Camp Echo Monthly Alumni E-News August 4, 2004
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*****
Today we welcome over 300 new subscribers to the Alumni E-Newletter,
culled from lists on hand and local high school alumni directories.
This is the first newsletter since April 4th. It's been a busy summer!
Within the next week or so you will also receive an email that will
confirm the information we have in our database. That email will have
instructions on how to update the information if necessary.
*****
Contents
--------
Family Camp Staff Needed
Alumni Website
What's Happening at Camp?
Join the "Echo Spirit Team"
Wish List
Alumni Notes
Announcements
Family Camp Staff Needed
------------------------
Calling all Camp Echo alumni! We need staff for Family Camp!
Week 1: August 15-21
Week 2: August 22-28
Labor Day Weekend: September 3-6
What a terrific way to spend some time in a place you love!
Reply to this email or contact .
Alumni Website
--------------
We've uploaded the data for over 5,000 alumni and friends of
Camp Echo to our new alumni website. Katie Tucker Trippi has done
a terrific job or organizing our existing data and entering new
information from lists we have on hand. Now we need your help.
(Note: The 2004 staff list will not be entered until September.)
To get to the new Camp Echo Alumni Website, go to the Camp
Echo website and click on "Alumni".
Here is some basic information about how the website works:
Anyone whose name shows up as an underlined hotlink can be
contacted via a web form that does not reveal their email
address. Enter YOUR email in the webform (and double-check
what you type) so the person you contact knows how to reply.
To verify that we have your correct email address, try
sending a test email message to yourself!
Use the "Lists by Year" link to bring up a staff/camper list by year.
Use the "Index by Name" link to look up a specific person.
To verify that we have correct information about your years at
Echo, choose "Index by Name" and look yourself up. Then click
"Submit My Info" to send us corrections and addtions. Since most
of our information came off staff lists, many alumni do not have
complete camper affililations entered into the database.
What's Happening at Camp?
------------------------
We are now in the middle of the fourth of our two-week sessions,
after starting the summer with a one-week session. As usual, camp
has been really full this summer: 875 of 880 spots in Main Camp for
99% capacity, and 364 of 415 spots in Trips, Outpost, Birches, LIT,
CIT, and Adventure Trips for 88% capacity. We sent out 15 separate
groups on 9 different Adventure Trips, including Georgian Bay,
Isle Royale, Porcupine Mountains, Rocky Mountains, Taste of the
Southwest, Pacific Northwest Adventure, Minnesota Canoe, Michigan
Bike Trip, and, for the 20th year, Trailblazers.
Main Camp continues to provide fun and exciting evening programs,
creatively-themed olympic programs, interesting camptivities, an
across-the-lake swim once each session, and great camp songs in
the Dining Hall and at the opening and closing campfires.
Camp Echo Alumni wishing to relive the memories by viewing daily
photos from camp and reading daily camp newsletters may want to
join Camp Echo's Bunk1 website (www.campecho.bunk1.com) for $7.
We still have room in Week 2 of Family Camp (August 22-28), Labor Day
Weekend Family Camp, and Women's Wellness (September 9-12). Download
a Camp Guide from the Camp Echo website, or call the McGaw YMCA
Program Support Office at 847-475-7400.
Join the "Echo Spirit Team"
--------------------------
We're looking for volunteers to help at the Echo bus departures and
arrivals in Evanston this summer. Give us an hour or two on a Friday
or Saturday afternoon, or a Sunday morning. Mingle with the parents
and campers and talk about your experience at camp. Help with the
distribution of bus passes and loading/unloading luggage. To join
the "Echo Spirit Team" hit reply and let me know you can help. The
red-aproned "Spirit Team" has received rave reviews this summer from
parents of both new and returning campers, providing help and answers
on those stressful days as parents part and reunite with children.
Wish List
---------
bugle
storage in or near Evanston, year-round, for a boat trailer
kitchen refrigerator (delivered to Echo!)
washer-dryer (mostly a dryer!) for the Director's House
computers: 500 MHz or better PCs; iMacs or better
queen-sized bed and mattress (delivered to Echo!)
component CD player for the Social Lodge sound system
Alumni Notes
------------
DAN TUREK (77-85): "The alumni site looks great. I'm planning on
reuniting the entire staff of 1984. Hopefully all will be able to
partake in my study. After assembling the staff, I'm suggesting we
all live together for another summer, just to see if it will be as much
fun as it was twenty years ago. (personally I doubt it, but I'm willing
to give it a try. I'm just back from a two and a half month stay in the
Bahamas where I was working on a movie called "Into The Blue." My work
can currently be enjoyed in the latest Kevin Smith film "Jersey Girl"
and this years Oscar winner for best short film "Two Soldiers." My own
film, "The Five Stages of Unemployment" will be playing at the Maryland
Film Fest in May. Any alumni in the Baltimore area please show up and I
will see what I can do about getting you a ticket. At the very least I
promise to let you take a picture with me ... time permitting. Is it
true? Have you finally found my very first counselor Richard Skolly???
I see his e-mail link appears on the alumni website ... Where the heck
was he for all these years anyway? I'm still chillin in Wilmington, NC
with Kelly and our two boys Harper and Nathan. If you're in the area
and need a place to crash please let me know and I'll supply you with
a list of our local motels (we have some nice ones ... really cheap
too!). Thanks for the 2000 visit Steve Newman!"
