Alumni

At the closing ceremony every Friday, I tell the kids that they are part of a bigger community than just the people who are in the room. I remind them that we've been a camp since 1947 and a lot of people have been here and know what it feels like to share the camp spirit. I tell them that I wear my camp tee shirts all the time and that I often meet alumni who have been to camp and tell me their camp stories. I know that the staff, who hear the same speech every week probably tune it out and think it's just a line I've made up. But the truth is, over the years, I've connected with a LOT of alumni and I love it when people stop by, call or email and want to reconnect with camp.

Our camp has done a TERRIBLE job of maintaining records or a database of campers and staff. We don't have an alumni mailing list or a way of connecting with them. It's unfortunate, because a camp like this should have a committed, connected community of people supporting the work we do with donations, volunteers and campers.

On Wednesday, the visiting priest introduced himself and told us that he'd been a camper in 1969. He told us that he watched a man walk on the moon for the first time on the porch of the lodge. It was a cool story and I was happy that he'd shared it.

Yesterday, we had a special guest at camp. Counselor K's uncle emailed me earlier in the summer and asked if I would be interested in having him our to camp to host a "star program". He has some giant telescopes and hosts a program for kids to teach them about the stars and constellations.

Not only is he Counselor K's uncle, he is also a former camper. He was so thrilled to be back at camp and he excitedly told us lots of stories from when he was here. He told us, "In 1969, I watched a man walk on the moon from the porch of the lodge." I smiled and nodded when he first started telling the story because he'd already told us... until I realized that wasn't who'd told me the story!

I got super excited and told him that the priest from earlier in the week had told the same story! What a crazy coincidence! What are the odds that we would bring back two former campers from so long ago who had been at camp at the exact same time?! Camp is magical like that...