The best part of camp…..reunions! Oh! Surprise! You thought I was going to say soda bread or maybe waterskiing…well…I didn’t. While those things are of course way fun and more importantly actually happen at camp, one of my favorite parts of camp is all the great get-togethers you get to have with camp people after you leave. Sometimes they are unexpected (like when Gaby Driessen hailed a cab in downtown Chicago and out pops Ben Hawkins) and sometimes they are obsessed over, strategically planned for years and scheduled to align with everyone’s schedules (not to mention the Midwestern weather in the middle of winter)!
Today we are going to highlight one such reunion that happened over Thanksgiving break this past November in Minneapolis, MN. I hesitate to start with this one because it is so epic in, not only its size, but the locations people came from in order to hang out for a few days (Chicago, St.Louis, Des Moines, London). I feel like we will have a lot to live up to down the line. But here it is anyway. I’ll start with a list of attendees:
Megan Beh, Megan McGuire, Sabrina Carlins, Allie Farino, Mary Grace Schuler, Caroline Schuler, Parker Stevens, Luke Walden, Tate Spencer, Cole Spencer, Anna Copman, Maddie Lorentzen, Melissa Ferrie, Jess Hickok, Austin Lilly, Peter Beltz, Jack Firth-Powell, Leslie Strobel, Robert Lilly, Evan Oncay, Courtney Kronschnabel, Katie McGuire, Stephen Davis, Kevin Moakley, Miranda Lockner, Sean Moakley, Gaby Driessen and Jessie Garretson. Oh and Norm. And I. And if we are getting technical then Martha Lopez Driessen was there too. Campers, CITs, Octos, Counselors, Past Counselors, a Director and a Mom (who also happens to be an Alumnus of camp). And a Dog. Epic.
While I sat there being peppered with countless questions about who, what, where and why and trying to not get overwhelmed by all the fantastic energy, it dawned on me that this is not only the BEST part of camp, this IS camp. Friendships with people from all over the world, a language that no one else understands, a common accomplishment of staying away from home for 2 or 4 weeks at a time, and an overall feeling that something beyond mosquito bites or Whitefish waves bind us forever. THIS is camp.
Hope to see you around!
Alli Faricy, Director
Special thanks to the Beh Family for hosting all of these hooligans. If you have recently had a camp reunion (big or small) or are planning one, we would love to hear about it. Submit your stories to Alli.
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