We created this newsletter for our families, friends and alumni (those on our e-mail list) with the intent of giving every recipient a better sense and, hopefully, a deeper understanding -- of the culture culture: that is, better and deeper then one usually gets from letters home. Our camp brochure and our video, is by function of its genre a briefer and more generalized description of camp life. This cyber admittedly lengthy newsletter provides only a sampling of camper and counselor activities, but it is msore personalized in that it describes specific people, places and things these moment of this second session of the summer of ‘01. This is the second of a two-part series. It covers events during the sixth and seventh weeks of this camp season. It will be the final one of this most excellent of camp seasons.
We are thankful to report that everyone is more than happily involved in these final few weeks of camp. Counselor and campers’ collective health, welfare, stamina, perseverance, resilience, patience, compassion, generosity, genuine joy and happiness all continue unabated. Did some one say homesickness? It has all together vanished. It was never really ever a serious problem in either session. (Praise the Lord! Baruche Aschem!) Really amazing! Knock wood. Please! All our good fortune remains intact. We all feel like some of the luckiest and most satisfied folk on this entire water planet, third from the Sun. Ok, lets just say we’re the happiest, luckiest and safest in all of the Pocono mountains including the entire Appalachian range.
Surely this is powerful testimony to the exceptional vigilance and mindfulness of this year's staff. It is also a tribute to the very high quality of staff development and to the integrity of staff supervision. Foremost it testifies to the overall integrity of character that runs right through this year's camper body. Apparently there is a lot of very good parenting (and good schooling, too!) still going on out there. And as if we needed more evidence of our tremendous energy, great enthusiasm and good fortune of this our 59th year of operation, this most demanding of weeks ended with not one, but a series of whopping "special events": "The Apache Race" on Saturday, and the Eco Race on Sunday, followed by a sumptuous "International Food Fest", followed by an amazing Sunday night campfire! Details provided below.
We are also extremely proud to report that while avoiding, diverting and/or overcoming all potential problems of sixth week weariness, Camp Shohola was simultaneously undergoing the very thorough examination process of accreditation. And once again we received high marks by the American Camp Association (ACA). The ACA is the professional association of the summer camp business. The ACA imposes a very rigorous accreditation procedure that tests both the quality and quantity of a camp's safety, security and instruction. To achieve these high marks a camp must meet a predigeous set of national standards established by the professional accreditation association.
The final assessment is conducted by certified camp directors. They have received special training to conduct this accreditation survey. To begin with, there is a tremendous amount of paper work that must be completed. This process begins long before the camp season begins. First and foremost these professional assessors make the most rigorous examination of camp safety. Are all the safety regulations in place? Is there clear evidence that they are in fact being fully exercised in practice? Are all the warning signs posted in their proper place? Trust us, these guys look everywhere! They stop and talk things over with counselors in their cabins and in their respective activities. They randomly solicit comments from campers. They then sit down with camp administrators and talk through every single policy and practice mandated by the ACA.
The ACA people measure whether a camp pursues high standards of health and welfare protocols with all campers and staff. They examine camp pedagogy. They look at specific lesson plans, and assess whether instruction is meaningful, purposeful and educational. They thoroughly examine resumes to determine that counselors and their supervisors are in fact qualified by age and by educational training to provide all the necessary supervision, guidance and instruction. Let's just say, this assessment process is never "a walk in the park."
To have earned accreditation, never mind scored high marks in the overall assessment, testifies to the fact that Camp Shohola performed excellently compared with all the other camps competing for ACA accreditation. This obviously means a great deal to our parents. Earning accreditation is also most reassuring to our able staff. Everyone performed the pre-requisite work very carefully and meticulously which enabled us to so successfully measure up to these impressively high standards.
Arts and Crafts are some of Shohola's oldest activities. Due to low camper interest in the Arts and Crafts offerings for the second month session of camp, we decided to close down the Arts parts of our A & C Department, and to instead concentrate our best staff efforts on the ever popular Silver Shop, Stain Glass, Wood Shop and Rocketry programs.
Woodshop instruction is provided by a veteran counselor, the cool, calm and very collected Ron Zeiler, and also by a sweet, gentle, tireless and talented carpenter. Falk Schoenberger, a first-year counselor from Germany. Ron is a local talent who works both as woodshop instructor and all-around camp handyman, working along side the equally tireless, Reino Johnson, himself a retired elementary school teacher and veteran Shohola counselor of plus-15 years. Falk actually is a 25-year-old university student who is majoring in English Literature and Language instruction. Woodworking is one of his several passions. He is a self-taught wood worker.
Your erstwhile cyber newsletter editor, Larry Aaronson, paid a brief visit to all three shops during the hectic week of 8/6th, to scout out examples of campers' craftsmanship. It is important to note that each organized activity meets 3 times weekly for four weeks. That provides an individual camper a maximum of 12 hours--at best! -- to complete his project. This of course assumes that the camper never goes on a wilderness trip, or absents himself from class to compete in inter-camp competition. So figure the typical camper attends maybe 8 to 10 of his "scheduled" periods and still manages to complete some impressively conceived and crafted projects.
Campers begin by studying a few arts and crafts booklets from which they will select their individual project. Some industrious campers can even produce more than one craft project. A visit with each shops' staff counselor provided examples of some fine on-going art works.
A quick sketch of a few campers' Wood Shop projects: Josh Berk is using the band saw to carve out 6 pieces of wood to assemble a "Hippo bank." He will then shave, sand, stain, nail and glue together all the parts to make a wooden savings bank to keep all his bounty loose change. Most craft projects are typically simple, but they are sufficient to allow campers to learn, if not master, basic woodworking skills. More importantly they provide a working, first-hand experience with operating many of the power tools of the trade. Further glance at other campers' projects reveals that Peter Zhou is creating a birdhouse. Brad Yapchanyk is constructing a wooden airplane. V.J. Skrapits is ambitiously assembling a folding stool. Toni Calderer is hard at work on a CD box. Elliot Williams is constructing a wooden tic-tack-toe game board, complete with two sets of color pegs. Oscar Gonzalez is producing a video cassette case.
Our Silver Shop program is one of Shohola's oldest craft shops. Dutch jewel maker, Erna Horn, has been intermittently returning to Shohola for more than five seasons. Erna, who is currently employed as a full-time assayer in Scotland,was abled to work in our Silver Shop for only the first month. As it was, Erna chose to devote her paid vacation time to come back at Shohola and direct our silverworks. Such is her love of Shohola, and her passion for working with our lucky campers. Erna has meanwhile managed to pass on much of her expertise of teaching Silver Shop to Alice Herigova (Czech Republic) and Lucy Watts, (Northern Ireland), both trained artists and designers. Alice graduated from university with a degree in textile design. She has always had a very strong interest in all kinds of arts and crafts, and has been recently completed a course in ceramics.
A quick perusal of campers' Silver Shop projects reveals the following: Greg Lass is working with copper metal to produce a strawberry shaped and colored enameled pin. Andy Auerbach is designing and enameling a salamander-shaped pin. Matt Schnall is putting together a necklass of multi-colored enamel hearts. Oscar Gonzalez is crafting a silver and copper pin. Phil Weiner has already completed two silver rings and is working on a bracelet. Gabe Hanna is attempting an especially ambitious project designing a bracelet and ring set.
