Join us Saturday, January 15 and Saturday, January 22 for newly-added Adventure Day Pass sessions at Camp! Our friends at WABI recently highlighted these great opportunities to get outside in an article on their website.
We can’t wait to bundle up for sledding, snowshoeing, ice fishing, and s’mores by the fire. These two sessions offer campers additional opportunities to get outdoors for safe, community-oriented recreation, so bring your lunch (extra points if it’s in a thermos!) and join us.
Pre-register for either or both Saturdays here. We hope we see you at Camp!
Did you know the record Northern Pike years ago was hauled out of North Pond during a regular ice fishing excursion. Not sure the year or the size…but I heard the stories…
Mark Gafur, Counselor, Head Counselor, Athletics Director 1990-1996 Summers. I think I got the date right..I was hired by Greg Oulette back in the day…
Best Summers and times of my life. I’ve made life long friends in Counselors, Staff Campers. I am 50 and I am the Man I am today because of my experience at Pine Tree Camp. Someday I will die a better man because of the time I spent with so many special people. They all so elegantly and magically made the time for the campers a memorable one that would never be forgotten. Some campers were there for short stays like a few Summers, some for more like 10 or 12 and then there are some of those lifers who when they passed asked that their ashes be spread around different places at camp so they would permanently be a part of the magic that happened there for so many years. And it continues…
I was a teacher after many years at camp and shared some of my stories with my students. They agreed that it was a truly special place. A few even went on to work at camp after hearing me tell stories of the tales of campers, the overnight, the van rides, and even back in the day when the cook back then, Wendell would create some magic in the kitchen with the sliders and pizza he would whip up. It was an amazing place back then. If it is still running, I am sure the magic is still there and the good times roar. Pine Tree Camp, we’re mighty glad you came. Mark Gafur
Mark Gafur here again…
I have been working on getting better after dealing with a Covid scare and some other health related issues. I share this because some of the campers and counselors I met back at camp had resolve and determination and pride. I have been in a wheel chair for stability as I regain my strength and some of the campers and their stories as well as some of the counselors and their regard for people experiencing challenges and helping them to overcome them are all fresh in my brain. Especially as I am experiencing learning how to walk again, regaining my strength,coordination, motivation and a stronger determination. What I am trying to say is that at one point I helped campers achieve something that was challenging for them. Maybe it was walking, cutting up dinner, drinking from a straw. These are all things that special people here have helped me with as I work hard to regain many of the things that were natural for me at one point in my life. I know that went for a portion of the campers who may have had similar issues from injuries or birth defects, but the one thing I learned from them all was never stop pushing. There is no such thing as quitting. I thank them all for the model they presented on life. It has certainly helped me through the roughest time of my life. And for some of them, this is life as they know it. There is no rehab to fight through. The wheel chair that they use they use as their legs, if their arms don’t work, or their hands, they find a way to deal with it and work to knock that box of cereal off the shelf so they can grab it and have some cereal for breakfast. They are the determined ones. They lead the way with fight. Today, they are my role models as I take their advice to heart to perform tasks that came easy to me at one point. They are my motivation, my teachers, my coach. I learned a lot as a counselor and had to go through quite a bit of training, but today I learn from the campers. I learn to find away over that hill, use the bathroom, eat a steak that needs to be cut up. I learn that just like each of those tremendously strong campers. I have heart like them and my heart was made stronger by being their counselor, helping them with some needs, some tasks like using the bathroom, eating, finding that comfy spot to sleep in. I learned to soothe some campers when their bodies were in cramps or uncomfortable. Sometimes all they needed was a shift in their bed, to be tucked in better and even sometimes, a story and every once in while they would ask for a song. I would not hesitate as I reached for my harmonica and played them a lullaby. They would slowly but surely head off to sleep eventually with the sounds of Leaving on a jet Plane echoing into their ears. Lulling them to sleep.