Progress made at September's Work Weekend at Camp Wa Wa Segowea!

After the summer comes to a close, a good sign for autumn is the first Camp Work Weekend! And that's exactly what took place last weekend. We didn't have as many people take part as we thought we would, but we still got a good amount of work done. Things were put away in storage for the winter, a few areas were cleaned up and the big chore for the weekend was getting all the docks in for the season. Mission accomplished! We also continued the insulation work on Page Lodge and hope to have that completed soon. If you missed this weekend, there's still October's Work Weekend to attend. It's October 22nd & 23rd. Set aside the date now!

Something else that was happening this past Saturday was the Smith Park Annual Meeting. Smith Park is the owner of the camp property in the Berkshires and has members as well as a Board that connected with the Capital District YMCA back in 2008 to reestablish historic Camp Wa Wa Segowea as one of the premier camp programs in America. Smith Park reelected some board members and elected new board member, Wyeth Drummond. Welcome Wyeth!

Other recent happenings of camp included a survey that went out to kids and parents from this past summer, finding out what everyone thought of camp. We're very happy to say that nothing but glowing responses are coming back!

"We love the small size, personal attention and the beautiful setting in the Berkshires. The staff are top notch and work very hard to deliver a traditional summer camp experience"

"We LOVE Camp Wa Wa Segowea!"

We are also seeing continual interest in the Blog Post from earlier in the year (March 2) "Where Are They Now". We still welcome all responses! If you know someone that should share what they're doing now, please encourage them to send something in (of course if you didn't send anything in, please do too!) It doesn't matter if you were a camper last year, a staff member from the 90's or a Friend of Segowea from the 50's, all replies are welcome. Here's the post-

http://segowea.blogspot.com/2011/03/camp-wa-wa-segowea-alumni-where-are.html

Lastly, we'd like to celebrate the Anniversary of Camping! Summer camping is 150 years old! Back in January of this year, the American Camping Association began a year long celebration of the first camping experience. Back in 1861, a school teacher, Frederick W. Gunn, took students from his homeschool program on a two-week trip. The class hiked to their destination in Maine and then set up camp. The students spent their time boating, fishing and trapping for the two weeks. The trip was so successful that the tradition continued for twelve years as the "Gunnery Camp". Here at Camp Wa Wa Segowea, we'll be celebrating our own anniversary in 2013, our Centennial! Any ideas on how we should celebrate 100 years? Let us know.

While you're thinking of ideas on how to celebrate 100 years of Segowea, here's some pictures from this past few weekends.

Time to Harvest the Camp Garden...

Put the books away...

Won't see these guys for that much longer!

Still plenty of fish in Harmon Pond though.

Chairman of Smith Park, John Dunn welcomes some Smith Park members.

And the work weekend wouldn't be the same without Norm on a piece of heavy machinery!

Just what is Liz helping with?

It's an elaborate plan to bring in the docks! (and a less back breaking one at that!)

Norm in the middle of it.

A plan in effect!

Lily, Betsey and Chris taking a break and catching up.

Tom getting into it, literally.

Covering the ditch to cut down on the leaves.

Lifejackets put away for the winter.

Tom checking to see how much of the pond is in his boots...

and he shows us!

And pretty soon, we all take that familiar road on our way home.

Till next time, Thanks for being Friends of Segowea!

One last look at Camp Wa Wa Segowea's summer of 2011.

The summer season ends, and the autumn one begins! There's still that summer feel to the place, but without the daily noises of camp. We don't hear basketballs bouncing in the lodge, the splashing of free swim and the occasional shout out of YEAH BOATING! Fudge and Goldie, the camp dogs, wonder where everyone went and the wildlife begins to resurface on a more regular basis. The warm air remains though, and we hope it lasts, at least for the first work weekend! (More about that later) We made it through relatively unscathed from Hurricane Irene. Norm and Dianne report there's bits of debris all over camp with tree branches and leaves scattered around. But nothing major occurred, so with the eye of the storm looking like it passed right over the area, we were extremely lucky!

We took some video over the summer and thought we'd share some with this post.

Here's the most popular booth at the Camp Carnivals- The Slip-N-Slide!

Here's one of a few beavers that came right up by the dock this summer.

Here's an Olympic Event!

Some Girls Singing.

The Camp Staff of 2011!

Another Olympic event!

Thanks to Kat, Ed, Annie and Elisabeth for sharing the videos!

The first work weekend of the fall is taking place on the 17th and 18th of September, just 11 days away. If you plan on attending for the day, for the weekend, or even just a few hours, please let Norm & Dianne know at 413-229-9110. A Lasagna dinner is being planned for Saturday night and reservations are being taken for sleeping arrangements! All are invited to attend as there's plenty of work to do. Maybe bring a friend or perhaps friends that are interested in seeing the place for themselves. Lunch is a "bring your own meal", and breakfast will be served on Sunday for the the stayovers.

Hope to see you there!

Camp Wa Wa Segowea 2011 Summer season comes to an end.

The summer season of 2011 is over and what a fantastic summer it was! Returning campers from last year and years past joined new campers for that magical Segowea experience. Session 8 was the biggest of the summer and with the additional help of some alumni volunteers, camp was packed! All cabins were used and the dining hall was full of hungry children, ready to eat!

Kids started the week dealing with a couple days of rain, but as the Olympics began, the sun came out and dried everything and the games began! Younger campers and older campers joined together on three Olympic teams, cheering each other on in events ranging from the 100 yard dash to the frisbee toss. There was the three-legged race, the javelin throw and of course the hula hoop competition! It was a contest for the ages and led by alumni volunteers, Katie and Matt, and with the whole camp included, much fun was had! It was a great event to wrap-up the summer of 2011.

A big thanks goes out to the Great Summer staff of Camp Wa Wa Segowea, the dynamic CIT's, the terrific leadership of the team of Kat, Frank, Candace, and Norm & Dianne, the first class kitchen staff of Chris, Adele and Will and all the wonderful volunteers. It truly was a summer to remember. Can't wait till next year!

Session 8 was a busy one, and here's the week in pictures!

Wiffle Ball on the Parade Field.

Practicing the Hula Hoop!

Friends gathering on the side porch and inside lodge.

A quick game of tetherball.

It's Gardening Class.

Photography class.

Rocking the YMCA, Exclamation Point!

Arts & Crafts Class.

Swim class.

and Dance class.

Some time on the water, fishing...

...and enjoying Open Boating!

A peak inside a typical cabin.

The lodge never changes...

A true game of Rock, Paper, Scissors!

Keeping the inside lodge clean.

A look inside the kitchen.

Chris & Minna talking with our food supplier, John from Quandt's.

Adele and Dianne on the front porch.

Friends come in all sizes.

Siblings Jordan and Carly enjoying Boating.

It's Casino Night!

The Olympics Begin!

The camp broken into three teams.

There's the Archery competition.

The Javelin throw.

Organized by our leaders Katie & Matt.

Three-legged Race

The Wheelbarrow Race!

The tough hula hoop competition!

Terrence's team.

Part of the crazy race- the dizzy bat race.

Organizing the Camp Photo, not an easy task!

Some are just born to pose!

And now, it's Camp for Session 8.

So now it's onto the fall season for camp where a couple work weekends will be held as well as the Smith Park Annual Meeting. The first work weekend is on September 17th & 18th and the 2nd is on October 22nd & 23rd. The Smith Park Annual Meeting will be held at noon on September 17th. All are welcomed to attend these events and there'll be more info closer to the dates. Thanks to Ed for the continual supply of pictures!