Stained Glass has become one of the camp's more popular craft activities in recent years. This session stain glass is offered 4 periods. 32 campers have enrolled. Classes are taught jointly by Alice Herigova and Katerina Sindelova. This is Katerina's second year (last year she worked the laundry), and Alice's third. Both are from the Czech Republic. Both have studied design. Our campers are busily designing and assembling stained glass flowers, birds, boxes, night light shades and stained glass mirror frames. Notable among the glass artisans are the following: Jaime Ayers and Peter Zhou both produced bluebirds. Matt Gillespie has completed a blue rooster and a red cardinal. Robbie Edwardes produced a stunning sailboat. Jae Young Cho, who comes to Shohola all the way from South Korea, has completed an intricately designed stained glass airplane. Josh Berk is finishing a cardholder. Katerina remarked proudly that both Peter and Josh have attempted "really difficult projects, and they are executing them extremely well."
Four seasons ago Peter Passuntino, father of "working senior," Greg Passuntino, invited A & C counselor, Gregor Anderson (Scotland) to bring his budding young Shohola artists to visit his studio in Greenwhich Village, NYC. That first time Mr. Passuntino led 13 campers and 2 counselors on an amazingly informed guided tour of the Guggenheim museum: "amazingly informed" because his being a "serious player" in the New York art scene, Greg's father knows on a first-name-basis many of the world class artists whose now classic works are hanging in the Guggenheim. The tour of the exhibition that summer was largely about the history of the New York school of surrealism of which Peter is a major participant.
Suffice to say, the New York trip to visit Peter Passuntino has become a lovely event for each successive season. This past week 12 lucky campers and 3 counselors (Sarah Head from London, Tomas Pilchta from Slovenia, and Larry Aaronson from Cambridge, Mass.) drove into The Village to once again visit Peter's home studio/loft apartment, and to take a guided tour of major galleries in SoHo. Campers arrived at his apartment to be treated to ice cold soda, cookies, crackers and gourmet fudge sickles. Peter then took the whole group through his studio to view the vast volume of his oil paintings. He is preparing for a major NY showing this October. Campers were especially intrigued by Peter's on-going collage project. He with English printed textiles and oils which he is preparing for a Fall show in a London gallery. After a lively discussion with campers, Mr. Passuntino led the whole crew on a tour of several Soho art galleries.
After a hour-long tour son Greg led the entire party to John's Pizza restaurant in the West Village. Greg proclaims this to be the very best pizza in all of Manhattan, and Zagats definitely concur. After a perfectly delightful stay at the surprisingly inexpensive pizzeria, campers took the subway up to 72nd Street. They then walked across Central Park, destination the Central Park Zoo to cool off with the polar bears and the penguins. Unfortunately, the Zoo was closing down. Undeterred, campers then walked all the way down Fifth Avenue to 42nd Street, visiting The Plaza Hotel (for a high fashion bathroom stop-over), St. Peter's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center and the newly redesigned Times Square. Funnily enough, while waiting for everyone to visit the fancy Plaza, a group of 8 enterprising campers placed two paper cups down on the sidewalk in front of the famous fountain and began singing their rendition of traditional Shohola campfire routines. Believe it or not, in less than 10 minutes the campers earned more than $3 for their fearless entertainment. Everyone laughed hysterically savoring the precious moment. Clearly Shohola campfire songs pay off handsomely.
After inspecting all the electrical wonders of Times Square campers took the subway back to the West Village, feasted at McDonalds, and then jumped into the van for a return ride back to camp. All in all, the campers had hiked over 4 urban miles in a very hot, hazy, humid New York city. Fortunately for everyone, the intense "Bermuda High" heat wave was only just beginning to smother the New England area. Everyone arrived safely in the cooler breezes of Lake Greeley.
CommTech has always managed to attract a diverse mix of Shohola boys. The irrepressible and likewise irreplaceable counselor, Dave Love (Scotland) informs us that two of Shohola's more sophisticated, electrically minded campers are taking up a new activity course, Advanced Electronics. These campers are 13-year-old Max Wheeling and 15-year-old Alex Zuckermam. Dave explains that "They are designing and building a power supply from scratch! This means," David further explains, "that these lads are actually learning to map out and manufacture an entire circuit board with a 'resistant' pen. They then dip the board into a solution of ferric chloride. They then drill each board and solder on the various components."
Dave notes that these campers, one a 9th grader and the other a 10th grader, are actually performing college entry level work in electrical engineering. In another amazingly ambitious course, Design and Innovation, three other campers are examining how technology can effect progressive changes in camp living, indeed in all of modern society (Camp Shohola being the quintessential model of such! Joking!). They are studying how to apply basic design techniques to devise and design a solution to a particular spacial problem. One camper, Hector Vazquez, is assessing all the particular interests of each of the "stakeholders" in his own cabin 5, and redesigning the internal architecture of the entire structure. The other, soon-to-be 6th grader, Ted Driggs, is busily applying the same engineering techniques to redesigning storage space in CommTech's video room. When I asked Ted to explain to me precisely what he was doing with his sketch pad, he exclaimed modestly, "It's really simple: I am trying to figure out how to best design "convertible storage space" with all these shelves. Say that you decide that this wall shelf is twice as tall as you now need. Solution! You remove two sections, and shove one of the parts where you needed it most, then snap the new section to that wall!" A very convincing explanation. (Budget proposals on these new designs will be shortly submitted to Director Kit Barger. You may wish to speculate whether this process will lower or raise camp tuition next year. Another joke!).
This week the Ropes staff took all their rock climbing classes to nearby Shohola Falls. South African counselors, Andries "Varkie" Van Der Berg and Petrus "Kooegies" Koegelenberg, along with Australia's Renae Anderson, and American counselor, Eric Shansby, drove each of their five Ropes classes (with 5 or 6 kids per class, for a total of 30-plus campers) about 8 miles to the natural rock outcroppings at Shohola Falls right off of route 6. Every camper completed the 120 foot repel. The advanced class successfully attempted a "traverse" across a smaller gap over a small pool in the lower falls. "Here is what a traverse is," explained Eric. "You set up a rope to bridge the gap, The campers attach themselves to a pulley on the rope, and then they pull themselves across. The campers are attached to a safety line at all times," commented Shansby. "It is a formidable challenge."
The Tripping staff and the Kayaking staff joined forces this past week to take eleven campers on a four hour drive to upstate New York. On the first day the kayakers paddled the Sacandaga and Hudson rivers. The Sacandaga is rated a "level three" river. Professional kayakers measure the challenge of a river's rapids on a scale of one to five "levels." The Sacandaga essentially presented an intermediate challenge. On the second day kayakers and bikers joined forces to go white water rafting on a 17 mile stretch of the Indian and Hudson rivers. The boys rafted for over six magnificent hours. They even went cliff jumping from a ledge overlooking the mouth of the Indian river. On the third day kayakers returned to the Sacandaga for more level three rapids. The kayakers were Julian Root, Max Silva, Alex Lass, Jean- Paul Pretat, Jeff Sutton, and Jesse Moy. Veteran counselors Tom Danielis (Czech Republic) and Jon Allen (England) led the kayakers. This is Tom's 5th year and Jon Allen's 4th year working with the tripping program.
