Camp Echo Quarterly Alumni E-News March 28, 2006 Welcome to all our new subscribers! Our last issue was dated December 5, 2005. Contents -------- Alumni Address & Phone Verification Summer 2006 Draws Near What's Happening at Camp? Camp Echo Annual Campaign The "Send a Kid to Camp" Fund Wish List Borrowing a Trailer Alumni Website Join the "Echo Spirit Team" Alumni Notes - Linda King Brett - Sue Klein Torp - Hans Woudman - Kelly Kruithoff Carpenter - Allison Alms Cheney - Ralph Obenchain - Mike Middaugh - Don Belveal - Arnie Hammerman - Jenny Rose - Molly Marie Brewster Clem - Joe DeLapp - Trent Vorbau - Kristen Mally Dean - Anne Elizabeth Baranay McIntyre - John Dowdall - Mark Brady - Bartek Bartoszewicz - Christy Lombardi - Naomi Goldberg - Janine Hamilton Milestones - Robert Girard Song of the Month: DAY IS DONE Alumni Address & Phone Verification ----------------------------------- Once a year we append the address and phone information we have on file to the end of your copy of the E-News. If your address of phone has changed, reply and let me know. Summer 2006 Draws Near ---------------------- Are you and your family signed up for Family Camp yet? Got a neighbor with a teen who might enjoy an Adventure Trip? Know of any younger boys or girls who would love Camp Echo? Some programs and sessions are filled but there are still over 100 spots available at camp. Click here to see what's open: http://www.YMCACampEcho.org/openings.html What's Happening At Camp? ------------------------ Property Manager Rob Johnston and Assistant Property Manager Brian McGinn have put the finishing touches on the counselor areas in 7 cabins, and added exhaust fans for hot nights. They also installed approved fireplace inserts, which can be used year-round, in the four cabins on the East side. Another staff cabin (a tenth "Peak") is nearly complete. There's not enough room in the shower rooms of North and Way North to add shower stalls, but we have added curtains which will provide some privacy this summer. New electric circuits are being run to East/West and North/Way North so we can run the hot water heaters at full strength. This past winter we entered into a land-swap with neighbor Pete Lindner. The Lindner Family has been friends of Camp Echo for over 50 years, having sold us over 300 acres in 1962. In January we traded 1.75 acres of lakefront land at the far end of camp, beyond the horseback overnight area, for 9 acres of land on 32nd street adjacent to the Tall Pines overnight area, a house, and a pickup truck. The pickup will become our "plow truck." Rob and Brian are currently doing some inside work on the house in preparation for Brian and his family moving in after school is out in June. As soon as the final snows melt, and before the trees get their leaves, we've scheduled a fly-over to get a set of photographs of the entire property. Using GPS ground control, a topographic map will be created. We'll be using that to come up with a "Master Plan" for future changes at Echo. Camp Echo Annual Campaign ------------------------- Look for our 2006 mailing in April. We hope that even more alumni will donate at a level at which they can continue to give in the coming years. This year, you may be contacted by another Echo alum, encouraging you to make your donation. Your donations to the Camp Echo Annual Fund help us to keep camp program areas and facilities in top-notch shape, provide camp scholarships, and to hire a diverse staff. This summer we will be helping seven new families attend Family Camp! When you see that Echo envelope, please give generously. The "Send a Kid to Camp Fund" ---------------------------- Out partnership with the Ted Fund of Evanston continues. Read all about it at . If you've purchased an Echo in the Round music CD, you have already helped us in this wonderful effort to provide the camp experience to children who could not otherwise afford to attend Camp Echo. But the effort is ongoing! This year, the Frankel Family Foundation has kindly awarded us a challenge grant -- gifts to the "Send a Kid to Camp" fund received by April 15, 2006 will be doubled! To date, we've raised $2,210 towards the $5,000 needed for the match. Please consider making a gift now for the "Send a Kid to Camp" effort. You can donate online if you have a PayPal account by clicking here: http://www.YMCACampEcho.org/SAKTCdonation.html You can mail a donation to: Camp Echo "Send a Kid to Camp" Fund % McGaw YMCA Development Office 1000 Grove Street, Evanston IL, 60201 Or call 847-475-7400 and ask for the Development Office. Wish List --------- Van to be used as a Tool Truck 35mm cameras for the Photography Camptivity Desktop Computers -- Macintosh G3 (iMac) or better Laptop Computers -- with wireless cards installed TV/DVD/VCR for staff use in the Program Office TV/DVD/VCR for staff use in Lakeside Electric (Not Gas) Dryer for Director's House Borrowing a Trailer ------------------- Do you, or does anyone you know, have a trailer we could borrow to haul a 14' Hobie Cat to Echo? We only need it for a weekend. Alumni Website -------------- Our Alumni website is up and running! Look yourself up with "Index by Name" and look for your peers with "Lists by Year." Click here for the site: http://www.ymcacampecho.org/alumni.html Use "Submit My Info" to send us updates and changes. You can email any other member of the list whose name appears as an underlined hyperlink. Their email address is not revealed unless they choose to reply to your message. 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. Alumni Notes (compiled by Katie Trippi, Echo Alumni Contact) ------------ Linda King Brett wrote: I attended Camp Echo in the late 70s. I went with a group of four close friends of mine. I had never been to camp before - just tent camping with my parents and grandparents. It was great picking out which bunk to sleep in, meeting the rest of the people that would be in my cabin including the leaders, and touring the grounds. I believe we were in Kiwanis Lodge, with counselors Ruth and Andy. Ruth played guitar and had really long hair. I remember swimming across the lake, or possibly to an island and back -- it's hard to remember -- and boating and stepping out into thick, spongy seaweed on the bottom. "Savage Day" - eating spaghetti with no utensils! Yeah, if you were hungry enough, you figured it out! Singing by the campfire, doing crafts, a silly play, and haunted stories told to scare us. "Olympic Day", when I had to run the extra half mile or more to make up for the girl that couldn't - I was exhausted! I still have my ribbons to prove I did it! The time spent there made me realize how much I love the outdoors and that "camp" feeling. We are currently drawing up a cabin/lodge-like floor plan and hope to have a few horses on our acreage. We named one of our dogs, "Echo". She's a small American Eskimo (now 6 years old). I've written a children's book called "Milo in the Woods of Wonder" - by L. L. Brett, available in the bookstore at . My husband Harry is a guitarist . Neat to see your website and show my kids where I went on an adventure as a child. I can still hold the memories dear ... Thanks for having this website and an area to post and share with others that have attended there. -- Sue Klein Torp wrote, I lived in Fremont from 1954 to 1977. My father was an MD surgeon and was on the Baord of Directors of Camp Echo for many years. My sister Mary Klein Kansfield was on staff with Carolyn Morby in the 50s and my brother Bob was on staff in the 60s. I no longer live in Fremont but strive to keep up with family friends there. I read in the l ast alumni update about Karen "Greta" Featherstone and her condition with the Big C. Karen filled in for my mom many times and they were great friends. To fill you in on our family a bit more: Mary's husband Norm is at the center of a huge disagreement in the Reformed Church on homosexuality. Norm presided over the wedding of my niece Ann Kansfield to her partner in Massachusetts one year ago. In June he was put on trial by the Church and found guilty. He was suspended - basically defrocked. He lost his job as President of New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey. They moved to their home in Pennsylvania and are still working for inclusion for all in the Reformed Church. This issue is extremely divisive and has caused much pain on both sides. Ann, my niece has been pasturing a very small church in Brooklyn which is doing extremely well. After 9/11, when she was supposed to be in the World Trade Tower, she realized that ministry was her calling and she went to seminary. If you are interested in keeping up with this story there is a website address: My brother Bob died of brain cancer 10 years ago. Mom died in 1976 of breast/spinal cancer and Dad died in 1973 of Leukemia. As you can see I have much experience with the Big C. I moved out of Fremont and went to Hope College and MSU. I worked as an archaeologist in the Middle East (Jordanian/Syrian border) for 2 field seasons, then return in the fall to teach school. I married a local South Haven guy and have been here since. I have a 15 year old daughter who loves to write. I have taught 4th and 5th grade for 27 years and I am now beginning to think about doing something else. I still love teaching. My husband Doug and I love to travel although I have been told to get my knee replaced so that stops me from doing as much hiking as I would