Happy Thanksgiving from Camp Wa Wa Segowea!

As the months fly by to next summer, the projects continue to be worked on here at Camp Segowea. Property Director Norm Button and his wife Dianne are committed to the task of reconstructing their house log by log till completion hopefully in the Spring of 2011. Progress is happening with the near completion of the floor on the second floor. The front of the new place is mapped out. Next up is completing the walls and of course the roof! The Buttons welcome all who would like to lend a hand. Just give them a quick call or email to work out the details. 413-229-9110 or nbutton@cdymca.org. Also, just in time for the holidays, the new 2011 Wa Wa Segowea Calendars are in! Get yours before they're all gone! Go to the Friends of Segowea website to order. www.friendsofsegowea.org.

In the meantime, we wish all Friends of Segowea a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's some recent pics of the progress so far.

The "new" front of the building.

Norm working on the 2nd floor.

The front without a door...

...and now, with a door!

Norm and Ben working (there's a nice breeze up there!)

And now, the first wall!

Norm, Ben & Dianne and the new wall.

At least there's a little protection against the wind!

And a couple other pics from camp-

Can you guess where this was taken?

The lodge in November time.

And the actual raising of the wall!

Camp Wa Wa Segowea Leadership Rally takes place!

It was an afternoon filled with good news, great news and a call to action! The Wa Wa Leadership Rally took place in the Capital District YMCA Administrative office in Albany and was attended by many Friends of Segowea, including campers from 1937, all the way up to 2010! It started with the good news of all the accomplishments we've seen at camp in the past year and a half or so. George Painter, the Executive Director, showed a wonderful presentation of pictures of all that's been happening at camp. Then came the first ever Leadership Awards presented to Norm and Dianne Button, as well as some nice gifts for them including winter jackets (complete with the Segowea logo!). Amy, a Smith Park Board member (and camp volunteer this past summer) did a wonderful job in presenting the awards. Then came the great news - Registration of kids for the summer of 2011 is now officially open! Forms are available to fill out and online registration is right around the corner.

Lastly the call to action is very clear. We've raised $600,000 in the capital campaign since its beginning, but we're still looking to complete that $Million dollar goal! With projects continuing (like the reconstruction of the property directors house), we have set a short term goal of raising $150,000 in the next 5 months. With the Wa Wa Magic alive and well, we know we can do it. If you can contribute, now is the time. (Simply contact George Painter or send me an email and we'll get the ball rolling). In the meantime, here's some shots of the Leadership Rally!

George getting things set up.

George giving his presentation of the accomplishments that happened at camp.

Charlie (WWS 37') and Matt (WWS 2010), Wa Wa Campers!

Enjoying a nice lunch!

Boo, thinking of getting that cookie!

Darlene & Dianne discussing something camp related, I'm sure!

Rachel feeling that Wa Wa Spirit with a Rally sign!

Dianne and Norm in their new Wa Wa jackets.

Also, there's now a Camp Segowea Channel on YouTube! There's only a couple videos up there now, but more will be added soon.

Camp Wa Wa Segowea Raising the Roof, Rally and Skip - What does it all mean?

It's three posts for the price of one! The first part of this post is Part Two of the conversation with Skip Falk and it's ready to view, this time on YouTube. In this edition, Skip talks about the hurricane that hit Segowea in 1976, resident camping for kids and reflects on another Camp director, Beth Koloski Hodos (now on the Smith Park Board). It's about 12 minutes in length and takes a little time to download, so please be patient! The link for that is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K75wQ8SnNw

The second part of this post is it's just a couple days before the Wa Wa Leadership Rally coming up on Saturday! It will take place in Albany at the YMCA Administrative Office on New Karner Road starting at noontime. Hope you can make it! For further details, please see the previous post in the blog.

And the final part is to report on the progress that has been taking place in the reconstruction of the Property Director's House. Norm and Dianne have been really busy! This past weekend, we were able to gradually lower the roof to actually become the second floor and hope to begin shortly on building the new roof. It's taking quite a bit of time and effort and will be well worth it when complete! Here's just a few pictures to see the progress.

Norm & Dianne stopping for a pose.

Norm hanging around!

Get to work Norm!

Norm can move fast if he wants to!

Half of the old roof - new second floor is down.

Looking down from the 2nd floor.

Looking down to the first floor.

Nice view up the camp road!

One side down, one to go.

Dianne working inside and out.

A view from inside.

Removing nails is very tedious work!

A view from the outside.

We're just about ready to bring down the other side.

A view from inside with a flat second floor!

Another view inside with the second floor down.

And now, the making of the second floor!

Former Camp Wa Wa Segowea Director Skip Falk remembers.

I had a conversation recently with former Camp Director Dave "Skip" Falk. During this talk, Skip reminisced about his time at camp, how he got his start there, right up to visiting this past summer. This blog post is Part One of Two containing excerpts of that conversation and pictures of old and more recent. Unfortunately the file size is too large for this blog, but you can hear it and see it by going to my site-

http://web.mac.com/mikeb211.

Look for the "Skip Falk remembers camp" page and click on it!

Skip would like to hear from any alumni during his time of 1973-76 (df12051@msn.com) and is also looking for any pictures of camp during that time frame. The pictures in the video are from a few different sources and thanks to them for them!