Letter From Alum
"Just having a place like Wawenock, just knowing it is still there, no
matter where I roam, is balm for the soul. I'm thirty-one now, and
although I sometimes feel about twelve, things have really changed
since I was in Cabin 6. Today we read and hear all about the Internet
and most of us have been "online. " Many campers will have been
driving on the Information Super Highway long before they've gotten
their learners permit. But I think that the Wawenock Web contains more
interesting, important and even revolutionary information within it
than any world wide web.
The people, this extended family, make Wawenock what it is. The way we
feel about each other at camp is a timeless thing. It is also a
radical thing within this fragmented society we call home. Camp is a
"safe" place, where we can experiment and even fail sometimes in our
effort to make a heartfelt connection with another person. For some of
us these may be the most authentic ties we have made in our lives. The
experience of living simply in Nature throws our relationships with
each other into relief. Finally we see the important things:
communication between people, simplicity, creativity, compassion,
continuity and values. When we take these experiences and feelings
back to our cities and town it is truly radical infiltration.
Even though unknown to me at Wawenock now, campers from other years
than those I shared, feel like family. At camp traditions are passed
down, the songs and ethics and china-blue uniforms that literally pass
hands from season to season, decade to decade, generation to
generation. Where else does this happen in our lives anymore? These
are the things the Wawenock staff has made possible, the gift they
have given to thousands. Their warm smiles have reassured hundreds of
timid new campers, and made girls who are thousands of miles from
their families feel at home. The way counselors listened so carefully
to what we would tell them always made us feel unique and loved."
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