like. We have been to over 50 National Parks in the West and will be doing more as time permits. Camp Echo still brings back many fond memories. Karen Yates was a good friend at camp. I was an outsider being the only kid from Fremont to go to camp. The stories that went around Fremont about the "city kids" at Camp Echo were hysterical. My memories of camp are some of the fondest from my childhood. Thanks for doing the newsletter ... it is wonderful. Even I recognize some of the names. It thrills me that the infirmary is still called the Klein Clinic. I still connect with Morby and Judy. If you ever get stuck in South Haven -- call! -- Hans Woudman wrote: Thanx for the Echo News! Your December 5th edition fell on the same day as my daughter Merane's 15th birthday as well as the birthday of famous Dutch Sinterklaas! (Sammiklaus or Saint Nicolas in Switzerland) Hope you're doing fine! Around my home village in the Jura mountains, a lot of snow is covering the summits. Wintertime arrived in Switzerland and I'll be alpine and cross country skiing pretty soon. Just a correction: I'm not a member of Dutch Badminton Club of Heiloo. Since 1990 I've been a badminton teacher for the Popular University of Delemont and recently, on May 7th 2005, I organized a Badminton-Tournament at Heiloo/Netherlands, near my Alkmaar roots, between members of Badmintonvennewater Club at Heiloo and the Swiss group I'm training at Delemont! By the way, we stayed at some nice tourist-bungalows for 5 days and visited the beautiful bulbfields during a nice bike ride, which took us through the dunes and polders-landscape, passing at Egmond and Bergen aan Zee; even my brother Wim participated and we stopped at my fathers place! We also took the time to visit the historical centers of Amsterdam and Alkmaar. -- Kelly Kruithoff Carpenter (Senior Counselor in 2002) wrote: I just wanted to let you know that I have given birth to the cutest future Echo camper ever! His name is Dylan Ray Carpenter and he is a beautiful, healthy 2-month-old now. He was 9 lbs 3 ozs at birth and 22 inches long. He is growing fast and is so much fun. He smiles a lot now and even giggles a little. Life is good. I am working at the Boys and Girls Club here in Traverse City and I love it. We worked with the local YMCA a little bit this summer; I was so excited about it. I must confess though, I was completely let down. I was expecting a little Camp Echo and I did not get it at all. There was just no spirit. I guess when your entire experience of the YMCA is Camp Echo your expectations are going to be a little too high. Camp Echo is really a special place that attracts truly special people. Hopefully I will get the chance to bring my little guy by there this summer to see you all. -- Allison Alms Cheney (camper in the late 70s and staff member in the early 80s), her husband Charlie, and their five children have just moved to Fremont from the East Coast. Julie Mihevc McGinn wrote to tell us of their event-filled arrival in Fremont. All are happy and starting to get settled we look forward to seeing them at camp occasionally over the summer. -- Ralph Obenchain, Boys Camp camper in the early 40s made a very generous donation to the McGaw YMCA and enclosed the following note: I found the Evanston Y in 1938. I attended Camp Echo in 1939, 1940, 1941, and 1942. The Franklin Y club used to win most of the events (not swimming). I played Men's Volleyball (I was the Top Spiker) for 20 years. I tell everybody if it weren't for the Evanston Y, I would probably be dead. -- Mike Middaugh, staff member in the late 60s and early 70s updated his information on the Alumni Website. He wrote: Great site. Good times, good friends. I can't wait to get a copy of the Reunion CD done by my contemporaries. -- Don Belveal, staff member in the late 50s and early 60s also updated his information on our website. We hope all of you will take a moment and do the same. -- Arnie Hammerman, camper in the 70s wrote: Echo Days? My first year I was in Paul Fischl's cabin in Main Camp. I was probably in 5th grade so maybe 73 or 74 until either 77 or 78. Second year I was still in Main Camp but I can't remember who my counselor was. The third year I was with Dave Ellis in a cabin on the hill closer to the stables, I remember he broke his leg that year (doing a backflip off of a stump) but that did not seem to slow him down, after that I spent two years in Outpost. I never was a staff member but was kind of a Wrangler's Associate as I hung out at the stables constantly and did basically everything an Assistant Wrangler did except lead trail rides (I did tail them occasionally). I can tell you who the Wranglers were when I was there. When I started there was this cowboy