Author: Aaron Tell

Beth Miller

My name is Beth Miller and I am the Art Director at Camp Chen-A-Wanda. 2018 will be my 7th summer at camp and what a journey it has been! I’m not sure where to start on what camp means to me or how it has changed me for the better as a person, but let’s start at the beginning…

I started in 2012 as the Jewelry Specialist and was a counselor for the Junior girls. It’s safe to say that, even throughout the nerves, I instantly fell in love with camp. Your first summer at camp is something that you’ll never forget. Your first Olympics, 4th of July fireworks, Girls Sing, and Color War, just to name a few, and all the excitement that comes with it. After finishing my first summer, there was no doubt in my mind that I had to return, but I had no idea what the next 5 years had in store for me. I stayed as an Arts Specialist for a few summers, before becoming the Art Lead, now, the Art Director.

I can’t imagine myself anywhere else, but in the fun, beautiful hectic building that we call Art and Crafts.I love being in the middle of the camper’s creativity – from bunk plaques to Girls Sing and DIY Halloween costumes, I’ve seen it all. The best part of my job is helping campers create something that they are proud of (even if I’m covered in glitter for days!).

Something that makes camp so special is seeing the campers return summer after summer, and seeing how they have grown throughout the year. Having watched my girls grow from little Juniors to now bright, happy teenagers is something I will always treasure.

 

The bonds that I’ve made with other counselors have been so unique too. It’s crazy how you go from complete strangers to best friends within such a short time. I and a few other counselors have traveled around the world together, which we refer to as ‘Chenny on Tour’, including places like Thailand, Paris, the Middle East, and Costa Rica. We became best friends with our common love for camp, and although we have traveled to many places, Chenny will always be our favorite.

I can’t begin to thank camp for all it has given me over the years and how it’s positive impact will stay with me through all stages of my life. I am certain that I will always use the phrase “you do you.” Not only have I gained amazing memories, but also best friends and little sisters. Camp has helped me write many chapters in my life that I’ll cherish forever, but for now and my journeys ahead, the rest is still unwritten.

 

Corey Unger

Hi. My name is Corey Unger and I am a proud Chenny Alumni. From 8 to 21 years old, one of the few constants in my life was where I would spend my summers. That place was Camp Chen-A-Wanda.

Both of my siblings went to Chenny and in the summer of 1999, I visited my sister, Allison, at camp for Visiting Day. For the first time ever, my sister cried as we were leaving. My mom then told Allison that I’d be joining her at camp next year as if that would make her feel any better. From the moment those words left my mom’s mouth, I was hooked. After Allison finally came back from camp, I asked (forced) her to tell me all about camp. That was my new “bedtime story.”  Allison would tell me things about camp activities, traditions, bunks, routines, and trips. My sister even made me charts about things you could eat in the Dining Hall (I was relieved to find out that bagels made the cut). I was obsessed, and I didn’t even truly know what I was obsessed with yet.

Summer 2000 rolled in and I got on the bus to Pennsylvania and never looked back, only knowing one girl I met briefly before camp started. There weren’t Facebook groups or ways to connect with campers easily beforehand. I went in blind. I still remember playing icebreaker games on the baseball field, meeting the girls I am forever friends with for the first time. As days and years passed, I became inseparable with my camp friends. The bond you make is one of a kind and reaches far beyond the bunk and the summer. Together we learned how to problem solve, connect, communicate, and grow as individuals. Whether it was by playing broken telephone, writing an Alma Mater for Girls Sing, or apologizing after a fight. These joint experiences created a friendship and sisterhood that is limitless. All it takes is a text or a photo to bring back a lifetime of memories, even if we haven’t seen each other in years. I am happy to say that we are still friends and make it a point to see each other a few times a year. We always have the best time.
After my CIT summer, I knew I would be back at Chen-A-Wanda to work. I had an amazing camper-counselor, Allie, who played a huge part in my CAW experience; I wanted to be that for someone else, or at least try. I became a Junior Counselor, General Counselor, and then a Group Leader for the girls I was a CIT for. I followed them from their Middy summer to their CIT summer. As my camp friends stopped coming back to camp, these girls continued to teach me lessons on building relationships, solving problems, seeing things from a new perspective and learning to roll with the punches. It was a tough job, one of the hardest I have ever had, but also the most rewarding. My campers became my little sisters and a new generation that loved camp was born. I am proud of the relationships I have built with them and they still text me for La Piazza dinner dates when home from college!

