Remember when?

I was having supper with friends last  night and we were talking about the importance of camp.  It is now more important then ever.  This technological society has built brilliant minds that can not figure out how to fry an egg, or explain what is going on in their lives.  Talking, reasoning, living is not found on a computer or a text message.  Every year at camp we do not allow cell phones and every year most children bring them to camp.  We try our best to collect the phones so that friendships are made that last forever and not until the end of a poorly interpreted text message.  Last summer I thought it would be great to give back the cell phones the day before camp ended only to walk down girls row to children zoning out texting friends from home.  Immediately I collected the cell phones and suddenly the wonderful magic of friendship began again.  It was like a light switch and was so eery.  Anyway, I came home to this email from an old alumni.


Greetings,

I was looking at the Fall 2014 edition of The Rattler which included this year's Color War songs.  It made me think back to my summer as a counselor at White Mountain.  Paul and I introduced the concept and ran the first Color War that summer.  That was 1967 (OMG...is that really possible?).  I don't know how Color War has morphed over the years or if you adopted the concept of surprising the camp with the start of Color War and making that introduction bigger and more grandiose every year as we proposed.  With that in mind, I realized that this summer will be 2015 and therefore 50 years of Color War isn't that far away.  I would love to think that you would celebrate such a significant anniversary by somehow making it extra special.  My summer at White Mountain was just yesterday so 50 years of Color War must be coming up tomorrow.  That would mean it's almost time to start thinking about what special might look like.

BTW, I still remember my summer at Timber Ridge with great fondness.  I can only hope that my campers enjoyed their stay as much as I enjoyed mine.

Best wishes.

Bonnie Schlenker

50 years later I still know who Bonnie and Paul are and embrace their friendship and memories.

Camp is no longer a luxury it is a necessity for raising healthy, happy children and  young adults with memories , good memories that last a lifetime.