dude from Montana and Velma Wagner, his Assistant, then it was Ann Stettner and Anne Baranay. After that it was the Mulsoff Girls along with Dani Merrill. Also I remember Dani's cousin Wendy Gerber was an Assistant Wrangler. -- Jenny Rose, Girls Camp camper in the late 70s and staff member in the mid 80s wrote: I am so glad to have found Camp Echo on the Internet. I certainly never stopped missing it. I was a camper in the first session of the very first Pioneer Village; our counselors were John Mosser and a woman whose name I do not remember. Both were new to me at Echo that year. I was in the first PV that Camp Echo ever had. We had two Teepees and a Hogan. We dug a "Kybo" out there. We didn't have a well so we had to carry in all of our water from camp. We bathed very infrequently, in the lake. Abe, the trail horse used to escape and run around our campsite scaring the "heck" out of us. I used to return to the campsite to find all of my possessions, including my bed and lamp setup in the middle of the cornfield nearby. Lots of games of "children of the corn" in said cornfield. We had I think 3 girls and 5 guys - Craig Leva, Ned Jensen, Scott Nicolette from what I can remember. We chopped down pine trees to start the log cabin and I stripped two to make the volleyball court. We looked and smelled (I'm sure) so wild every time we would come into camp - we had all gone feral. I have a picture someone took of me in my 1983 preppiest button-down oxford shirt carrying wood back to the fire. I didn't think it was going to be all that rugged until we walked up to the campsite for the first time and all that was there were those Teepees. I probably brought makeup, too. I would love to find that picture!! I know it is somewhere in a box around here! -- Molly Marie Brewster Clem, Main Camp camper in the mid 80s wrote: I have four beautiful children. Madeline is 12, Julia is 11, Jonathan is 9, and Isabelle is 3. -- Joe DeLapp, Family Damp camper in the late 60s as a child and in the early 90s as an adult wrote: Hope you do not get tired of me saying it, but your camp newsletter is great. Nice work. Keeps us all in touch. There is something magical about Camp Echo and the people who have shared experiences and friendships there -- for me, it starts with the Featherstones and carries through the various staffs, families and campers with whom we all have been so fortunate to cross paths on that wonderful magical peninsula. -- Rob Johnston, Echo Property Manager, received an email from Trent Vorbau, staff member from Australia who was a counselor at Echo in the early 2000s. Trent has owned a restaurant called the "Take Away Cafe" for the past 3 years in Melbourne. He is looking to take a break to come and visit Echo. Trent owns the business with his brother Chris who says that Trent is the mouthpiece of the shop. "He chats up all the old ladies and the school girls. They just love him." (No surprise to us!) -- Kristen Mally Dean, Camper in the early 80s and married to fellow Echo Alum Rick Dean, wrote to update her current address and give us contact information for her brother Tim Mally who also attended Echo in the 80s. -- Anne Elizabeth Baranay McIntyre, Echo staff member from 74-76 wrote: One of these summers I will have to find a way to come back to camp to visit or attend Family Camp! -- John Dowdall, Boys Camp camper in the late 60s and early 70s wrote: Unfortunately I don't get up to Chicago much living in the Dallas area. I have three boys with one in college so it is hard to get away and get up there. Actually we have found a great camp for the kids in Branson, MO called Kanakuk. It's very popular in Texas and the Midwest and it reminds me of Echo in the late 60s. Camp Echo was one of the greatest experiences of my life! Viewing the website brought back great memories but some of the more memorable are Trading Post, capture the flag, camp skinny dip (all single sex back then), cabin challenges, waiting tables, Olympics, water-skiing, driving the ski boats, horseback riding to "the Fire Bowl" on either Bird or Toni, making blue in swimming, tipping canoes, KYBO's, siesta's (why?) running to the Dining Hall after hearing the bell and the rifle range and archery. The counselors were great; Bob Bahner (the Phantom), Don Johnson, and Rob Johnston in Featherstone Lodge my last year at camp and the ever-popular Director, Neil Featherstone. Can't forget Shorty and his pick-up truck! Four years at Camp Echo was a great experience, I am 48 now and still look back fondly during the summers. -- Mark Brady, Echo staff in 89 and 90 wrote: I was only at Echo 2 for two years, but those were some of my favorite times. My daughters have been going to a YMCA Day Camp for the