An Awesome camp needs kids...

[Ed Harvey 26]

I am talking about MY Camp, okay so it is really is the Capital District YMCA's Camp (Albany, NY) it is called Camp Wa Wa Segowea (Seh go WE AH) and is located in the Southern Berkshires of Massachusetts. The camp has been around since the late 1920's and and until about 2005 was associated with the now defunct Dutchess County YMCA in Poughkeepise, NY. Segowea sits on over 400 acres of amazing woods and a has a natural (most lakes around here are man made) 23 acre lake. I've been volunteering as the camp "nurse" this past week and the kids are having an absolute blast singing songs, sailing, swimming, canoeing, rowing, arts and crafts, outdoor living classes, over night camp outs, playing sports, and making new friends. The camp is co-ed for 7-14 year olds. It has a capacity of about 70 campers, this past week session had only about 40, and this week looks like about 30, we still have 6 more weeks to go with only the last one being even close to full. A week costs just under $700, remember this covers all food and entertainment for a whole week! There is also a pricing break for those who can demonstrate a financial need.

Oh so YOU want to come to camp, well the program is for kids, however we always need volunteer labor as we only have one guy working as the property manager who has literary 100's of projects going at once. For a few hours of labor (raking, weed whacking, mowing, light carpentry, plumbing, ect) you can likely get a free meal (the food has been excellent, and I am a former camp cook so take me at my word!) and the chance to tease some of the 9 - 10 pound bass in the lake. - There is no cell service or internet up there either - you can really drop off the grid!

For more info about camp (ask for Kat or Frank) or volunteering call 413-229-9110

or go to www.segowea.org

Edited July 3, 2011 by Ed Harvey

[ex-commish 490]

No cell or internet service...."gee mom I want to go home"

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

I actually went to two YMCA camps back in my camper year. One in Putnam County when it first opened that was a day camp, (I was also their first camper needing hospitalization, but that is a different story) and another one that was a sleep away camp on Lake George. I ended up actually being a CIT at the sleep away camp before life called I started getting real jobs.

Some of the best memories from my childhood, nevermind its brevity, were at these places. The whole C aspect of the YMCA gives it an undeserved bad-rap. I never felt pressured or belittle due to my opposing beliefs. I highly recommend sending ones kids to a camp like this so that they can reconnect with the natural world around them. We live in a concrete or suburban island, the deer in your lawn or the pigeons on your window do not count as wildlife. Unless you get moose charging through your backyard, we all could use a little more nature in our lives.

There is nothing like living in a cabin for 4 weeks with 9 other kids your own again surrounded by absolute silence and nature. No cell phones, no internet no nothing but mountains, lakes, streams and animals was one the best part of it, I cant even explain the joy that everyone felt reaching the top of the mountains during hikes or the sadness one felt when leaving. I learned how to shoot, fish, hike, cook, clean and love nature of over the course of almost a decade of summer. I climbed the 46 highest peaks in NY, I canoed from Lake George to Canada, I explored a wilderness 250 miles NORTH of monteral, I rock climbed in Acadia National Park, in the White Mountains, I did the 100 miles Wilderness in Maine, Backpacked from NH to VT...I have a t-shirt from one of my summers that says.."what did you do with your summer?''. What will your children's answer be...what did they do with their summer? Did they sit on your couch playing xbox, or did they spend it outside, living, learning and exploring?

Edited July 3, 2011 by SRS131EMTFF