Boy or Girl??

It's the first week of camp and we're off to a great start. Everything is going well and I'm feeling great. This summer is going to be fantastic.

Today was an exciting day because I had my 18 week ultrasound which is the one that they tell you if you are having a boy or a girl. I drove home early this morning and 'N' and my mom were both with me.

Earlier this week, we asked the kids to cast their vote of what I was having. Some kids misunderstood- they thought they were voting to decide which I would have. So we had to explain science and then eventually I think they got it.

Baby didn't want to cooperate at the appointment. It's little legs were crossed and I was like, "I have a camp full of kids waiting! We have to find out today!" After some ice water and walking around, we got our answer!

When I got back to camp, I had colored chalk powder (the kind from a color run) and at the talent show, the lead staff threw the powder at the white shirt I was wearing...

Our future camper is a BOY!!

The kids and staff cheered (I think they would have cheered either way) and it was fun to share our special moment with the whole camp!

Future Camper on Board

Summer #8 is here.

As if each summer wasn't enough of an adventure, this year, I have a "future camper on board".

Pregnant at camp.

I'm 18 weeks pregnant. My first trimester ended when I arrived for pre-camp. I have never been so tired in my entire life as I was first trimester. So far, I'm feeling much more energetic in my second trimester (which lasts until the week I go home at the end of the summer), so I'm hopeful that being pregnant at camp will go smoothly.

A New Start

Camp ended and we sat around doing nothing for 2 months (well not nothing, we planned a wedding!). And then at the end of October, the board agreed to let me save camp and it began a whirlwind of nonstop activity.

Typically, early bird registration ends October 31. We hadn’t even announced that camp would be open at that time this year. So we got down to business and planned everything that needed to be planned and I met with a bunch of people and sent literally a million emails and tried to reassemble a board of directors from scratch.

We had a “goodbye” party for our old board in December and a few days ago, had a “brainstorm day” for prospective board members and friends of camp. Considering that I started this whole adventure with the plan to burn down a building, I’ve made a lot of progress.

The future is still completely uncertain. The board president ‘J’ helped me renegotiate the terms of our loan and essentially “bought” me two years.

Two years.

I should be able to get my shit together in two years, right?

By “get my shit together” I mean rebuild a board, come up with a strategic plan, figure out how to triple our annual fundraising, and continue to run the organization on a day to day basis.

I spend a lot of days thinking about climbing under my desk, but I’m also making a lot of progress. I had 15 people at the brainstorm day. Not all want to be board members, but everyone had a LOT of great suggestions, were incredibly supportive and surprisingly, didn’t think I was as insane as I feel. I’m making new connections every day and I am starting to put details under the to do list heading of “fix camp”, which is sort of a big “to do” item.

Two years.

Executive Meeting

A few years ago, we took out a loan to make up for the money we were losing and the loan is due at the end of October. We don’t have $150,000 to pay it back and that was the main catalyst for thinking about closing camp. But ultimately, closing an almost 70 year old camp over $150,000 seems crazy. That’s not THAT much money. I don’t happen to have that much spare cash laying around, it’s obviously a LOT of money. But some nonprofits raise that in one event, so it just seems like a tragedy to close down over that much money.

So I talked to ‘B’ and asked him if he would help me burn down a building. ‘B’ is a camp alumni and has been volunteering with us for the past two summers. Besides me, he is possibly the most dedicated, passionate, committed and in love with camp person I’ve met.

He’s also the calmest, most reasonable person on the planet, and he nicely explained that he didn’t think that was a very good idea to commit a felony, but that he would help me meet with the bank to take out a mortgage on our property (Which is worth millions). He also agreed to take over as board president if I could figure out a way to get ‘J’ to step down.

‘B’ and I came up with a plan, well, more like the outline of a plan, but a plan. Step 1- get some money to pay off the loan and buy us some time to get this organization running well (ie- raise enough money to not be in debt each year). Step 2- rebuild the board with people who would help us fundraise and be active with the organization. Step 3- Develop a long-term strategic plan for the organization. Step 4- fundraise a bunch of money.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve reached out to a few board members and all of them agreed that they didn’t want to see camp close. I set up a meeting with the executive committee and prepared for battle. I wasn’t sure how the three of them would react to this new plan, but I had a speech ready, handouts and, in the worst case scenario, I knew I had numbers on my side and if it came down to it, I could fight them and win. They can’t close the organization without a vote from the board and I had the rest of the board on my side.

I went into the meeting totally unsure of what they would say. But when I said, “what if, instead of closing camp, you guys step down and let me try to save it” ‘J’s reaction was, “I’m on the edge of my seat”. I think I’ve sort of amused/confused/bewildered all of them ever since I arrived at this camp so many years ago and passionately and confidently argued for them to give me the chance to run camp. Once again, I asked them to give me a chance. I showed them the “plan”.