last few years, and this summer we are going to go to a Family Camp and my oldest daughter is planning on going away to a two-week YMCA camp here in Minnesota. I have three daughters, ages 8 and 6-year-old twins. I always hope to get back to Echo at some point. -- Bartek Bartoszewicz, ICCP counselor from Poland in the early 2000s wrote: I'm getting married in June to Ola who was at Echo with me. Both of as are talking a lot about camp and we've got very good memories from that. I wish Echo were much closer to Poland so I could be there every summer, but the truth is different. I can't forget about all thie great things that happened at Camp Echo. I've just finished writting my CV, where I wrote a few things about Echo and I started thinking about you, Louie, Flo, Rob, Laura, Laurie, Katie and hundreds of other Echo staff. Please send them all best greetings from me. I hope everyone is doing well and there is the same huge spirit at Echo. For summer 2006 I propably won't be able to come to the States. Ola and I plan to go somewhere in July. If it will be anywhere close to the States for sure we will come to visit you. We will probably go to South America or Alaska but we're not sure yet. Earlier this year we were in South-Eastern Asia and it was brilliant. Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand are incredible. I miss water skiing at Echo so much and all the people who I was working with there -- Jordan, Lindsay, Barb, Tony, Josh, and Erin. All the best and greetings from Poland. -- From Christy Lombardi: We finally got a good snow fall this weekend and the whole city shut down. These people have no idea what winter is really like. I am absolutely loving my Political Research internship at EMILY's List and actively on the lookout for a job on a campaign somewhere this summer. (Lombardi for Justice and Democracy!) Graduate school is tough but good and I am also waiting tables at a 24-hour Diner in my spare 30 hours per week. :) Busy is good. I know that I am going to miss everything Echo so much but I can't fight the excitement I feel about continuing on this psuedo political path I'm carving out for myself right now. If I'm really lucky, maybe I can work out a campaign job for Jennifer Granholm and come visit a few weekends. Here's hopin! -- From Naomi Goldberg: I've started my new job, which has been okay so far. We run a whole lot of programs, and I'm still trying to get my head around which ones I'll be involved in/in charge of, so it's been a mildly confusing week. From what I can tell, most of our programs look pretty interesting, so I'm excited to jump in. One of the major programs that I'm in charge of organizing and implementing is a week-long EcoCamp in the summer. I got really sad yesterday at the prospect of an Echo-less summer, so I'm still trying to figure out the likelihood of me being able to take time off to come back to the Midwest to help out at Echo! [ Naomi is working as a Youth Coordinator at the Environmental Resource Center in Ketchum, Idaho ... www.ercsv.org ] -- From Janine Hamilton: Everytime I get one of these bulletins I feel the familiar tug of Echo ... sadly I won't be able to make it this year. There are just too many things I need to do at home this year but my thoughts will be with you all. I wish Echo another truly amazing summer and I wish i could be there to enjoy it. Take Care and give my love to all the Echo family. Milestones ---------- Robert Girard, 76, died January 29 at Belmont Village in Glenview, Illinois. The father of Echo alumni and current Family Campers Martha of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin and Fred of Bolingbrook Illinois, he was an ambulance driver in World War II, co-owner of Evanston International Travel Agency with his wife Eunice, a longtime member and past president of the Evanston Rotary Club, and an active member of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Evanston. A memorial service was held on February 10 in Evanaston. Memorials contributions can be made to the Rotary Foundation, 1560 Sherman, Evanston. Song of the Month: DAY IS DONE ------------------------------ Tell me why you're crying my son. I know you're frightened like everyone. Is it the thunder in the distance you hear? Will it help if I stay very near? I am here. Chorus And if you take my hand my son, All will be well when the day is done. And if you take my hand my son, All will be well when the day is done. Day is done. When the day is done. Day is done. When the day is done. Day is done. When the day is done. Day is done. Ask me why I'm sighing my son. You will inherit what mankind has done. In a world filled with sorrow and woe. Embrace The Spirit! -- Rob Grierson Camp Echo Director