The bikers, on the other hand, pedaled the horse trails that wind their way all through the park system. The bikers were led by two first-year counselors, Mathias Wilhelmsson (Sweden) and Phil Tolley (New Zealand). Mathias explained that the bikers pedaled through the creeks, over and under the covered bridges. They even biked over obstacles of natural sandpits that dot the region. Having arrived late in the afternoon of the first day, the boys only biked about three miles. On the second day they biked for more than 10 miles. On the third day they went white water rafting, and on the fourth day they biked an additional 4 miles before packing up all their gear for the 4 hour van drive back to Shohola. The bikers were Kenny Swingle, Jeff Sadri, Matt Adelman, Milan Cimera, Ivan Goldensohn.
Second-year counselors Chris Etherington (USA) and Janet Fotheringham (Scotland) drove almost 7 hours to the Crawford Notch region of New Hampshire's White Mountains to lead Shohola boys on a 4-day, twenty-nine mile hike. Both Chris and Janet had their doubts about whether our boys were good enough to handle the difficult climb. Chris explained that he had hiked this trail with his college buddies this past school year, and it proved arduous for them. But he gave our campers the benefit of his doubts and they proved their mettle worthy of his trust.
Janet described the trail accordingly: "We started out at Falling Waters, and took a "shuttle" to Crawford's Notch. From here we began a massive difficult, 2-mile hike straight up the mountain to the delightful Ethan's Pond. The views from this site were outstanding, absolutely outstanding far above the tree line The weather was simply glorious, simply glorious. ! We camped out that night and hovered over the campfire eating "Romen noodles," granola bars and trail mix. We woke up at 9 Am and began a 13 mile hike to the Guyot camp site. This was a grueling 'up and down' trail which really taxed the boys. energy and strength. That night we dined on spicy cheese and chicken pasta.
The next morning we awoke to hike from Guyot to the Garfield campsite which took us over the Twin Peaks. This trail presented some serious challenges. This was a great deal of vertical climbing followed by an amazingly horrendous descent. And the kids were totally amazing. There was Paul Wiener, and absolute star. Kevin Wright, a great leader. Alex Hecker, who never once complained about anything and who was nothing less than a general helper, and lastly, but certainly not least was Reade Etherington (Chris' younger brother), the thoughtful one. He was the first to ask what was needed to be done."
Janet describes the last day thusly: "We were up and out by 6 AM. We trekked up to Garfield Ridge, and then to Mt. Lafayette (approximately 5000 meters). We walked along the Ridge that was caught in a thick morning mist. Suddenly the fog, mist and clouds began to break apart and we caught two magnificent views from atop Lafayette, and then we began an acutely steep, vertical descent to Falling Waters."
Janet could not say enough to praise her lads. "Mind you, this was a very tough trail. It was tiring, to say the least. And they never once complained along the trail. Not once. They were absolutely amazing. Paul found the going very tough. Hecker was exhausted, but remained a trooper.
Kevin was an exceptional leader. He knew just how to keep everyone else motivated. The group voted to keep Kevin as their leader throughout the last two days!"
Under the very smart and mindful coaching of Larry Thanner and Kevin Powell, Shohola's 15-and-under basket ball team lost a very well played game to Camp Owego, our main competitor camp located right up the road. "We played the zone," Tanner explained. "They had one good guy. A spot up shooter. He got lucky with a couple of 3-pointers. They forced out of our zone. We went from a 2-3 defense to a box-in-one. We began to take out the one shooter, and started chipping away at the deficit. By second half we had the game tied!. They pressed up again with a full court press. They then got a few turn-overs from us, and that extended the lead again. But our boys settled down, We responded to the press and came back. We eventually lost by only four points."
Larry concluded his description of this well played game, "We committed few mistakes. Really. And our boys did nothing to feel ashamed or stupid about. They proved they are all heart, and more importantly, they are great sportsmen." Playing 15-under hoop for Shohola were Delavan Henderson, Gabe Hanna, Josh Wheeling, Sam Carlin, Fred Beebe, Neil Dowgun, Mark McAuliffe, and Jordon Hlotzman-Conston. It really is how you play the game that counts for most in the end. These guys did us all proud!
Shohola lost another very well-played game to Owego, this time in baseball. Justin Cohan-Shapiro pitched a steady game for five-and-a-half innings of a 6-inning game, until his arm gave out. Josh Fleishman was the relief pitcher. Catcher Andy Meyerson made some amazing plays, throwing out four Owego runners stealing bases. Relief pitcher, Fleishman also picked off one runner stealing 2nd base. Zach Kelly was the Shohola's hitting machine putting men on 1st and 2nd. An Owego batter placed a well hit grounder between the second baseman's legs. Shohola lost honorably, 8 - 7. Playing for Shohola were Justin Cohan-Shapiro, Andy Meyerson, Phil Weiner, Josh Fleishman, Eric Adelman, Zach Kelly, Jeff Sadri, Alex Zuckerman, Fred Beebe.
Saving Shohola's strongest player, Alex Hecker, for the next day's 11-under hockey tournament, Shohola's roller bladers fell short in both games of last week's Pike Co. Hockey Tournament played at Pine Forest Camp. In the first game we lost to Pine Forest 6 to 3. In the consolation game, we lost 5 to 9. Jason Winkler and Brian Bomalaski demonstrated great defense. Each had several assists. Ben Schlosser displayed brilliant defense inside the net, deflecting an unbelievable number of pucks. Other players for Shohola were: Ryan Levan; Juan Manuel Jimenez; Eric Insler; Matt Schnall; Andy Edwards. Coaching were John Gushman (Former camper, now Counselor-in-Training) and Fred Dam (Denmark).
Shohola’s 11-under Roller Hockey lost to arch rival Camp Pine Forest in over time, in yet another well played game. The final score was 7 to 6. Coach Kevin Powell reported that Dave Hecker had 4 goals. Goalie, Matt Seskin played exceptionally well as did team mates Alex Ettinger and Brian Onley. The lost this game in overtime! They managed to beat New Jersey Y camp in the consolation game. The score was 6 to 3! Marshall Rader and Quin Trigg played an outstanding game. The other players were Eric Green, Patricio Silva, Juan Manuel Jimenez, and Edmund Carlton.
After a somewhat disappointing 6th week, Shohola’s 13-under kickers came powerfully backing the seventh week to crush Lake Greeley Camp 11-0. Santiago Garcia had 5 goals. Jeff Sandri had 2, Ryan Levan, Fernando Laposse, Charles Babalola and Josh Flieshman each kicked one a piece. Coach Mark Gunn exclaimed that Flieshman’s was a glorious goal , kicked from mid-field. The defense, remarked coach Gunn had little to do. When the game came to them momentarily, they executed everything superbly. Gian Stone, played outstanding defense, and Michael Spears was a stedfast goalie protecting our. There was little to do, noted coach Gunn, But our boys done well! Mark reported. It was an exceedingly hot, if not a record-breaking heat wave, and it was extremely difficult for our players to keep their focus and resolve. Clearly our hardy boys prevailed over the elements.