Wisely, they asked, “so how are you actually going to do all of this?” How am I going to rebuild the entire board, come up with a strategic plan, raise a bunch of money??? I said, “well, to be honest, I don’t know. But I want the opportunity to try. And if it doesn’t work, there will be less equity to start a foundation with, but since we don’t have a plan for the foundation anyway, it’s not like this would hurt or take away anything from anyone.”

Seven years after they shrugged their shoulders and handed the title of Executive Director to a 26 year old, once again, they shrugged their shoulders and said, “if you want to do it, we’ll let you try.”

I walked out of the meeting light on my feet, nearly floating. And then shortly after that, got mad. Really mad. WHY does the fate of this stupid camp always rest on whether or not I am involved? If I want to quit, they say it will close.

‘J’ agreed to meet with the bank and help me refinance our loan. As it turns out, the money was easier to solve than I’d thought. Thank goodness I didn’t burn down a building!

The entire board is going to step down at the end of December. So, I just need to find a bunch of really committed, hard working people to take over in the next 2 months.

But in the meantime, ‘A’ still has a job, camp is saved and we need to start planning summer 2015!

Camp Wedding

Okay, so, I didn’t commit felony arson. I didn’t really have time, or actually know how to burn down a building. And several other issues. A life of crime just wasn’t going to work for me, no matter how much the insurance money would have helped.

Instead, I got married. 10/4/14 (a great date for an anniversary!). It was a perfect weekend… okay, well, it was a weekend filled with near disasters and so many “camp” things. But it was prefect to me. I married the man that I love. All of my family and friends (not to mention bulldogs) were there. And we were at camp… the place I love.

A, M, B and I spent the week at camp, decorating, setting things up, getting ready. It was like a wedding themed pre-camp. We laughed a lot and had a lot of fun. I couldn’t stop thinking about how important this camp is and how I need to save it.

‘N’ arrived Thursday and we headed to the dining hall for last minute decorating. I was lecturing him about the golf cart being a camp tool and not a toy. We walked into the dining hall and heard a giant crash. The golf cart, which I have driven every day of the summer for many years, the golf cart that is not a toy and must be treated as a tool, the golf cart I wouldn’t let my to be husband drive… it had rolled backwards down the hill and crashed into the propane tank. The dining hall was NOT the building I had considered burning down.

There was a small gas leak, but we got the tank shut down and luckily, the gas company was able to come out first thing the next morning to repair the tank.

Friday was the rehearsal, which was supposed to be followed by a cookout and campfire for 80 people. It rained on and off all day, and by the time the rehearsal came, I was not wearing the beautiful lacy dress I’d bought for the occasion, instead, I was wearing rubber galoshes. The “cookout” got moved into the basement of the dining hall. The cooks were amazing and grilled everything in the rain and brought all of the food inside.

Near the end of the rehearsal, in typical camp fashion, the power went out. I’d insisted on having a generator for the weekend, so we were only in the dark for a short period of time.

The weekend before the wedding, it was 80 degrees and sunny. Our wedding day, however, was 37degrees and windy. As we were taking photos, I held out hope that we could get married outside. My husband to be, my mom, my best friend- each was sent to reason with me throughout the morning. It wasn’t until a little less than an hour before the wedding that it finally hit me that we couldn’t possibly be outside for the ceremony. At that point, the whole wedding team (several former camp staff had come back to help with set up, clean up, serving meals, etc) went to work setting up the chapel.

As photos ended and I had the realization that we couldn’t get married outside, I noticed Olivia’s face was puffy. And within minutes, her eyes were almost swollen shut. I don’t know if she got bit by something or rubbed her face on some kind of plant. I gave her 2 benedryl and FREAKED out as I was practically dragged from the house to the chapel. I was prepared to drop everything and rush to the emergency vet, but luckily the wedding party didn’t agree with me and we all (still swollen, drugged Olivia as well) made it down the aisle.

The ceremony was actually really lovely in the chapel and then we were married! Olivia’s face seemed to be less swollen, although I made ‘A’ check on her several times during the reception. The reception was super fun and everything I’d imagined. We danced all night and it was a blast.

The next day, everyone was back for brunch and then ‘N’ and I went to a bed and breakfast for a few days of rest and relaxation. ‘A’ and the wedding staff pulled out docks and shut everything down for the season. We still don’t have a plan for selling camp, so at this point, it’s just packed up like normal.

I had a perfect camp wedding. It was everything I’d imagined. Now that the madness of wedding planning is over, I can focus on my new task at hand- fight for camp. I’m not ready to give up yet.

