Stay Happy and well,

Love Phyllis




Greetings from the Sebells,

What a great winter we have been having. Between all of the great Camp winter events, our many home visits with nice new Camp families, and all the time we have spent with campers and staff at special events it’s felt a lot like Camp! Since the New Year we've bumped into the Steinhausers, the Offenbergs, the Weinribs, Kyle and Sam Gordon, and Dr. Randy. Thanks to Gabby Miller for sending us the photo of her new puppy, and Eli Chodock and Aaron Greenspun, who emailed us a photo of them hanging out together at a Tigers' hockey game.

A couple weeks ago we had the pleasure of seeing both Craig Weinrib’s and Nick Offenberg’s bands play at the 38th Annual Berklee College of Music Jazz Festival. Nick played keyboards for the Berklee College band, and Craig played drums in both his high school Big Band, and in a smaller trio with a piano player and bassist. Click here to see photos and small (and short!) video that we shot on our digital camera from this very cool event.

It seems like the camp community has been making a lot of music lately. A month ago we stopped by Larchmont, NY to hear The Waste Basket Brothers perform at a local battle of the bands. In case you haven’t heard them yet, the Waste Basket Brothers Band is made up of Hut 6 2004 members (and summer 2006 Kenwood counselors) Matt Lipkins, Will Roth, Craig Weinrib, Ben Peskoe, and their friend Danny Fisher (who will be a new Kenwood counselor this summer). We recorded the show, but unfortunately the sound was too loud for our little recorder.

In February, we went down to Florida for a couple days to see celebrate Deena's grandmother's birthday. Immediately after our plane landed we headed to a local deli to get a quick bite to eat. While we were waiting in line to be seated we were pleasantly surprised when the entire Cantor family walked in. The waitstaff was kind enough to seat their family next to ours, which made it even funnier that we got to see when Josh Cantor accidentally bit into his sandwich and discovered a little surprise inside: a piece of the rubber glove used to prepare his sandwich! So gross!!

One of the nice things about working in the Camp Office in the winter is that we get forwarded the many essays and poems that campers and staff write about Camp for school. Recently, Sarah Ruthen sent us this lovely poem:

Evergreen
By Sarah Ruthen

Evergreen
A camp’s sea of dreams
In a young girl’s eyes
It’s a whole new beginning

A freshman looks upon Evergreen
As an opportunity
A chance to open their minds
A chance to shine

A sophomore looks upon Evergreen
As a dare
A chance to do the impossible
A chance to be free

An inter looks upon Evergreen
As a path
A path to friendship
A path to loyalty

A junior looks upon Evergreen
As an arena
An arena of hope
An arena of memories

A senior looks upon Evergreen
As a responsibility
Relying on yourself
Relying on others

I look upon Evergreen
As a part of me
A part of me to hold on to
A part of me to carry out

Absolutely beautiful! Thank you, Sarah, for sharing your wonderful words with us and the Camp community. If anyone else has a recent piece about Camp that you'd like to share please email us.

You may also notice that we have recently completed most of the renovations to the Camp website. There is now a whole new section to visit called The Media Center. The Media Center will be the central location for all “interactive content” on our website, including photo scrapbooks, slideshows, streaming video clips, hollowpallooza trax, podcasts, the Staff and Camper bulletin boards, an archive of past and present Scroll-Logs, and much, much more! We invite you to take a look, try out all of these new features, and let us know what you think.

That’s the news from the Sebells. We hope that you are having a warm and wonderful winter, and that you are getting excited for Camp. WE ARE!

Love,

Jason, Deena & Winston





Wow, so much has happened since the last Scroll Log: two amazing Reunions, one unforgettable Winter Weekend and a trip to England (more about that later)! Those of you fortunate enough to have attended one of these Camp events may have heard Scott mention our administrative “reshuffle”. What this means for me is a chance to take on the truly exciting and challenging position of Kenwood Head Counselor. I am so thrilled about this position because it will allow me more time and interactions with the Kenwood campers and counselors. Don’t worry Evergreen; I won’t be forgetting my Evergreen connections. I will be working closely with Evergreen Head Counselor Deena Sebell to create a schedule packed with awesome activities for both Camps. Speaking of awesome activities for both Camps, weekend events will now become the domain of my successor as Program Director Dave Walsh. I saw Dave in England recently and he is delighted about his new position! Dave and Mia Bauman (who is also returning to Camp this summer) were a huge help to Catherine York (our Business Manager, and D.J. and Rachel York’s mom) and me at our Camp staff recruiting fair in Manchester, England. We even had a special visit at the fair from Chris Ward (aka Spider)!