Gian Stone, Ian-Cohan Shapiro, Kirk McAuliffe ,Alex Ettinger Jason Anderson convincingly won their match with Camp Pocono Ridge this past week. This was on of the few inter-camp tennis matches of the season, even though we have a very active tennis program at the camp. Shohola won both doubles and 2 of the 4 singles matches. Gian Stone and Jason Anderson played one set of doubles, and Ian Cohan-Shapiro and and Alex Ettinger played the other. .Alex Ettinger won his singles match as did Ian. Your Cyber Camp News reporter happened to catch a few moments of the Alex and Ian’s doubles set, and noted several impressively long volleys by these players. They played a very consistent game, again in very oppressive heat. Their poise and stamina were particularly notable. Obviously they have had some good coaches with Rafa Fernandez (Spain) and Christy Bostan (Romania)
Traditionally, Green and White Color War begins to peak second month, mid-session. On the sixth Saturday of each camp season comes the great Apache Race. On the seventh Saturday is the Green White Swim Meet, and on the morning of the very last Thursday is the Green/White Horse Show, which falls on the same day as Final Awards Banquet Night in which the winning team captain and his co-captains accept the silver trophy of final victory. Of all of these culminating events, the Apache Race is without any doubt the most all-consuming. To win requires a good amount of luck, a great amount of team work and team spirit, and yet a greater amount of organizational skill on the part of the Green White captains. There are sixty-five different events that make up this protracted race. Typically, two campers, each representing their team color, compete against one another at each event. At some events there are pairs of players vying against one another. At a few events there can even be as many as six campers competing altogether. Every boy at Shohola must participate in at least one of these events. According to the rules of the race no camper can participate in more than three events. (Some say five!)
This is also the quintessential color war event in that these 65 events represent virtually every aspect of camp life, from bed making, table setting, splint wrapping, saddling up a horse, rigging a sail boat, making a fire, chopping and sawing wood, to shooting hoop, firing rifles, shooting arrows, throwing softballs, kicking soccer balls, trotting on horseback, running, swimming, rock climbing, hitting tennis balls, tossing and catching Frisbees, to radio dj-ing, to sending and receiving Morse code, making and operating an electric circuit, to demonstrating craftsmanship in silvershop, woodshop, stain glass, to executing silly games like filling up an empty coke bottle with water using only a tea spoon, running while balancing a ping pong ball on a spoon, run while holding a lighted candle, to singing a verse of the national anthem.
In short, these sixty-five events represent the sum total of the skills and knowledge required to function successfully in the all the task and chores, and the fun and games of camp life. The race takes over two-and-a-half hours to complete. The event is considered a race precisely because after each camper successfully completes his assigned event he, baton in hand, must run, usually across the entire campus to the site of the next event where he hands off the baton to his team mate at that next event. He then begins competing against his rival, and so on and so forth until the entire series of 65 events is completed. As if all these carryings on were not enough, two senior staff members, each assigned to one of the two teams, runs the entire extent of the race, with whistles blaring, to proclaim their respective team’s whereabouts and progress. This year it was Head Counselors, Adrian Hazell and Matt Milnor who earned the honors. This requires tremendous stamina as the over all course of the race must approximate at least four or five miles, running up and down hills, across ball fields, along the road, over the stream, across the bridges. These staff runners are there at all times to ensure that there is fair play, safety and security all along the race.
Meanwhile, the counseling staff at CommTech has fielded a string of camper and counselor reporters all along the path of the race. They are assigned to broadcast to the entire camp the all the comings and goings of the race. Most radios in cabins are on, many campers are busily carrying around portables to follow the events. It is truly an all-consuming camp event.
This year’s race was extraordinary both for the intensity of the competition, and for the remarkable tightness of the race. Not only was the race close throughout most of the events, the lead kept switching throughout the race adding to the overall excitement of the afternoon. All of which testifies to the fact that absolutely everyone got totally into it, and made it one of the best days of the season.
The race always begins at the flag pole in the center of the hill encircled by all the cabins. Both teams get all decorated up in white and green body paint. The White team grabs all kinds of white bed sheets and towels for flags, the Green Team grabs all kinds of green towels and blankets. Everybody hoots and hollers to pump up their respective teammates. This year’s co-captains are: For the Green Team, Eric Spannake, Alex Manning and Kevin Wright; for the White Team, Jordon Hloltsman-Conston, Marc Shinn-Krantz, and Sam Carlin.
Starting runner for the Whites was V.J. Skrapits, Running for The Green Team, was Elliot Williams. The White team took a small lead through the first four events. At the fourth event, the lead switched sides as ace archer,Peter Zhou managed amazingly to hit all five colors from 15 yards with his first five arrows!
Green held their lead for the next 3 events. Both teams arrived at CommTech only minutes apart. Then Taylor Matson assembled a working electrical circuit in near record time, leaving his Green opponent, Chris Gibson, considerably behind. By the twelfth event both teams were nearly neck-and-neck, when Ryan Levan and Josh Fleishman competed against one another trying to correctly rig and unrig a sail on a Sunfish.
Again both teams managed to tie up the race at the 14th event, Stained Glass. At this critical juncture the White team assumed a substantial lead as Oscar Gonzalez bested Matt Gillespie in foiling a piece of stained glass. By the 16th event, Windsurfing, which consisted of each competitor hand paddling a windsurfer board to a marker out in the lake and back to the launching dock. Marshall Rader and Hector Vazquez furiously hand paddling for the Whites, and they managed to nearly tie it up once again, as Mark McAuliffe and Quin Trigg valiantly tried to hold their lead. At the 17th and 18th event the teams were back in a virtual tie.
Then came a critical moment at event #17. Julian Root, for the Whites, and Josh Fleishman for the Green ran from the windsurfing dock to the baseball field using different routes. Fleishman’s chosen path brought him into position faster than his rival.
It was at this moment that the excruciating haze, heat and humidity of the mid-August day had built up massive thunder boomers that were collecting over our Pocono range. The sky quickly darkened, and then the heavens opened up. More than four inches of rain poured down upon Shohola in a matter of 30 or 40 minutes. Staffer of course halted the race at event #21 to wait out the brief summer storm. They scheduled dinner an hour early (5:00 PM instead of 6:00 PM).
The race resumed at 6:15 PM, with everyone on a full stomach, at the CommTech porch. Marshall Rader conducting a radio interview with Hector Vazquez for the Whites, put their team back into the lead. Competing for the Greens were Pedro Orozco and Jason Winkler. The White team held their lead all the way to event # 25 where both boys had to fully tack up and untack a horse. From there Dan Brill, running for the Green Team, and Roberto Baptista running for the Whites had to run back from the barn all the way back up to the hill where Jean-Paul Pretat was waiting for Dan and Dave Foreman was waiting for Roberto. As soon as they met up they had to commence successfully throwing a Frisbee back and forth 10 times, without allowing it to drop on the ground. Once accomplished, they raced together down to the hockey court. It was at the hockey court that things began to move in a big way in the Green’s direction. Charlie Crawford executed 5 easy slap shots, leaving Brian Bomaloski substantially behind. In fact this produced one of the biggest leads for the Green’s in the entire race, even though the lead would switch back and forth several more times.
