where did I meet this person? Alcatraz of course! Don't worry parents, I asked, Alcatraz's counselor release program ended when the prison closed in 1963. But it would have been a great addition to our program right? In the last couple of days I have searched at an Oakland Athletic's Game, near the Golden State Bridge, Alcatraz, and in the California Redwoods. Any place I'm forgetting? Pretty soon I'll head south a little more and look around Anaheim and Los Angeles...
Did you know that there is an adventure trip that does the unthinkable? They hike all 46 adirondack high peaks! I love sitting a top a mountain, looking out at the vast wilderness, quite proud of what I've just done. But these kids/staff are serious, they did all that 46 times while backpacking outside in the adirondacks for five straight weeks! What an accomplishment. A belated congratulations to all 46'ers for their amazing achievement.
How on earth did these summer campers return do you ask? Well, they're one of the lucky students whose school attends Chingachgook when summer camp and adventure trips are not in session. These particular campers are here just for the day, schools do stay overnight, partaking in some teambuilding and recreation! You too can come to Chingachgook even if your school doesn't. We have tons of family programs throughout the fall and in the spring, including our SUMMER CAMP REUNION on October 5, it's not too late to RSVP. Just call Camp and reserve your spot as well all hike Buck Mountain together for the final tim in 2008. Josh and I can't wait to see you there :)
As you can easily imagine, Camp is not the same when the months of June, July, and August are over. It's a little less crazy, but by no means is Camp empty till next June. In the next three months or so, Camp is expecting around 6,000 visitors for our school programs and weekend programs. Any chance some of you will be visiting us then? We would sure love to see you! Well, here are some photos of a currently empty Camp.