Felony Arson

I’ve been very seriously considering felony arson for the past few days. Indian Point Lodge is a big historic building (built in 1923). It is located in the center of camp but we don’t actually use it for very much. It is insured for $600,000. If I burned it down, we could save camp. And since it isn’t vital to camp operations, we could figure out how to rebuild eventually, but in the meantime, camp is saved and we can live with a big empty space in the middle of the property.

I know there are a few issues with my plan-

The first issue I can’t quite figure out is the timing. I am getting married in one week. I don’t have time to go to drive 3 hours to camp to start a fire. The other issue is that I really don’t want to have a big mess in the middle of camp for the wedding. After the wedding would be much better, except that right after the wedding, ‘N’ and I are going on a mini-moon for a few days at a bed and breakfast. So I’ll have to wait until I get home.

Another big issue with this plan is that I haven’t run it by ‘N’ yet because he would not support his new wife delving into criminal activity. He’s way too pragmatic for that sort of thing. Which means I’m going to have to figure out how to sneak away without him knowing I’m at camp (because I can’t be at the scene of the crime when it happens or that will look suspicious).

I figure that I am going to have to sneak onto camp without any neighbors noticing me. Our property manager once told me that one of the neighbors has a security camera in his yard, so I’m not sure how I can drive into camp without anyone knowing I was there. I’m thinking maybe I could turn my headlights off once I hit the dirt road. It’s about a mile from the main road, down the dirt road onto main camp. Except that camp is on a peninsula, so there is water on both sides of the road for the majority of the mile drive, so I’m not exactly sure if I could make the drive without ending up in the lake.

Assuming I could sneak into camp (I’m imagining myself in all black clothes, sneaking across the property) and then into the building), there are more issues I will have to deal with. First of all, camp is super creepy when it’s empty and especially in the dark. I’m not sure I have enough courage to go into the dark building alone (I might not be brave enough to be a criminal). And then there’s the issue of starting a fire- I can start a campfire, no problem. But I am not sure how to start a fire that looks like an electrical fire or something legitimate (and not criminal).

So I’m going to have to start a fire that is strong enough to destroy the entire building. I probably have to stick around long enough to make sure my fire really catches. But I need to leave the scene quickly so no one knows I was there. I need to be 3 hours away from home without my husband knowing I’m gone.

And then I have to act really surprised when I “find out” the building burned down.

If I don’t execute this plan correctly, I could either hurt myself or someone else or end up in prison for arson.

It’s not a foolproof plan. But it would save camp.  

Change of Heart

This past weekend, the wedding team (A,M,B and I) spent the weekend at camp. We were walking through all of the details of the ceremony and reception, decorations, signs, etc. The weather was warm and sunny and I alternated between giddy excitement and utter depression. I’m SO excited for the wedding. But I can’t wrap my head around camp closing. All summer long, it was far in the future. It seemed forever away.

We’ve spent a month hanging out at the office- doing nothing, waiting for answers. It’s been nice to plan a wedding, but boring.

And now the end is almost here. ‘A’ will be without a job and I will be left in the office by myself with a camp to close, a foundation to create and absolutely no direction or answers about how to go about either.

As I walked around my beloved camp, I just kept thinking, “no. NO. THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING.” 67 years this camp has been here. And I’m the one who is going to let it close?!

It’s just such an amazing place. It can’t close.

And the thing is, it’s relatively simple, when you break it down.

Two years ago, we took out a loan and in October (like 2 weeks from now), we have to pay it back. But we don’t have $200,000 to do that. So we’re closing down.

Over the past 7 years, our enrollment has improved. Our fundraising has improved. Our reputation has improved. We’ve made updates to the property. EVERYTHING has improved. Not so much that we have enough to pay off the loan, but enough to step back and realize that closing camp now would be ridiculous. Camp has been WAY worse off. Why are we closing it now?!

In May, a neighbor approached camp and offered to buy the property. But he’s come back to the board and changed the deal several times. It’s not going to work out with him.

We decided to sell the property because it seemed like it was time. We’ve struggled for years, and while we are making improvements, it’s still a 67 year old camp in need of major updates. It’s hard to recruit kids. It’s hard to fundraise the amount of money we need each year. And we didn’t have a plan for the loan. And we had a buyer. And quite honestly, all of us are just tired. Many of our board members have been on the board for 20 years (some 30-40 years!).

But we’re really talking about $200,000, which is a lot, sort of. But there are organizations out there that raise that at one fundraiser, so in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not very much.

So I’ve been laying in bed, dreaming up ways to save camp. This can’t be it. I don’t have $200,000, but come on, that’s not very much money. It’s not “close a 67 year old camp” level money.

I don’t know what I’m going to do in the next 2 weeks, but I am fired up. I am re-energized. And I can’t let this camp close down.