So bye bye Miss American Pie

Mitch shares his reflections on the last day of camp and the summer that was, in his emotional last blog of the summer.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to……

One hot day; packing; emotional; items without names; nailing the bunk plaque onto the wall forever; one last american pie; one last flag lowering; final banquet; emotional words; reflections; moments; long lasting thunderstorm; a super Friday Nite Flix inside the field house; rolling thunder; tear jerking songs (Long & Winding Road, You’ve Got a Friend, Time of Your Life, Friends theme, Elton John’s Friends, Our House, Imagine, Leaving on a Jet Plane, Lean on Me, Homeward Bound, In My Life, Circle Game, So Far Away and Landslide—to name a few); burning of the numbers in a surreal setting as the Dorm & Club led camp in a final “Friends, Alma Mater and Taps” as everyone stood arms around shoulders looking through the open amphitheater doors as 2012 burned on the hillside while the rain poured down; followed by one last milk & cookies—and then boys camp bunk time before bedtime while the girls sang some more songs- all to make for a bittersweet end to an incredible summer for our children.

Reveille sounded at 6:15am today.  We all have smiles and tears for all so many reasons we accomplished as one big family.

I will share with you some of what I said at last night’s evening line-up:

“I’ve always said that the trouble with camp is that it ends. It ends for the summer and then for some, it ends forever. Although perhaps it means saying goodbye to friends you won’t see for 10 months, if ever again …that might mean that decades later, the memories,  the smell, the sounds of camp remain the BEST of what you have known.

From singing American Pie, to last night’s show, to all the activities, fun and friends…….

So, as we prepare to leave our summer home, summer family, Stephanie and I wish you all only the best of health, happiness, prosperity and goodness…..

It has been a great summer…..it has been a pleasure watching each and everyone of you personally, grow, learn and discover things about yourself you did not realize you could do, become an important person in our camp family….

And as we all go our separate ways, don’t forget that everyone here at lineup right now takes a bit of Towanda with them, even if you will never be back here…..   thank you, we appreciate all that we have done together this summer of 2012; we will miss you all… call me, maybe!!”

And then during the banquet, towards the end of the evening, I added something like this:

“I consider myself one lucky guy to be in the position that I am in as your Camp Director, I never take it for granted; I try my best and always want everyone to do the same.

I hope that you find something you love and then with some luck, be able to make it your career and then you’ll never feel as if you are working;

Camp Towanda is my home, my life, my family, my business, my passion while at the same time is all of our summer home.

I could not do it without the support of Stephanie and all that she contributes, especially behind the scenes. Keeping me and the senior staff balanced, healthy and clear.

I could not run camp without her  and without my 2 winter sons, Brandon and Jared, who realize and also contribute to all that goes into planning and running camp before and after everyone gets here.

To our amazing senior staff, counselors, KMP, office, laundry, drivers…and everyone…we are ALL Towanda!

Thanks again.”

To our camper’s parents, I say thank you for entrusting your chidren to us; we will miss them tremendously; enjoy them for 10 months; after a brief rest, we’ll be ready to get geared up in just 315 days when “I BET camp will be great in LUCKY 2013”!!

Signing off,

Mitch & Stephanie

PS: Did anybody my blog posts this summer?

P.P.S. Towanda Times is hot off the press…get our final summer issue here: https://camptowanda.com/times/Vol90No8.pdf

Red Jesters vs. Blue Royalty!!!!

Okay check this out; all summer long we are working on this AMERICAN PIE video dub/synch. We are shooting scenes all around camp with everyone. We have kids kicking shoes off; we are driving chevys to levees; we are digging rhythm & blues; we sang dirges in the dark; even the parents sang along on Visiting Day!

We wore red, white & blue or dressed in costume; everyone was into helping bring alive our traditional lunch time bugle call, Don McLean’s American Pie; celebrating 40 years since its debut and 20 years as a Camp Towanda lunchtime tradition!

Throughout the summer, scenes, retakes and planning…of singing American Pie!

In recent days, the tension, intensity, excitement and heart pounding edge-of-the seat wonder that included fakeouts, psych-outs, hints, drama and predictions flowed through every Towanda camper and counselor.

Who are the Generals, what are the teams, what and when is Breakout????

Then last night’s AIRBANDS (our lip-synch extravaganza)  was on! And it was awesome…over 14 acts of entertaining and humorous songs and skits!

