4 City Tour

Hi everyone! Once again it is time to check in on all those great Foley reunions happening around the world. This month we are going to focus on the ones that Foley sets up...the beloved Pizza Parties. Whether we have Davannis, Dominoes or Imos the pizza always takes second seat to Marie's famous chocolate chip cookies (a Foley reunion tradition).

It was a GREAT year for pizza parties with over 100 people gathering in Minneapolis/St. Paul (a Foley Record) and some smaller yet equally as fun reunions in Des Moines, St.Louis and Chicago. Campers, staff, parents, friends and alumnus gathered to watch last summer's video and learn about the exciting things coming up this summer!  Every alumni that attended received a "Camp Foley Alumni" coffee mug as a thank you for all the years of support.

I look forward to the mid-winter reunions as a great way to remind myself of all the wonderful people we have in the Foley family and this year did not disappoint. Thanks to all that attended and a special thanks to those that brought new families along, too...you are the reason we are still going strong after 88 years. Hopefully next year we will see many more faces!

If you have had a reunion (big or small) lately be sure to email Alli and you might make the next edition of Reunions on "The Rattlin' Blog"!

Alli Faricy, Director

We probably needed a bigger table

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.