At event #31 Ted Driggs boosted the Green lead even further. He succeeded in creating a 5-line computer program, using at least one nested loop that ran continuously and made different sounds. Green maintained this growing lead until event #35 when White took back the lead. Ivan Goldensohn, competing against Chris Gibson, had to biddy a dinning hall table and correctly set the table for 8 people. The Whites managed to hold onto their lead for a precious few minutes. At event #39, Kayaking, Green’s Pedro Orozco paddled his kayak out to the marker and back, leaving the White’s Andy Edwards behind.
At event #42, the competitors had to bat 3 balls past a marker in left field on the fly, and then retrieve all balls in the field. Ryan Levan (Green) hit against Max Silva (White). Both boys proved themselves to be very strong batters, but the Green team still kept their lead.
But at event #44, the climbing wall, D.J. Dennis performed brilliantly for the Whites, against a determined Green, Eric Insler, to chip away at the small Green lead.
It was back at the dinning hall deck that matters began to turn against the Green team in a rather large way. The task was deceptively difficult. Each boy had to use a teaspoon to fill up a coke bottle with water drawn from a bucket. Nathan Silverman, competing diligently against Kamiyo Gatlin, gave his team mates at least a 4 minute lead. Greens continued to hold their lead at the waterfront during event #52. Andrew McRostie, Joe Von Schmidt, JakeTanenbaum, Joaquin Murial, Maximillan De Arria and Jonathan Gibson were lined up against Gustavo Rodriguez, Ivan Goldensohn, Bobby Bolles, Robert Bortner, Michael Vargas, and Patricio Silva, Each team was trying to find a red potato in the storm tossed murky waters. Green’s lead whittled down to a mere 2 minutes.
At event #53, archer Peter Zhou was pitted against Gabriel Paloletti. The task was to shoot one arrow and pop an inflated balloon attached to a target. Gabe popped his balloon on the first shot. White took back the lead. But at event #54,Green’s very own Josh Flieshman took back the lead by place kicking a football high over top of the backstep from an in field marker.
Finally at event #62, Whites once again regained the lead when Phil Weiner carrying Dan Cimera piggy back all the way from home plate in the ball field to the waterfront. The last three concluding events all take place at the Shohola waterfront. By the race’s excitingly close end, about half of the camp had assembled on the beach cheering on their evenly matched team mates. As each of these final three events unfolded the race was at a dead heat. First David Hecker (Green) competed against Santiago Garcia as both boys had to use a kickboard and kick their way around the raft 2 times, then Brian Bomnolowski (White) paddled a canoe against Josh Fleishman (Green) about a half mile up lake to Sandy Beach. Still the race was neck and neck.
Then, in the very final event, five Green boys, Ryan Levan, Kirk McAuliffe, J.P. Colussi, Mark McAuliffe and Pedro Orozco, paddled their war canoe against their White counterparts, Josh Einhorn, Gabe Hanna, Ryan Orman, Delavan Henderson, and Reade Etherington. The five-man Green team paddled far out in front of the five-man White crew, which basically lost control of their steering coming out of Sandy Beach. They began paddled furiously, but not in the correct direction. Green maintained their sudden advantage, and canoed victoriously over the finish line and into Shohola history. The Apache Race was over for another year! Greens won by 3 minutes and 135 points. No one was hurt. Everyone was good and tired, and could feel honestly satisfied with themselves that they had given it their very best effort.
Swedish counselor Mathias Wilhelmsson (a rookie Tripping staff counselor, who just graduated out of Danish high school) introduced a brand new Shohola racing tradition, the ECO Race. It was held on Sunday afternoon, the day after the all-consuming Apache Race, but this two-plus-hour event was not part of any color wars. The ECO race was organized instead to be an intra-camp challenge. Campers volunteered from their respective cabins to race against each other.
The original concept of the ECO Race generated from cable TV, The Discovery Channel. The general idea was to find ways for people to compete against one another in ways that could only be described as environmentally-friendly: hence, kayaking, running and biking. There is no expenditure of precious fossil fuels, no direct disruption or destruction to flora or fauna, no violence committed against nature in any way.. The Discovery Channel race runs over a week long period, and of course is conducted as a for-profit, commercial adventure that promotes ecologically correct sports.
Being a true, blue lover of the natural environment, and a very energetic Tripping staff member, Mathias decided to introduce the concept to Shohola in a very modified form. He created three events: a kayak race from the waterfront to the nurses’ dock, a foot race from the nurses’ dock, up over the hill, down past the hockey court, over to the soccer field, across the stream to the baseball field and back to the hill, followed by a bike race that essentially followed the same course as the foot race. The entire course of the race was approximately two-and-a-half kilometers, or over one-and-a-half miles.
There were six groups comprised of eighteen teams of ECO racers. They were carefully organized into three age cohort, essentially by cabins: kids from cabins 1 through 4 raced against one another, kids from cabins 5 through 7 raced against one another, and kids from cabins 8 through 16 competed against one another, vying for placing first, second, or third within their age cohort. There was a final race with working seniors and counselors competing against each other exclusively. This in each individual race there were six kayakers, six runners, and six cyclists. All of this was organized into 18 different teams with names like "The Warriors", "Chocolate Starfish", "Spitfires", "Silver Crotch", "Teletubies", "The Kitchen Utensils", "Team Gaea", and "Flush The Bloody Luu".
Kayakers in Race 1 were: Dan Cimera, Erik Pearson, Matt Seskin, Joe Polinger, Michael Glassman, Robbie Edwards. Foot runners were Elliot Williams, Mike Auerbach, Ben Elkind, Aaron Insler, Roberto Baptista, and Jay Cho. Cyclists for Race 1 were: Cameron Browne, Michael Vargas, Eric Green, Matt Adelman, D.J. Dennis, and Ted Driggs.
Kayakers in Race 2 were: Matt Schnall, Hector Vazquez, David James, Michael Spears, Nathan Silverman, Andy Edwardes. Foot runners for Race 2 were Marshal Rader, Alex Ettinger, Aaron Heltsley, Paul Luke Martel, Matt Gillespie, and Qauin Trigg. Cycling for Race 2 were: David Hecker, Patricio Silva, Elon Bridgett, Charles Babalola, Marcus Forman, and Brian Onley.
Kayaking for Race 3 were Max Wheeling, Eric Insler, Max Silva, Jeff Sutton, Xavier Ramos, Pedro Orozco. Foot runner for Race 3 were Santiago Garcia, Andrew Gkahopoylos, Andy Auerbach, Jason Winkler, Julien Nadeau, and Gabe Hanna. Cyclists for Race 3 were Ivan Goldensohn, Peter Zhou, Julian Root, Kenneth Swingle, Delavan Henderson, and Alex Hecker.