Not a day goes by that a song, a memory, a joke, or a picture doesn’t remind me of a Chen-A-Wanda. Seeing my camp friends and my campers grow and make positive changes in the world are amazing and those summers changed us all for the better. I am currently a Speech Language Pathologist in a special education school in Queens, New York. My time at Chenny and the lessons I learned continue to guide me in this role, and in all aspects of my life. It is impossible, to sum up, what a 14 year (but lifelong) experience has done for me in just a few paragraphs, but I tried. To the new campers just starting out on their Chenny careers, embrace it. I promise it will be worth it. To old/former campers, if you haven’t spoken to your camp friends in a while, send them a message or a picture. Reach out and make lunch plans. You won’t even realize how much you have missed each other until you do.

Issy Hull

My name is Issy Hull, I’m from Wagga Wagga, Australia. I am currently 21 and living in Scotland. This will be my 4th summer at Camp Chen-A-Wanda and I’ll Co-Waterfront Director with the one and only, Hugh Griffiths.

Ever since I was young, my dream was to go to America. We don’t have anything in Australia like a summer camp, so as soon as I found out what they involved, I jumped straight on it. Working with children was always a passion of mine and felt this was the perfect opportunity.

To get to camp, I had to go through an agency. The first and only camp I heard from was CAW. As soon as I saw the website, I knew it was for me and any other camp that came along, wouldn’t have compared.

Before I went to Chenny, I only ever heard great things. I was told by most people I knew, summer camp is a one-time thing and that’s what I went in thinking. I’ll go to camp and surely it will help me figure out what I can do with my life; when I get home, I’ll study or get a full-time job. Oh, boy was I wrong, three summers later and camp helped me discover so many things about myself and got me to where I am today.

I still remember Dan Godshall picking Mark Resendez and I up and them both telling me how great the summer will be. As soon as I stepped foot on camp, I knew I’d be having the best summer. I was lucky enough to be a boat driver my first two summers and was residing in the bunk with Collegiate girls who are now GCs! I have absolutely loved watching them grow up over the past few years and share the summers with them. From watching them kill Girls Sing every summer and stepping outside their comfort zone each day is such an amazing feeling, and knowing that I have contributed to their growth puts a smile on my face.

Being a specialist at Camp Chen-A-Wanda has given me the chance to hang out with all the kids at camp and really get to know them. From taking the Freshmen boys tubing or jumping in the lake with the Middle girls, or watching the GC boys jump in the lake after winning a championship, I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather spend my summers.

After my second summer, I was lucky enough to start a job at Wild Packs Summer Camps in Scotland to work in the camp industry full time. Never for one second did I think I would have the chance to move from Australia, to work in Scotland full time, and still get the chance to go back to camp every summer. Working in the office every day with people who go to camp every summer is amazing, as all we do is talk about Color War and how many days there are until camp starts again.

I have met some of my best friends at camp who live all over the world and to think I would have never known them is crazy! Who would have thought that I would run into Neill Hogg in the middle of Edinburgh whilst both at sperate Christmas parties at the same place – that’s what camp does for you; you meet people from all around the world and have a possibility of running into them on the streets or at a local spot.

No matter how many times I try to explain to my parents, family, and friends what camp is, they just don’t understand what’s so special and I guess until you’ve done it, you won’t know the feeling.

Chenny will always be my happy place and my second home. No matter how far I am away from camp or if living 10 for 2 is forever, I’m down.

Always remember…Life is great at Camp Chen-A-Wanda.

Brian Leahy & Laura Veinot Leahy

We’re Brian and Laura Leahy. For those who don’t know us, we’re the full-time Associate Directors for Camp Chen-A-Wanda and our entire lives revolve around camp! This is such a cool post for us to be able to write as our journey as a couple and as camp-lifers started during the same summer at Chenny and now we get to spend the entire school year working for camp helping to prepare each summer to be the best one yet. We then spend our summers wearing a million different hats at camp, but our biggest focus is working with our amazing campers and staff members.

We both started at camp in 2002 but under very different circumstances. My wife, Laura came to camp from Nova Scotia, Canada knowing that she wanted to be a teacher and wanted a summer job to help her gain experience in working with kids. She came over as a Soccer Specialist and bounced between that role and a General Counselor Role for five summers before taking on a Head Staff role and eventually becoming a full-time Associate Director in 2014.

I came to camp from California as a Baseball Specialist and up until that point I had never even considered working with kids as a career. I was certain that I was going to pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers after my college baseball career ended, but after one summer at camp I realized that I’d found a place that was so different from anything I had ever experienced and I gave up baseball after I graduated to pursue a post-graduate degree in education so that I could (selfishly) have my summers off and keep coming to camp. I joined the Head Staff crew as a Baseball Director in 2003 and have filled several other roles prior to transitioning into my full-time role as Associate Director.