DONNA BLISS (95-03): "I am happy to announce I just started my new job
as the Development Manager at Cancer Treatment Research Foundation /
Walter Payton Cancer Fund. This is an organization that I have been
involved with for the past 7 years, and a management change presented
an ideal opportunity to come inside. I will handle all of their events,
and fundraising activities, so it is a big challenge but very exciting
as well. We're holding the First Annual Walter Payton Run on
September 18, 2004 in Arlington Heights. Hope to see you all out
there, either running or volunteering."
[You can contact Donna through the alumni website.]
STEVE NEWMAN (84-94) was one of ten educators out of 700 Chicago-area
nominees awarded a Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. An
English and Humanities teacher, Steve was recognized for his work in
the Senior Studies elective which he teaches with colleagues Dave Allen
(ECHO 92-96) and Shelly Gates. In recognizing Steve, the Golden Apple
Foundation noted that, "He encourages students to explore and discuss
issues of race, status, and equity through research, reading, and
firsthand observation, often for the first time."
HANS WOUDMAN (ICCP 77): "Hello Roberto! Hope you're doin' fine as well
as your wife, last week we went for 5 days to the Netherlands together
with a neighbourg-couple, he, Carlo, italian origin and his swiss wife.
We spent a good time in a small hotel at Enkhuizen on the boards of the
'Ijsselmeer - Ijssellake' some 50 km. east from Alkmaar. I also had the
occasion to see Johan, my father, we even invited him for a lunch in a
local restaurant, before driving him to my mother, Tini, at the 'old
people's home' She has a very bad health; she's Pa arkinson-patient and
sitting in a wheelchair, and unable to express herself ... a tragedy.
My wife and children are oKay, everybody in the very best of health,
For today, I leave you, sincerely yours, Hans"
SARAH WOOFFITT (02-03): "Thanks for all of the Camp Echo newsletters.
I love to keep in touch with all the news! I'm so pleased that Hannah,
Daniel and I were able to attend family camp last summer. We love it
so! It's sad that it will be our last for some time as we are moving
back to the UK at the end of this month. Thanks to you and your
wonderful staff, we have the best memories to take with us. We will
always remember you and I hope one day that we will be able to return
to Echo."
MONTE CARPENTER (94-00): "I am still in Cheyenne Wyoming, still looking
after the missiles as an Air Force Missileer in the 320th Missile
Squadron. I was married to my longtime girlfriend Aubrey Faith-Slaker
this past December in Glenview, in the old Navy base chapel. She is
finishing up her Masters degree at SMU and will be moving back here in
June. We didn't have a honeymoon because I needed to get back to base,
and she needed to get back to Texas. All is well considering that my
wife and I live 1000 miles apart. I keep busy with Air Force stuff and
working on my own Master's degree in Education. I hope all is well with
everyone. Feel free to write me any time. Echo is always in my
thoughts, and I still sincerely wish I could go back again to work.
Maybe someday. Take care."
NOAH MICKEY-COLMAN (94-97): "I have been thinking a lot lately about
Echo and wondering how things are going up there this year. From what
I have heard recently, this year will continue to build on all the
positive moves you have made in the last few. Kudos for all you have
done to revitalize Camp Echo and bring back that Echo spirit. I am
living in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and working on a homeopathic medical
research study. It has been quite an experience thus far as we are
working in some of the poorest parts of the world. Check out our
website at http://www.homoeopathyinhonduras.com I appreciate being
kept up to date on what's going on at Camp. Keep up the good work."
DAWN SUMMERS (02-03): "I hope summer is going well. I am in the NC
TEACH program and going for my Masters of Arts in Teaching and I'm in
the middle of the summer institute. Still looking for a teaching job
for the fall. I've been told that things will start opening up soon,
as final decisions are made by teachers not returning to their
positions and as enrollment numbers start to firm up. Keeping my
fingers crossed and not looking forward to the learning curve, but
this summer's classes are proving to be quite useful." [Dawn's Dad
passed away on April 18th after coming home from the hospital in
mid-February. Dawn spent the spring as a teacher's assistant in a
first grade classroom.]
Announcements
-------------
LAURIE MARSHALL'S (98-present) father, John Fitzgerald, died on
May 12 at the age of 74 at home in Newaygo, Michigan after a long
hospitalization. He was a salesman for Grand Rapids Metal Source
until 1992. He was a veteran having served in the Army during the
Korean War from 1951 to 1953. Memorial services were held at the
Croton Community Church on May 22. For memorials consider Hospice
of Michigan - Newaygo County.
THE McGAW YMCA IN EVANSTON is currently searching for a full-time
Aquatic Director, as well as part-time lifeguards and swim
instructors. Contact Nancy Holmberg, Human Resources Manager, at
.
ANDY HAMMERMAN (82-83) SENT THIS TO ME ON AUGUST 4:
Black Sheep Inn, Ecuador is looking for multi-talented couple to
be fulltime managers of our rural Eco-Lodge. We have Organic Gardens,
Composting Toilets, Adobe Buildings, and Visitors from all over
the World. Black Sheep Inn is very busy and popular; be prepared to
work hard! Fluent English, and Spanish required. Experience in the
following is helpful: hospitality, food service, construction,
management, farming, and computers. No two days are alike. Pay starts
at $200 per person a month plus FREE accommodation and food. An
opportunity for pay increase to $600 per person a month, depending
on commitment, abilities and compatibility. Start Immediately!
Minimum commitment: 6-12 months. No children. See website for details.
www.blacksheepinn.com/helpwanted.htm
Build The Spirit!
--
Rob Grierson Camp Echo Director
rg@mcgawymca.org