As in the Apache yesterday of the day before, the entire affair was reported over Shohola Radio. Again reporters were stationed at the crucial sites all along the course. All cabin radios were turned on to provide full coverage for everyone on the hill. Most all of camp was caught up in watching the novel race, and of course Camp Netimus sisters were also following along with brothers and friends. Again, the day was another in the past week’s scorchers. Everyone made it safely to their respective finish lines.
There was a final heat which pitted Shohola’s most physically fit counselors against each other and participating working seniors. Counselors kayaking were: Alberto Orozco, Rodrigo Pacheco, Tom Danielis, Issac Duarte, David Seskin, Jake Wolfsheimer, Lucy Watts, Paula Wittergreen, and working seniors, Gabe Canon-Zucher, and Marc Shinn-Grantz. Counselors runners were Corey Ford, Koogoies, Rachel Cartland, Fred Dam, Kevin Powel, Tomi Stanek, Sam Edwards. The two fastest runnes were Corey Ford and Kevin Powell.
Counselors cycling were Rob Mueller, Matt Milnor, Phil Tulley, Varkie, Michael Kreb, Andrew Plocieniak, Christy Dengal,and Phil Jeffries.
The best time among lower camp teams in Race 1 was The Kitchen Utensils who completed the course in 15 minutes and 8 seconds. Team members were Michael Glassman, Roberto Baptista, and D.J. Dennis. The best time among middle camp teams in Race 2 was the Red Panters team. (No time was reported in by press time!). Team members were Nathan Silverman, Matt Gillespie, and Marcos Forman. The fastest time achieved by an upper camp teams was claimed by The Black Grape. Team members were Xavier Ramos, Julian Nadeau, They came in at 12 minutes and 38 seconds.
One of the neat things about this whole race was that it was being conducted while the sisters from Camp Netimus were visiting our camp. They added to the enthusiasm of the spectators. Soon after the race was over, and participants had time to shower and dress, everyone mustered, and waited for the International Food Festival to begin.
Once each month the international staff prepares a special dinner, treating campers and colleagues alike to some traditional culinary treats of their respective national cultures. Preparations typically begin several days before the event, as counselors, taking out substantial time from their already enormously busy schedule of cabin duties and instruction, begin to plan and prepare their recipes. Some of these cooks are total novices, resourcefully recalling grandma’s secrets, or when memory failed they resorting to the omni-present internet, or made last minute international phone conversation to call up ethnic treats. This month’s feast followed right on the heels of the Sunday afternoon’s ECO Race and Saturday’s hugely successful Apache Race.
Typically these international cooks move into the kitchen in late afternoon, and working their way around the immensely busy kitchen staff, they start preparing their own delicacies. This time several crews worked late into the night, after they put their little ones to bed. So while the rest of the camp was actively running around with the ECO Race contestants, many of these guys and gals were busily cooking up their delights in the very hot kitchen. Below is a list of the international counseling staffs culinary delights.
The South African contingent, consisting of Varkie, Koogies, and Paula, prepared three items; two varieties of Savoury Tarts of both bacon and cornbeef. These are basically kieche dishes made with egg, cheese, milk, mixed with bits of sausage and hot dogs. They also prepared one of the evenings most popular sweet pastries, Cremora tarts. These are made with Cremora coffee creamer, condensend milk, and a smattering of lemon juice.
The Italian section, consisting of camp secretary, Judy Olsommer and camper Gabe Paoletti spent more than four hours cooking up two varieties of gnocchi, plain with lots of butter and garlic-- and the other dish with pesto. These were among the most delicious treats, as well as they should be. Judy is our lone camp administrative secretary with emphasis being on the administrative end of that job title. She volunteered more than four extra hours to this project, as if this always pleasant and helpful woman did not already have enough to do: keeping all of our financial booking straight; taking the-minute-the-minute phone messages; receiving and sorting all our camp mail; collecting camper attendance period-by-period from all activities, while simultaneously keeping meticulous records on all campers participating in all events outside of camp (wilderness trips, inter-camp competition, runs to local doctor’s, etc.); never mind preparing daily, if not hourly pay advances for our hard working counselors to go on their well-earned weekly day offs. Suffice to say, her work is never-ending.
Judy, never-the-less elected to come back into camp on her very own precious day off to prepare her favorite Italian dish. International camper Gabe Paoletti, was her tireless assistant. The totally bi-lingual Gabe comes to us from Firenze (Florence) Italia, where he lives with his American mother and his Italian father. The young man knows his native cuisine. Their delectable dishes were certainly well worth all. They have all our gratitude.
The Polish contingent consisting of camp nurse Helen Cimera (Polish American) and first-year counselor, Andrzej Plocieniak cooked up Bigos which is essentially a sourkraut dish. The German contingent consisting of Falk Schoenberger, Rob Mueller, and Christian Dengal, cooked up Nussecken or nut corners. These were cookie cakes baked from Hazel nuts, Peach Marmalade, flour, sugar, eggs, butter flavored with vanilla. The British crew prepared three dishes that they served on the dining hall deck. These were baked strawberry scones with jelly and cream, Fairy Cakes, which are a kind of cup cake with butter, icing, jam and chocolate, and third, two large sauce pans of Shepards’ Pie.
The Irish contingent, consisting only of Lucy Watts prepared Fifteens, which is a simple dessert of multi-flavored, poka-dotted marsh mellows, mixed with coconuts and condensed milk. Very popular in Scotland as well, we are told. The Scottish contingent, for their part, served up Stovies, which is basically onions, beef and thickly sliced potato, and boiled in their own stock. minced potatoes, and sausages, cooked in its own gravy, with onions added. They also served up deep fried Milky Ways candy bars. You simply take Milky Way bars, cut them up into slices. Dip slices into batter and then drop the whole thing into a deep frier. (Fat City! To say the least.)
The Mexican contingent prepared Chiaguiles which are made up of nacho chips, very spicy tomato sauce and onions. The combined Czech/Slovak contingents combined to prepare very tasty Apple Struedel, and somewhat upside down apricot cake. They also prepared a sourkraut soup.
The Spaniards prepared Mediterranean salad, a simple but tasty dish of lettuce, tomato, onion, tuna, oil, lemon and the Australian contingent prepared three dishes: barbequed shrimp; scrumptious Lemoningtons, which are made of sponge cake covered in chocolate sauce and sprinkles of coconut; and the final Aussie delicacy was Damper, a kind of simplified campfire bread. This is essentially raw dough made from milk, self-rising flour, egg, and salt. Campers then wrap a glob of the raw dough around a stick (much like a hot dog is skewed onto a thin branch of tree sapling, and allowed to bake in the evening campfire. The Aussies built a small campfire, using small stones and dead branch wood, and placed it near their picnic table.
The Shohola kitchen filled in by providing hamburger and hotdogs and all the appropriate toppings. The New Yorkers (a special tribe of alienated Americans) provided the ever popular egg creams, made up of seltzer water, chocolate milk and milk (minus the eggs). All of which was a fantastic way to top off a hugely successful sixth week of camp
Yad Sdrawkcab. It sounds more like some sort of ancient Hebrew or Arabic custom, but it is neither. This is Shohola’s traditional Backwards Day, when everything about our routine is turned upside down and on its head. It can most definitely make a total mess of one’s day, but everybody ends up laughing at the silly mess that we make of it.