After hiring new waterfront assistants and general counselors, we met up with an all-star line up of Kenwood and Evergreen staff from past and present: Laura Walker, Fiona Cameron, Nicola Todd, Sarah Francis, Phil Henning, Al Meyers, Steve Fuller, Lee Preece, and from the past: Zoe Derbyshire, Alex Nurowski, Grant Aubrey, Jim Glover, Dion Mulvey, Tom Cairns and Chris Twoomey.

At the staff recruiting fair in London, we met up with a stellar group of former staff, headed by the legend, and former Kenwood Unit Leader, Pete Ogden. Then we had everyone’s favorite Scottish duo, Phil Campbell and Fraser Jamieson, accompanied by Jenny Humpage and Andy Poulton. I also want to thank Lee Preece and Sarah Francis for assisting Catherine and me at the London staff fair.

At both staff reunions, Manchester and London, it was inspiring to hear all the staff sharing their Camp stories. Just like the campers, they live for Camp and traveled from all over the UK to meet up with their Camp friends. Thanks to all of the staff who attended for maintaining our magnificent international Camp community.

I am currently heading out for another staff recruiting trip; this time to Poland! I will be meeting up with some of our outstanding Polish staff from previous summers and hopefully hiring some great new additions to our Camp team.

See you all in June! I can’t wait for the summer!

Dane

We created a word search with the names of all of Camp's administrators. Can you find each of their names? Click on this link to test your skills. The first Kenwood and Evergreen campers to mail a completed the puzzle to us will receive our new Kenwood or Evergreen felt pennants to hang in their bedrooms.

**************** Last Issue's Question*************** **********

I think that maybe we are making the contests too difficult! Sadly, there were no winners this month, but thanks to those who sent in their guesses. Here are the correct answers:

(most years spent at Camp, from greatest to least)
Phyllis Dank
Jacki Mitchell
Scott Brody
Deena Sebell
Jason Sebell
Jaime Cohen
Jim Morris
Bob Mitchell
Dane Pickles
Catherine York
Peter Hilpl
David Walsh

Thanks to everyone who tried to solve last month's question!




We got a phone call one morning a couple weeks back from Dr. Randy, who spotted this article in the Boston Globe about an incredible young dancer. We are reprinting it here because of his friend that is mentioned (who will returning to Camp as a staff member this summer), and the wonderful photograph of the two of them performing together.





Hey,

I guess I did remember where Matt caught that big fish last year. I know winter weekend was over a month ago, but I have to brag a little about the fish Nathan reeled in with my help. Also, I must humbly say I started to feel a little like “Emeril” while I was showing a crowd how to make omelets on Sunday morning. I like to cook and had fun giving tips on how to make the perfect omelet. I can’t wait to ask Rachel and Lexie if they tried making omelet’s at home. It was a great weekend and fun to have a quick visit with a short reminder of the constant activity that is camp.

Now the sounds of laughter have been replaced by the sounds of swinging hammers and power saws. Bob Peters, our master carpenter, has been busy working on a major improvement in the boy’s junior camp. For the first time the boys will have showers in bunks 9, 10, 11, and 12. While I know it will improve the quality of life for the boys, I just look forward to Spider having one less excuse for not combing his hair before assembly.

For me, this time of year starts to speed by. I look at the camp home webpage with increased anticipation as I see the days left before camp opens clicking by and the return of my friends getting closer. I also feel a rush of anxiety waiting for spring to come. Scott and I walked all over the camp in the fall and came up with a long list of things we could do to make the camp better. Some of the things were new sand in the Senior Hill volley ball court, a new type of clay in the Junior field baseball diamond (with the addition of a first and third base line), improving the sand at the Kenwood waterfront, letting in more light into Evergreen, increasing the view of the lake from the Evergreen cabins, and always, always improving the health of the grass for better games throughout the summer. Many of these projects have been started, but all of them need warm weather to complete.

So I sit here in my office writing this letter but trying to will spring into coming early. I grew up doing landscaping and to this day I still love digging in the dirt. Also as weird as it sounds once I get it in my head that something could be better, it bugs me every time I walk by it until it is better. Once Scott and I found out about this clay for infields, I couldn’t wait to rip into the Junior field baseball diamond with the tractor. I get so much satisfaction walking away from a play area knowing it is more fun, easier to use, and prettier to look at. With the snow still outside and the wind howling by, my thoughts are of mowing lush, green grass over a new infield awaiting the first set of cleats to run across it. I dream of raking out new sand in the volleyball court so deep your toes sink in up to your ankles, and to see the looks on the boy’s faces when they come back to see the changes on the water front.

The reward for weeks and weeks of work and sweat is to see people enjoying what myself and my staff have done. So to spring, I say hurry up, and to the campers I say hurry back.

TTFN from camp

Peter James
Property Manager
Camp Kenwood and Evergreen