As for our story as a couple, it definitely got off to a slow start! As Sports Specialists in 2002, we must have walked past each other hundreds of times but we never said a word to each other. I mentioned several times to my buddies that I thought she was beautiful, but never even fathomed speaking to her. Playing hard-to-get was more my style 😉 We each came back to camp in 2003 with significant others from our respective hometowns, so we once again never said a word to one another. I then missed the 2004 summer to finish my teaching credential and Laura then missed the 2005 summer to add other work to her resume. 2006 rolled around and I finally mustered the guts to introduce myself. I strolled up to Laura one day while she was hanging out with one of her friends and introduced myself as “The idiot who never had the confidence to introduce myself before.” Our first date was a foosball tournament at Chet’s Place nearby camp in which Laura boasted about her supreme skills. She turned out to be awful and we got destroyed and eliminated in our first-round game.

Despite Laura’s subpar foosball showing, we had a blast together and I knew that I was with someone incredibly special. We spent the 2006-2007 school year trying to figure out whether or not we were dating as Laura was in Canada finishing school and I was back in California teaching kindergarten. We officially came back to camp in 2007 as a couple and I surprised her that December by showing up at her apartment in Calgary with an engagement ring. (Fun bit of trivia: The first person I called from the jewelry store parking lot after buying her ring was our camp owner, Jon Grabow!) We got married by a justice of the peace in her parents’ kitchen in March of 2008 to kick start my VISA application to immigrate to Canada. This was my first time meeting her parents, by the way. Nervous doesn’t begin to cover how I was feeling. We ultimately had our real wedding on a beach in Nova Scotia in 2010 where our dear Chenny friend, Matty Lennon presided over our ceremony.

On October 14th, 2015 our lives changed forever as Laura gave birth to our daughter, Avery Elizabeth Leahy. She’s now going to be at camp for her third summer and it’s like she has hundreds of big brothers and sisters as our campers and staff have truly embraced her as the “Camp Baby.” I swear that the overwhelming majority of her clothes are red and gold and at this pace, I don’t know how long we can keep her out of a bunk! She truly loves camp as much as we do.

Laura and I can’t even imagine what our lives would be like without camp. We truly found our happy place and we feel so lucky to have met at a place that epitomizes love. We’re so fortunate to be able to talk about camp as the place where our love story began, but also as the place where our future will continue to grow. It’s where we’ve shared a million memories together and where billions are yet to come.

We’re thrilled to share our love story with our camp family this Valentine’s Day, and we can’t wait to hear about the next great one. Chen-A-Wanda is filled with enough love to keep producing stories like ours forever!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Mark Resendez & Hanna Hidasi Resendez

Hanna and I met in 2015. It was her first summer and my second. She worked in the kitchen, while I was an Assistant Head Counselor for Navajo boys.

Initially, we only saw each other in the lodge or just in passing. I’ll never forget the way she looked at me then because it’s the same way she does now, the slight head tilt, soft, kind big brown eyes, near crater sized dimples, and pursed lips…..rendered me helpless. Without fail, my heart, stomach, and smile would instantly drop, turn, and grin every time I entered the lodge. It became an obstacle to navigate the steps without tripping.

It wasn’t long until we met up at Chet’s and quickly learned that we had several commonalities. They included our shared love for obscure animals, visiting national parks, traveling, and laughing. It’s a tad funny that we both agreed that we are each the nicest person either of us has ever met – it was instant trust.

Soon after, Hanna and I spent an overnight to Niagara Falls, and the rest is history. After nearly three years of traveling between the U.S. and Hungary, we are proud to report that we got engaged in Greece in July and married in Las Vegas, where we currently reside.

It’s a remarkable feeling to know that you have the ability to care about someone more than yourself. Three years ago, I would have never imagined that my name would be synonymous with marriage, but it is and I’m absolutely thrilled about it.

We couldn’t be happier with the outcome of our chances of meeting at CAW. Many thanks to everyone for the good wishes, encouragement, and support.

I wanted to give a super ‘Thank You’ to Brian Leahy for the willingness to recommend an old friend to experience camp, Jon and Elisa Grabow for granting me the opportunity to grow as a person and ultimately meet my wife, and lastly Kevin Breen, for helping me to realize that I would kick myself if I didn’t follow up with Hanna when the summer of 15′ was over. So, I took his advice, now we get to live the summer of 2015 for the rest of our lives. Thanks, Kev, we miss you brotha!

Happy #WandaWednesday!

Happy Valentine’s Day all!