Category: Campfire Conversation

The Day Before Camp

June 26th, 2026

And all is certainly not quiet around Weequahic. A small group of us have already been on site for more than six weeks, preparing the place for our fabulous campers to enjoy. While there are still a few things I want to nail down, the physical plant is more than ready.

For the past 18 days, we’ve been leading, training and preparing our team… the most important part of our jobs. (Yes, I want the place to look good and work… but the people are way more important.)

We had our culminating moment for Orientation last night. After a great slide show of our staff in the Cove, we headed down to the (newly refurbished) Rec Hall. A few final words from Kate, myself and Dana for the team. And, a nice treat – four short talks from both returning and new staff members.

Becoming Yourself

When DH Jessie spoke, she mentioned being a ‘camp hater’ before she even arrived here several summers ago. Her boyfriend had been to camp a year prior and wouldn’t stop talking about the experience. “It felt a bit cult-like.” (I’ll take that.)

She charted her first summer’s path from ‘hater’ and someone who struggled to jump in to where she is now – doing everything in her power to get back here as a DH.

When Jessie spoke about the importance of camp to her, one line really stuck with me:  

“Camp didn’t change my life because it turned me into something new. It changed my life because it made me comfortable enough to be who I already was.”

This is what we want for all of our kiddos… and our staff.

We are excited to get everyone here tomorrow. Enough planning. Let’s go to camp.

PS: I’m pretty terrible on email when the kids are here. If you need me, call the office at 570.798.2716. I’ll get back to you as soon as I possibly can!

Past Present Future

June 19th, 2026

Past. Present. Future. These are words we know and concepts we think we know. No time like the present to talk about them.

A LONG time ago, Confucious said “study the past so you may divine the future.” Not too long ago, one of the great English writers (George Bernard Shaw) said ‘What we’ve learned from history is that we don’t learn from history.”

We at Weequahic do our best to learn. So… let’s talk about some history.

A History Lesson

Pre-1952: This was an old farm – cattle & apples. They (both the people and the cows) loved the lake.

After taking part of WW2, Mr. Art Lustig was the Athletics Director at Weequahic HS who also ran a summer day camp. When the polio epidemic really got going in the 50s, the families came to Mr. Lustig and asked him to get their to a safer, more fun place.

So, in 1953 Camp Weequahic opened with Art and Mollie as the directors… and still the AD at Weequahic High. They and their family ran camp until 2008.

In 2009, Kate and I showed up. Sue was not too far behind. In fact, we’ve worked together for 22 of our 24 years in camping.

When we started here, there were 90 kids, 45 staff, a third of whom were 17-year-old newly ‘graduated’ from Weequahic kids. It was a camp with great bones that needed a lot of work. Due the work of people like you and others who are warmly remembered though no longer with us, camp grew to what it is today.

More Important History

So… that’s the history in a nut shell. But that is certainly not the whole story.

To get that, you’ve got to talk about thousands of counselors who’ve walked this hill, built community in those bunks, taught and learned. Hailing from dozens of countries, they left their homes to live and laugh and learn and teach in the middle of nowhere.

It’s the story of massive wins – Prince William talking about how camp literally made him a kinder person, more than a dozen staff marriages, of life-long friends, of new, more exciting more self-actualized growth. It’s also the story of massive learning on all of our parts.

It’s the story of kids from dozens of countries and US states that see this place as their home, where they are their true selves. The pressures of the world fall away, the comparison trap of social media, the demands of school and activities. Instead, our campers in the past have been able to interact with new mentors in a new place with people just. Like. Y’all.

Be Here Now with Love

One of my favorite writers in one of my favorite books said: Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead.

So, let’s talk about the present and let’s do it with love.

Look around you. Look at the person next to you. We humans have been doing this, exactly this, for millennia. Under the stars, around a fire for warmth, community, protection, love, dance, celebration, food and more.

The past echoes loudly here in the present. That’s one of the reasons why this feels so good, so comfortable.

