Dear Chen-A-Wanda,
The memories I made at camp are some of the most poignant of my life. In the subtlest of ways, camp is the place you grow up. It wasn’t until I was older that I was finally able to appreciate the true gift my parents had given me when they sent me to camp. Knowingly (on their part) they had given me an experience that would teach me skills that would translate to the real world. Camp provided me with independence, resilience, and sisterhood all of which I continue to use every day.
For those reading this that know me, know I could go on and on and on about some of my favorite camp memories (and with freakish accuracy too). From my favorite counselors (Mama Jamie and Sarah Weaver) to Girls Sing (we were robbed) to the Mass Raid of ’98 and my unforgettable nickname (Saboat), which comes with its very own cheer and permanent reminder of my camp crush camp. These are all a tattoo of happiness etched on my heart never to be forgotten. However, what I really wanted to stress about being an alumnus of this HOLY place is the lifelong bond it creates among its members. This past year, we saw one of our own battle for her life against cancer at 32 years old. Without a second thought, our division (now 15+ summers removed from camp) rallied behind her. It could have been one day or many years since some of us had last spoken and it didn’t matter, camp is special that way, and the reason it is so important to so many.
To my crew who are still in my everyday life, I love you. LW, RM, RL & CR you will forever be my family and although I am 33 years old, a mother and wife I still “can’t imagine just one day not waking up to my best friends,” Only 7 more summers until my new journey at camp begins with my son’s first summer, to say I’m excited for him is an understatement, is it 2025 yet?.
Love,
SM ‘94-‘01
It wasn’t the climbing tower or the wild rides on the banana boat (that we did multiple times in our clothes to be ridiculous) that would keep me coming back to camp, but the friendships I made. The friendships I made that first summer are ones that are still in my life today. As a Jersey girl, people in my hometown used to tell me I should just move to Long Island because of how much time I spent there. But my camp friends just meant more to me than I could explain to anyone. They “got me” on another level.
When we get together we still usually break out in our old songs, and I’m confident I could sing you a majority of our Girls Sing and Color War songs verbatim. Even after months or years of not seeing each other, we recently sat together at a restaurant for hours and laughed harder the next morning about our antics in a way that you only can do with your camp friends.
Looking back on 2009, I really had no idea I would find the love of my life that summer let alone on the Biddy Court. Alex and I continued our relationship long distance with camp being our place to really “be” with each other. We became best friends who could talk all hours of the night and found a love that would grow beyond anything we ever imagined. We supported one another when one of us was captain, and rivaled each other in 2010 (I still believe Red Army lost because I left a t-shirt in the dining hall…we all know dynamite was a killer song!!!). We went on the craziest adventures, had the most insane days, and really built a foundation for our relationship that made our time apart unquestionably worth it.
2009 not only brought me my boyfriend but more camp friends where the conversations would be never ending on our porches or over boneless wings at Candlelight. We’d laugh harder with our campers who are now gorgeous girls in High School, some heading to college and have become friends I’m forever grateful for.
My days at camp started in 2004 as a Junior girl. My parents say that I was born ready for camp and happily waved them off the bus on that first day wearing my custom Chenny shirt, red and gold hot loops, and my nails painted red and gold with Chen-A-Wanda across them. From that day, I knew that camp would be my home away from home. From playing on the sports fields to dancing in the dining hall, from writing songs for Girl’s Sing to Color War, and inevitably crying my eyes out on the last day, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to get to do it all again the next summer.
I was a CIT in 2011 and I thought nothing could beat that summer. I had done it all, even spray-painted Arts and Crafts, but I still couldn’t imagine my life without this place. I remember sitting on the Lake Court crying my eyes out, thinking how I’d come back and not get to be a camper and do it all over again. However, I thankfully realized that I did get to do it all over again, but instead through the eyes of eager young campers, just like I was eight summers before. I quickly saw them make those best friends connections with camper and counselors that we wouldn’t trade for the world, got to write songs for them to have them put on an amazing Girl’s Sing, and got to watch them develop a love for camp that is irreplaceable.
I truly have camp to thank for shaping me into the person I am today. It was the place I grew up and learned the most, and those lessons have been with me every step of the way since. It was a place that’s given me life-long friends and little sisters that I couldn’t imagine my life without. To any camper or staff, new or returning, don’t take Chen-A-Wanda for granted, cherish each moment that you have inside that bubble because sadly it isn’t always possible for you to return. I left my mark and my camp story was over, but I will never not cherish Chen-A-Wanda and all that it gave me.
It was the summer of 1980. I had attended Camp Olympus and knew Morey Baldwin. Right before the summer, Morey offered me a job as a Camp Counselor for six-year-old boys, the youngest bunk on camp! Long story short, it was a disaster as I didn’t have the maturity or patience. Two weeks into camp, I was miserable and Morey was ready to fire me and send me home for the summer. Urghh!
As for our story as a couple, it definitely got off to a slow start! As Sports Specialists in 2002, we must have walked past each other hundreds of times but we never said a word to each other. I mentioned several times to my buddies that I thought she was beautiful, but never even fathomed speaking to her. Playing hard-to-get was more my style 😉 We each came back to camp in 2003 with significant others from our respective hometowns, so we once again never said a word to one another. I then missed the 2004 summer to finish my teaching credential and Laura then missed the 2005 summer to add other work to her resume. 2006 rolled around and I finally mustered the guts to introduce myself. I strolled up to Laura one day while she was hanging out with one of her friends and introduced myself as “The idiot who never had the confidence to introduce myself before.” Our first date was a foosball tournament at Chet’s Place nearby camp in which Laura boasted about her supreme skills. She turned out to be awful and we got destroyed and eliminated in our first-round game.