This year was no different. It started off with a late wake-up, and everyone greeted each other by saying Good night! This nonsense was followed by our reversing morning muster with evening muster, and the lowering of the flags. Breakfast was served for dinner, and visa versa. .Dinner (really breakfast) began with dessert: apple tarts, followed by chopped steak, rice and carrots. This is how the tradition of Yad Sdrawkcab goes for one crazy day, usually well into the second month, when hopefully everyone has the basic routine of camp life down, and the turmoil can be more fun than frustrating.
Dinner was followed by evening activities, mostly boating on the lake. (Actually, the morning should have begun with canteen, the camp’s candy store, when every camper gets to buy one kind of his favorite canteen, but the staff planners correctly decided to keep the day as simple as possible). After evening activities came General Swim, when the waterfront is routinely opened for non-instructional swimming, under close waterfront supervision. After General Swim” came 5th period, then 4th period, followed by Rest Hour and then lunch! Lunch ended with grace which was said backwards. Someone pointed out that to do this was the devil’s work, we all shuddered. Get the picture? Confused???? That is the precise purpose.
After lunch came 3rd, then 2nd, and of course 1st was last! Then there was breakfast. The evening meal consisted of toast and eggs, followed by cereal, followed by juice. Then we mustered on the hill and raised the flag.
Some senior staff were heard to mutter under their breath, I hate this damn ‘Backwards Day.’ Why ever do this every year ???? I cant figure out where I am supposed to be at! The uncanny thing is that the kids know exactly where they are supposed to be at, and actually attend all their activities on schedule!
Of course the campers were busily scampering all round the camp, and having the best time with all the scheduled confusion. Any school teacher worth their Master’s degree knows all too well that their students are the only ones who ever really manage to master their individual school’s ever-changing and always confusing Master Schedule --with all its block scheduling, doubletons, mini-courses, and staff days etc. Our campers had it all together, and passed through the day effortlessly.
Shohola held its annual horseshow on Backwards Day, but our riders still managed to ride facing forwards. Competing against Camps Timber Tops and Pine Forest, who operate together out of Top Ranch Stables, on the camp road half a mile from Shohola. Despite temperatures heading towards a hundred degrees; with the whole of the Northeastern US being smothered by the infamous Bermuda High; the horses performed perfectly and the campers beat the heat with a home style barbeque and saladfest! (thanks to Dave Seskin and Silvie Vlckova) Lake Greeley camp brought a group of campers to watch and learn…and they really got into the spirit of things.
In the ribbons were Alec Sharp (cabin 8) who repeated his first month victory at the Netimus horseshow. He won the Best Turned Out competition with Preacher AGAIN!!!, and followed this win to come second in the Senior Trail class and third in Junior Equitation. Staff camper Lyndsey Johnson (grand daughter of senior staffers, Reino and Laura Johnson, and daughter of former Shohola camper and counselor Craig Johnson) won the Junior Equitation class, which saw Shohola’s horsemen and women take first, second (Fernando Laposse – cabin 9) and third (Eric Adelman – cabin 13). The Junior Trail class was won by Greg Lass (cabin 3), who carefully guided Gambler round the obstacle course.
At the end of the equitation classes Shohola and Top Ranch were level pegging on 55 points to 55. It was all down to our jumpers. First off in the Junior Jumping our trio of Fernando Laposse, Lyndsey Johnson and Eric ‘Smurf’ Adelman completed a valuable one, two, three to put Shohola ahead. Then those intrepid juniors took on older riders in the Senior Jumping and beat them again, this time Lyndsey edging out Fernando with a dream round to take the blue ribbon home to Connecticut. Working Senior horseman Erich ‘Spanky’ Spannhake also jumped clear with Ferdia. Top Ranch floundered, having fielded brave young riders who seemed to have never jumped a fence in their lives. Still, Shohola accepted the champion ribbon with grace, before Lyndsey handed it over with thanks to the Top Ranch riders, along with an invitation to do it all again next year.
Again, this second month, Shohola organized yet another trip to Massachusetts’ Cape Cod to go on a whale watch. Robbe and Neil Lanbrook (Australia) drove six happy campers up to the Sweetwater campgrounds in Brewster, Mass. The van ride required more than six hours through the horrendous August heat spell and equally horrendous traffic on the infamous interstate 84.
They gratefully landed at their Sweetwater destination around 6 PM, and put up their tents and began to prepare their meal. The Aussie couple treated the kids to chocolate bananas and Damper (explained in above story on International Food Fest). By 10 PM all were in bed and fast asleep.
Next morning the group drove to Provincetown, Mass and boarded the good ship Dolphin. The ocean going ship is owned and operated by a private ocean environmental research and preservation institute. They use the whale watche to raise the public’s consciousness about preserving endangered species and preventing maritime pollution.
The Shohola whaling expedition managed to see several pods of the big sea creatures, both Minks and Humpbacks. Unfortunately the weather was uncomfortably hazy, hot and humid. The local weather bureau issued a warning that the air was at its most foul condition. Being well out at sea in the Atlantic Ocean seemed to make little difference. Even the whales behaved rather listlessly, and avoided performing their most dramatic breaching exercises of leaping high into the heavy, salt sea air. Still the boys enjoyed the adventure greatly. They loved being out on the ocean, the view of P-town from the ocean is breath-taking, even when the air is uncooperative.
Back on dry land after 4 hours of whale hunting, the boys and their supervisors cruised down the famous walk way of Commercial Street. They took in all the sights and sounds of the bohemian artist community. They trekked up to the famous pizzeria, Spiritus, enjoyed a great snack. One of the campers had a minor, but very annoying problem with his braces, so the rest of the afternoon and evening was taken up with finding an orthodontist to remedy the situation. The problem gratefully solved, they returned to their campgrounds for a good meal around the old campfire.
Attending this trip were: Diego Cabeiro, Santiago Garcia, Joaquin Murial, Patricio Silva, Maximilian De Arriz, Max Antonsen, Greg Lass and Andrew Auerbach.
The great thing about camp Talent Nights is that the audience never knows quite what to expect: How much of the sublime, and how much of the ridiculous. It is all thrown together in the last minute, usually with the least amount of rehearsal time possible. The production costs are minimal, if any. The final result is always surprising, and often times delightful. One of the best things about these talent shows is that both campers and counselors present, sometimes together.
This 2nd session’s show was definitely a show-stopper, in every sense of that word. Staff organizers Paula Wittergreen and Lucy Watts conceived the idea of assigning each of the activity camp departments to develop a quick two minute skit. The opening piece was a hilarious parody of a magic card tricks by the duet, V.J. Skrapits and Ted Driggs. The boys fearlessly demonstrated that our eyes were quicker than their hands. Counselor Jake Wolfsheimer and camper Ben Schlosser teamed up to lip sync two wildly contrasting numbers. The first was a sublime rendition of Tibetan monastic music, followed by a hard rock number from Third Eye Blind, during which half the young audience jumped up and began to mosh, under careful staff supervision, of course! Just about everyone got into that act.