Counselors, you are now a part of the story at Weequahic. We are weaving this beautiful chaotic patchwork quilt of our moments together. We are experiencing the infinite presents of ‘now.’

Does that mean we are always the same? Heck no.  

There’s an old saying about a person and river. You can never see the same river twice. The water has changed… and so have you.

It’s the same here. You are different… even if this is your 28th summer. The kids are certainly different. Each summer is literally a new adventure.

Future

We make plans for the future. We teach you our traditions, listen and learn from you and others about new ways, we build our culture together. We do this to prepare y’all to help create amazing for the kids arriving in 8 sleeps, the UPS driver, the guys painting the courts, the kitchen and cleaning team and everyone else.

We can look to the future and be greedy or fearful or lustful or any way we wish. Or… or. Or we can quietly recognize the future with hope while remaining rooted in the present moment around each over and over and over again.

So, in the week ahead, let’s continue to build this quilt this is our 2026 summer culture. Let’s give each other grace and patience. Let’s push each other – good naturedly – to be our best selves. Let’s get ready for the best summer of our lives… together.

Perfectly Imperfect

May 1st, 2026

Ain’t technology great? We can do so much with it. We can peer deep into space – all the way back to our universe’s beginning, in fact. You can see things so small that it’s hard to believe they exist. We can play Candy Crush, watch crazy cat videos and create believable AI pictures ‘til our hearts content for free!

(Wait… that last sentence sounds a lot like… me. Let’s move on.)

Seriously – the tech in our pockets and all around us is really incredible. It allows for so much good. And… and. It can really hold us back.

Worshipping… What?

One of the drawbacks of social media culture is the productization of ourselves. We set up stories – mostly through images and posts – that we want to people to ‘buy’ with their attention and, if we really think about, their approval.

We make decisions on vacations that focus on posts that will sway others to think of us a certain way rather than exploring what we are truly curious about and experiencing with our travel mates. We pose. We construct. Very little is actually what is going on but rather the story we want to tell not to ourselves but to others.

It leads us all closer and closer to the idea that the shot must be perfect, that the words must be perfect that we… must be perfect.

Y’all, that’s not us. And while some will argue that has been one among us who reached perfection in the human condition, the odds are really, really not great that you and I will get there.  

But yet, rather than worshiping Yaweh or Buddha or God or something larger and greater than ourselves, our collective behavior and choices scream that we are very close to worshipping… perfection in ourselves. And that, in the words of David Foster Wallace, will tear us up.

(Parents, it’s an incredible read and something I talk about – though not in so many words – around the campfire with our campers.)

Perfectly Imperfect

Just as important, the chase for personal perfection holds us back.

Here’s a list of statements we often say to ourselves in those quiet moment: “I’ll be happy when…”, “I’ll be worthy when…”, “I’ll be accepted when….”

Let me help you finish those. In this modern society, young (and not so young) people often complete the above statements with ‘I’m perfect’ or ‘it’s perfect.’

The ironic thing? Those who really are happy or feel worthy or are accepted aren’t even thinking about themselves. Instead, they accept their imperfections with grace and humor and humility. They think of others more than they think of themselves. The contribute to the greater good of their family, their classroom, their team, troop… or bunk.

As Shannon Alder has said, “There is no perfection, only beautiful versions of brokenness.” The pursuit of perfect is a great way to beat yourself up and stop you from actually flourishing and growing.

You want the good news about your imperfection? Everyone else is imperfect, too. And even better, your imperfections will line up perfectly with a lot of people. As C.S. Lewis has said,

Friendship … is born at the moment when one man says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . ..

You are perfectly imperfect. Rather than hiding these little foibles or eccentricities, recognize them, accept them and start contributing to the lives of those around you. You’ll get plenty of ‘likes’ that way. More than you can possibly imagine.

Have a great weekend, kiddos.

PS – How would I love you to answer those ‘when’ statements above? ‘…I decide to be so.’