It was the summer of 1980. I had attended Camp Olympus and knew Morey Baldwin. Right before the summer, Morey offered me a job as a Camp Counselor for six-year-old boys, the youngest bunk on camp! Long story short, it was a disaster as I didn’t have the maturity or patience. Two weeks into camp, I was miserable and Morey was ready to fire me and send me home for the summer. Urghh!
Mitch Steinhart, a long-time camper, and counselor at Camp Chen-A-Wanda heard about my plight and transitioned me into his bunk. I went from a Junior Counselor with six-year-olds to 13-year-olds, but the difference was Mitch Steinhart. The boys were so kind to me and a new bunk gave me a chance to regroup. Mitch had convinced Morey to move me into his bunk, so I had to earn my stay at camp and prove that Mitch did the right thing!
From that point on, I observed Mitch at work and he was outstanding. A year later, I was a Color War Captain. Crazy to think about that – I went from almost being fired for my lack of maturity and patience to leading half the camp during Color War! Mitch showed tremendous leadership; Mitch taught me many things about working with kids and other people. I always admired how Mitch found the good in people and always acted “bigger” than the situation. He was an incredible guiding force for me during my two summers at Camp Chen-A-Wanda. Even my grades in college improved after a summer with Mitch. Mitch is one of Camp Chena-A-Wanda’s alumni treasures. That’s the support, caring, kindness and true friendship I found at Camp Chen-A-Wanda. Thank you, Mitch Steinhart.
It doesn’t surprise me that Mitch is now a New Jersey Superior Court Judge. He had amazing judgment in his early 20s, and I wouldn’t doubt his judgment today.
Huge shout out to Fair Lawn’s Mitch Steinhart on his appointment as a New Jersey Superior Court judge. Thank you and Camp Chen-A-Wanda for the encouragement and leadership skills!!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.