Despite Laura’s subpar foosball showing, we had a blast together and I knew that I was with someone incredibly special. We spent the 2006-2007 school year trying to figure out whether or not we were dating as Laura was in Canada finishing school and I was back in California teaching kindergarten. We officially came back to camp in 2007 as a couple and I surprised her that December by showing up at her apartment in Calgary with an engagement ring. (Fun bit of trivia: The first person I called from the jewelry store parking lot after buying her ring was our camp owner, Jon Grabow!) We got married by a justice of the peace in her parents’ kitchen in March of 2008 to kick start my VISA application to immigrate to Canada. This was my first time meeting her parents, by the way. Nervous doesn’t begin to cover how I was feeling. We ultimately had our real wedding on a beach in Nova Scotia in 2010 where our dear Chenny friend, Matty Lennon presided over our ceremony.
Initially, we only saw each other in the lodge or just in passing. I’ll never forget the way she looked at me then because it’s the same way she does now, the slight head tilt, soft, kind big brown eyes, near crater sized dimples, and pursed lips…..rendered me helpless. Without fail, my heart, stomach, and smile would instantly drop, turn, and grin every time I entered the lodge. It became an obstacle to navigate the steps without tripping.
I wanted to give a super ‘Thank You’ to Brian Leahy for the willingness to recommend an old friend to experience camp, Jon and Elisa Grabow for granting me the opportunity to grow as a person and ultimately meet my wife, and lastly Kevin Breen, for helping me to realize that I would kick myself if I didn’t follow up with Hanna when the summer of 15′ was over. So, I took his advice, now we get to live the summer of 2015 for the rest of our lives. Thanks, Kev, we miss you brotha!
Jack and Alyssa met during the Summer of 2008. Alyssa was the Lacrosse Specialist and a counselor for the Supers, while Jack was the Baseball Specialist and counselor for the Waiters turned Baseball Director. This was Alyssa’s first summer at Chen-A-Wanda, but Jack started working at Chenny in the Summer of 2006 and was a popular friend and staff member.
Even though Mark had been part of the camp’s waterfront staff since 2010 and Sam had been a nurse in the Health Center since 2012, we didn’t start dating until the summer of 2014. That year, on Staff Bowling Night, Sam got “sheep herded” onto a bus by Mark…literally PUSHED onto the bus (and blocked from getting off) and shoved into a 2-seater that Mark quickly sat down in next to me! We got to chatting on the bus ride back and, the next evening, Mark picked Sam up from the Health Center (in Paul Elmendorf’s Mini Cooper – thanks buddy!) for our first date at Chet’s. We gradually started spending more and more of our free time together, and by the end of summer 2014, we were driving cross-country on our first road trip as a couple. When Mark left to go back to Scotland in September, Sam was a wreck but made her first trip to Mark’s “motherland” that November and has been in love with Scotland (and Mark) ever since. In between our twice-yearly trips (each to the other’s country), Facebook Messenger and FaceTime kept us sane. We even made a tradition of having “Pizza Sundays,” where each of us would get a pizza and pick the same movie or episode of a TV show to watch over FaceTime. It was our virtual date night. Thank God for technology!
In September of 2015, after saving up all of his wages from camp that summer, Mark [very nervously] proposed to Sam in Orlando, FL. She said yes! Sam and her parents were already planning a trip to Scotland at the end of October that year so that our families could meet. Excited and eager to be together and living in the same country for good, we decided to get married during that trip. On November 2, 2015, we got married in Greenock, Scotland with our parents, Mark’s family, and a handful of friends (including former camp waterfront staff members Clair Donnachie and Steph Devine) in attendance. Though we’d initially planned to keep the wedding a secret and had hopes of having a “big American wedding” that more of our friends and relatives could attend, we were overjoyed and soon made it “Facebook official.” In September 2016, our family grew by one when we got our English Bulldog puppy, Jack. Then, in January 2017, Mark was officially granted Permanent Resident status and immigrated to the US.
This past year has felt like a whirlwind for us. After all of the time, we spent apart, literally separated by an ocean and international borders, we still talk about how hard it is for us to believe that we’re both finally living in the same place together…permanently! At the very center of our story, is our home away from home — Camp Chen-A-Wanda! Without camp, there would be no “us.” We are so grateful and appreciative for all of the experiences and opportunities that camp has brought us, and for all of the people that we’ve met and worked with along the way, including and especially each other.
The following summer, in 1983, I was a Group Leader for the Middies and Gene was Head Waiter. Our hometowns were about an hour and a half apart, so during the school year, it wasn’t easy for us to be together during time off from school. Being at Chen-A-Wanda gave us the opportunity to be together, have fun, meet some fascinating people and make life-long friends both here and abroad without having to worry about classes and studying. The time we spent at camp allowed us to really get to know each other, push and test our relationship, and it ultimately helped take us to the next level; we knew that we wanted to stay together. We have now been married for thirty-three (33) years and were thrilled to have had had some of our Chen-A-Wanda family at our wedding.