The Council Room

[Chris Gill]

It's been a cool summer here in New England. I remember as a junior counselor I was taught to check my campers to make sure they were warm before I went to bed. If they were curled up in a little ball you put a blanket over them and then watched them stretch out. Now as a father I do the same thing with my kids and I always think of Wyanoke as I pull the blanket over them.
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1965-1975
C7,C8,J8,S4,S3

[David Bentley]

Chris Gill Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:23 pm Post subject: What I learned at Wyanoke

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It's been a cool summer here in New England. I remember as a junior counselor I was taught to check my campers to make sure they were warm before I went to bed. If they were curled up in a little ball you put a blanket over them and then watched them stretch out. Now as a father I do the same thing with my kids and I always think of Wyanoke as I pull the blanket over them.


This is a great post expressing a behavior learned at Camp which has stuck with someone (probably most of us) during the years. I took the liberty of forwardingt to a friend here in Wolfeboro who has ties to Camp Agawam (where Garth Nelson is distinguishingly involved and who just happens to live in the refurbished/renovated Midget Chapel in Cabintown) and I am posting his response back to me below. Some skills are universal. Thanks, Chris, for reminding us.

We learned the same lessons about covering up our campers, and I still think of Agawam every time I do it - to kids, grandkids, or myself! Thanks for sharing.
Pete

"Pete" is Porter "Pete" Caesar, a Life Director, and long time associate of Camp agawam.
_________________
C-1 49 J-7 52 S-3 55 J-10 58
C-7 50 J-7 53 S-2 56 J-8 59
C-8 51 J-4 54 S-7 57 (JA) J-8 60 - 64
1965 - 1968 Military service
Pine Cone 68 - 75 (with wife,Sherry,
and daughter Tracey)
Wolfeboro - full-time since 1997

[Mike Freeland]

I did the same thing. I checked the kids at least once a night, sometimes twice if the weather was dicey or something. It was the quiet moments like that as a counselor which pointed out to me how profound the responsibilities we all had were, caring for someone else's "alpha and omega" for those 60 days.

A couple, much more mundane things I learned at camp were:

1) the hospital corner. I can safely say that every time I make up a bed, I use them for the corners of the top sheet and I invariably think of Camp.

2) how to fold an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper to fit into a No. 7 envelope. You fold the letter in half into a 5.5 x 8.5 folded paper, then fold that into thirds. Brad used to demonstrate that at council meetings after lunch during "letter home" time. I guess we mangled the hell out of a lot of letters before he passed that info on. Again, I think of those meetings every time I fold a sheet of paper like that.

And I think Pete Caesar made a relatively good decision when he elected to refurbish/renovate the Midget Chapel, unless he is a fan of, um, rustic. The bathroom and shower rooms were nice, though. Probably no reason to touch them. All new furbiture?
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'56-C-9 C. Mosher '57-C-9 Bill Feaster
'58-J-14 H. Peavy '59-J-11 G. Wood, C. Duncan
'60-S-8 R. Leavitt, D. Hemphill '61-S-1 E. Slocum
'62-JA-1 H. Dunbar '63-C-2 (JC)
'64-C-5, (JC) Councilor
'65-C-9 '66 - '72-J-8
'73-JA1 '75-J-6