The new camp DVD/video just released. Filmed this past summer. Please share!
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBh1H_cY1fI
and this summer at Wohelo……
We hope friends and alums will come visit us for some of these events.
We were sorry to say goodbye to two loyal alumnae over the past month – Patsy Lanpher Compton and JoJo Ferris Curran. Both have meant so much to Wohelo through their enthusiasm for what Wohelo meant to them.
JoJo Ferris first came to Wohelo in 1936, and didn’t hesitate to remind Louise Gulick Van Winkle that she helped care for her when she was a baby. We will miss her very clear memories of Wohelo at that time. In recent years she returned with her large family to Wohelo’s Family Camp, and energetically navigated the camp trails between Sebago Wohelo and Little Wohelo.
A couple of weeks before Patsy passed away, Sally and Laura Stone Cutler came by to deliver yet more beautiful art work painted by Patsy for Wohelo – a new Swallows sign for the Little Wohelo dining hall and a miniature paddle that she made during the 1940’s alumnae weekend some years ago. Patsy was determined to finish her last project for Wohelo, and her daughter Whizzy Compton helped her complete that task. Patsy has painted a number of camp signs, and her water colors of scenes around Wohelo adorn the camp museum and note cards which we use and have for sale at camp.
A big thanks from Wohelo to our Special Forces crew from Heidi’s neck of the woods. They came for Memorial Day weekend and did some vital Sprucing Up at Little Wohelo. The group below transformed Little Wohelo garden from weed field to beauty in record time.
New toys!! We have added two Hobie Wave sailboats to our fleet. The boat is getting rave reviews in many test sails on Sebago. Memorial Day group had 6 people on it no problem. Fritz sailing with his dad below.
A recent publication that we enjoyed —
Homesick and Happy by Michael Thompson “How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grow”
Some selected quotes below, and an article from the author here – http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/why-camp-counselors-can-out-parent-parents/
From Homesick and Happy—–
In the last five years the only place I haven’t seen children using cell phones is sleep away camp. It is so unusual to see a group of twelve-year-old girls without handheld electronic devices that seeing them that way at camp is startling…..And they thrive. They are happy and they are proud of themselves. The lesson of living simply is one that children need to learn, and one that parents with a house full of gadgets are having trouble teaching.
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When you spend time at a sleepover camp, at first you cannot appreciate how different it is from school and home. Gradually you see it. At camp, watching people- other children and adults- is the main form of visual recreation. Children come out of the dining hall talking to each other and their attention stays fixed on one another…… Girls emerge with their arms draped around each other’s shoulders and around each other’s waists. They continue to talk and, most charmingly, to sing spontaneously as they make their way back to the cabins. The picture is so heartwarming that it takes some reflection to realize what is missing, namely the tendency of teenagers who are emerging from a meal or a school building to reach for their phones and start texting.
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…the evolution of profoundly close camp friendships. Making an independent choice of a friend is the critical first step. Having enough time to cultivate the friendship is next. Maintaining the bonds in the off season deepens the commitment. Perhaps the most important factor is the shared love of camp, the process of creating fun skits and participating in rituals…..
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….for the modern child from a small family, other than holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or the Seder, camp is as close as they get to the extended family table with a pack of brothers and sisters. At a table where..there isn’t an endless supply of food, eating becomes an intensely personal, interpersonal, and communal experience……All the elements of family style eating:setting the table or cleaning up, the expectations of the waiters to do a good job for their table, the limited menu, the counselor at the end of the table urging you to eat the things you might not eat at home, all of these have a powerful psychological impact on campers……. Family style dining teaches patience, respect, cooperation and skills. A communal table creates both personal flexibility and powerful shared meanings………..When children see other kids their age eating stuff they’ve never been willing to try at home, and they know there is no plan B, they may be willing to try the very thing their mother has been unable to get them to eat for years.
A discounted red swimsuit — Swimsuit Link – http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/19794.htm?color=209