For the last act, we had to video one more time everyone in the amphitheater, wearing red, white and blue!  Giant inflatable Uncle Sams, life size Statue of Liberty cutouts, dozens of Star Spangled beach balls, American Flags of all sizes filled the crowd!  Off  to the side was the Chevy, filled with even more patriotic paraphernalia.

As I led the singing, the video crew was taping; the entire camp singing and waving the flags, swaying their Uncle Sams and throwing their patriotic beach balls…

The words resounded against a beautiful sunset sky…

When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me
Oh and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown

At which time a thunderous explosion of 10 minutes worth of red and blue firewooks rammed up into the sky from beyond the other side of the field house in just 10 seconds; while red and blue confetti exploded above everyone’s heads from the new lighting tower at the top of the amphitheater.

The air horns sounded, the crowd went wild, screaming, huddling in support as the chevy drove in and the banners were unfurled on stage…..

The RED JESTERS and THE BLUE ROYALTY was presented as the fluttering continued of the confetti.

The Head JUDGIES announced the Generals, Camper Captains, Lieutenants and Sergeants.

The crowd went wild. Cheers, applause and highly spirited support; Breakout of the 2012 Towanda Olympiad had begun.

A quick team meeting, the opening ceremony with the lighting of the Olympic rings, staff meetings, Judgies meetings and taps.

The early reports say it was a great breakout, emotional on many levels: the campers huddled and hugging each other, the adrenaline of pride and support  and the overwhelming psyche for 5 days of fun, sportsmanship and competition; on all levels.

Camp Towanda was at its best and it just seems to get better every day,

I can’t wait for today’s activities to begin! I will be reffing GHOST matches for the next 5 days!!!

If our technology works, rope burning will be on the campcam, currently scheduled for Friday night…

Good luck red, good luck blue….

Fake Outs, Psych Outs…Is there Anybody Out There?

So much going on here;  rain, sunshine, cool temps, hot temps, thunderstorms, activities, all camp singing American Pie at different venues, flags waving, kids swaying, mud ghost, indoor Outdoor Adventure as an activity, culinary class at the Farm with Chef Paulette, Club and Dorm Fake Outs, Pink Floyd Psych-Outs, BBQ indoors, BBQ outdoors, Horseracing in the drizzle sponsored by the Dorm, the Debs raid the Club of all their visiting day candy, bumper cars, campfires, did someone say Fake Out??

Things are moving fast; people are racing in all directions, late reveille, early to bed, milk and cookies, rain on the roof, Casper barking, did someone say Psych-Out?? And that was just Sunday……who knows what will happen today??? Tonight is Miss-ter Towanda!

Needless to say, camp has Olympic Fever!  Is there anybody out there?

Mitch

P.S. Are you watching the Campcam live? If you were tuned in last night at about 7PM, you saw the Club’s Fake out and at 7:15 you saw the Psych-Out!!! Red Olympus vs. Blue Atlantis…or not!  Oh what will the real teams be?!

F-A-K-E O-U-T

We are still in the after glow of Visiting Day!  The siblings that stayed over had a great time, our alumni that came for the Alumni Day BBQ were very nostalgic and it was another beautiful day.

Sunday night, our Staff All Star Basketball Game was a great evening activity; a capacity crowd filled the field house. The pre game show included Mitch & Stephanie dancing center court as the camp serenaded and kicked off their shoes (a la another scene for our new and improved American Pie lip dub… you know: “…. Can you teach me how to dance real slow?… You both kicked off your shoes- man I dig those rythym & blues…”)!

The game was the perfect setting for a Mitch vs. Jared Reiter half court backwards shot showdown contest (that the young Reiter foolishly thought he could win).  The two teams (Red Counselors vs. Blue Staff) entertained the audience with Globetrotter-like prowess, but the real excitement happened at halftime! Our gymnastics department put on an impressive show which was followed by the Club’s early FAKEOUT!!!! That first got the crowd excited, pumped and even more spirited as the Blue Gymnasts and the Red Acrobats faked out the crowd!  Try going to bed after that!

Monday was a thunderstorm day; major booms, claps and downpours.  But nothing could stop us from a jackpot Casino Night!

We said au revoir and bon voyage to the Club & Dorm and Seniors as they left for their trips to Montreal and Martha’s Vineyard today!

Another great week underway here at Towanda!!!