Certainly the most dazzling performance of the entire night was a spectacular dance number ( Cha-Cha) by Katerina Sindelova and Michael Stransky. It turns out that this couple used to compete professionally in their own country, The Czech Republic, a fact that very few of us knew anything about! Having blown everyones’ mind with their amazing talent, they received a stupendous ovation.
Jack Wolfsheimer (who incidently does a lot of theater at his college, Brandeis Univ.) did another number, this time with another counselor, Sara Head (London, England). They basically improved this number, and called it Preppy. It was their attempt at doing an over-the-top impression of Valley Girls.
The Arts and Craft department assembled themselves into a living totem poll. Their living sculpture was a theatrical tribute to the woodcarving works of a former Czech counselor, Radik, who for the past two seasons taught campers to carve two, 10-foot totems. Silver Shop counselors Lucy Watts and Alice Herigova transformed themselves into silver shop goddesses, Wood Shop counselor, Falk Schoenberger, dressed up as a carpenter, cyber news editor, Larry Aaronson, used face paint to make himself to look like a totem figure. If the truth be told this skit fell a little on the flat side of theatrical life. Never mind! The Waterfront staff performed a clever paradoy on Baywatch, entitled Lake Watch. Scotsman, David Love and Mark Gunn sang a lovely rendition of U2’s Still Havent Found What Im Looking For. Senior staff members Matt Karpiak, Matt Milnor, Adrian Hazell, Ali Kinnear serenaded camper Alex Zuckerman with the old Monty Python standard, Look On The Brighter Side of Life. And Nature counselors George Meling and Eric Shansby, collectively called themselves the Lumpy Poopkins (Don’t ask!) wrote and sang a clever ditty of their own creation, called Nature in Shohola, sung to the Ringo Starr number The Octopus Sung. Kitchen staffer Patrik Hengerics (Slovakian) sang and played guitar. He got rave reviews. Finally Shohola own Ben Jacobs (working senior) wrote and sung his own song. He also played guitar.
The annual Green/White Swim Meet is the pen-ultimate event in the camp color war. This year’s meet was, by all accounts, brilliant! as our British colleagues love to say. First off, it was the best organized, ever. Thank you Laura Johnson, Waterfront Director, and Paula Wittengreen, her hard-driving assistant. Paula’s directions blasted to all by bullhorn kept the entire event well ahead of schedule. The Green and White captains and their co-captains did an outstanding job of lining up all their competitors into their appropriate starting positions. Their steady shouts of encouragement definitely pumped up the enthusiasm for the meet. Funnily enough, the weather was thankfully cooler than the previous days’ of exhausting heat spell, but like the last 8 annual swim meets, it misty, and thickly clouded. Graciously, the threatening lightening and rain showers held off.
The White team beat out the Greens in the Junior, Middler and Intermediates category. Greens won in the Sub-senior and Senior categories. Greens broke two camp records, and gained a total of 50 extra bonus points, but Whites compensated that loss with a 30-point on-time” bonus. Winning in the individual medley for the Greens were Pedro Orozco, Jaime Duarte, Jean-Paul Pretat, and Marck McAuliffe. Winning for Green in the free-style relay were: Mark McAuliffe, Jaime Duarte, Pedro Orozco, and Daniel Brill.
Placing First” and Second” in the Juniors Category for the kickboard event were: Jonathan Helman and Joseph Von Schmidt. In the elementary backstroke were Roberto Baptista and Diego Cabeiro. In the Junior Freestyle were Erik Pearson and Danny Tessler, and in the Junior Freestyle relay were Matt Seskin, Jonathan Helman, Roberto Baptista, and Danny Tessler.
In the Middlers. For breaststroke were Hector Vazguez and Ted Driggs. For backcrawl were David James and Marshal Rader. For freestyle were David Hjecker and Taylor Matson. For Middler Freestyle relay were Hector Vaszquez, Taylor Matson, Robert Bortner, and Patricio Silva.
In the Intermediate category. Coming in first” and second” were: For breaststroke: Saintago Garcia and Ian Detamore. For backcrawl, Santiago Garcia and Quin Trigg. For freestyle: Brian Bomalaski and Andrew Gkahopoylos. For freestyle relay: Santiago Garcia, Andrew Gkahopoylos, Brian Bomalaski, and Dave Foreman.
In the Sub-Senior category. For breast stroke, were: Andrew McRostie and Jason Anderson. For backcrawl, Charlie Crawford and Julian Root. For freestyle: Kirk McAuliffe and Augusto Gonzalez. For Freestyle relay: Ryan Levan, Charlie Crawford,Kirk McAuliffe, and Josh Fleishman.
In the Senior category: For breastroke: Jaime Duarte and Rylan Orman. For backcrawl were Mark McAuliffe and Xavier Ramos. For free style: Alex Hecker, and Josh Berk.
There were boat races, but unfortunately there were no final results at press time.
At press time the latest totals for Green/White competition are:White - 2162 That’s all folks. See you when you come up to camp and pick up your boys at this week’s end. And for those of you who await your sons’ safe, end-of-the-journey bus ride back to your respective hometowns, we bid you a joy filled reunion. We hope this newsletter gives you much reliable and relevant background information to talk about with your kids.
Green - 2042
Being a long-term, son of Shohola (50-plus years of endless summer fun) and my being your camp newsletter editor, I can reassure you that this was, comparatively speaking, one of the all-time great summer seasons. As the kids would say, IT WAS AWESOME! REALLY AWESOME! Shohola magic has cast its spell over us all. There are a gazillion great stories for you to hear about all our wonderful summer adventures. New skills were acquired, new understandings achieved, life-long friendships secured. Some old fears were dispelled, rites of passages were crossed. Self-confidence grew. Vision was raised. Horizons lifted. New personal goals now set forth. There is renewed wonder and awe in the natural world that surrounds us. We approach the ending of this precious time with heartfelt sadness.
We all--campers AND counselor alike have grown and matured some over the course of these few precious weeks. It is totally amazing how much good can happened in four to eight short weeks. We have all been transformed by the warm embrace of each other’s company. We all leave this enchanting La-la land as the most Happy of Campers. We were privileged to have been here. And we know what a precious gift this summer experience has been for us all.
We have been all truly blessed with a superb staff, amazingly enthusiastic and wholesome campers, and exceptionally cooperative weather, all of which contributed mightily to our successes. There was so much positive energy! Honest, folks, it does not get much better than this.
So, until next time, God bless you all. We wish you Happy Trails. Have a safe, healthy, productive, and joy filled winter.
And to all you adult alumni, We sincerely hope to see you all next summer, when we get to celebrate Camp Shohola’s 60th Anniversary. Everyone is going to be there right before the beginning of our 60th season. Be sure not to miss what promises to be a joy-filled reunion. The sharing of all the reminiscences of 60 years of Shohola history under Barger family direction and guidance await us.
Peace/Out
Larry Aaronson, Cyber Camp Newsletter, editor.
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