In years to come, when we think back on the summer of 2021, it is likely to be remembered as one of the most challenging and most glorious summers ever seen under Old Bald. Successfully running camp through a global pandemic took an enormous amount of planning, coordination, imagination, and bravery from parents, staff, and campers alike. But what this summer required and provided, more than anything else, was an immeasurable amount of love.
We knew this summer would be different before we ever opened the camp gates. When the staff arrived we took their temperatures, documented verification of their negative COVID tests, and dove into orientation sessions to prep us all for a summer in the “Camp Bubble.” We knew campers would be arriving to us different than in previous years. We knew that a year spent at home and on their screens, while navigating the uncertainty that flooded into their lives in 2020, would have an effect. We talked about it consistently through our week of Staff Orientation. We also firmly believed that a summer at camp, playing outdoors, and living together in a community again was the exact antidote that they, and we, needed.
Some things this summer looked and felt different. Different can sometimes feel hard at a place that hasn’t changed all that much since 1919. But we quickly found new moments of magic as a direct result of some of these changes. We saw far less homesickness on Opening Day when counselors drove campers to their cabins. In the absence of visiting Chapel speakers, our counselors stepped up and provided messages at each Sunday service. They shared their hearts and their wisdom in ways that were more moving than we could have imagined. In the first summer since launching our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative, we saw campers and counselors embracing their authentic selves in deeper ways at camp. We witnessed a community reevaluate how fully they can support one another with kindness and unconditional love.
For the most part, however, camp remained the same as ever. We watched floorboards shake under jubilant dance parties. We listened to beautiful music created by campers and counselors together in the stone amphitheater of Chapel. We watched the face of Old Bald reflect the light of Jim’s spectacular 4th of July fireworks show. The teenagers stayed up too late, laughing and talking after “Taps.” The youngest campers spent countless hours building fairy houses behind their cabins. We all shared campfires together and watched the smoke rise up into the twilight. And it was around these campfires, as our camp founder, Dammie Day, so eloquently stated, that we “sung with the stars and believed in the wonder and beauty of life.” Through over a century of change in the outside world, the Great Depression, times of war and times of peace, societal and cultural changes, and now a global pandemic, the magic of Merrie-Woode remains in the moments of human connection made in the restoring presence of nature.
As we leave the summer of 2021 behind us, we are trying to hold onto these moments we experienced. We know we were witness to something remarkable and special this summer.
To our campers, thank you for believing that even if camp looked and felt a little different, the essence of Merrie-Woode would remain. The magic doesn’t live in the place; the magic lives in its people. When you return through those gates each summer, this place comes alive once more with music and joy, laughter and love. You are the Spirit of Merrie-Woode.
To our camp parents, thank you! Thank you for trusting and supporting us. You are raising extraordinary, intelligent, thoughtful, joyful, brave young women in this challenging world. We feel privileged to be able to share the summer with them.
To our alumnae, thank you for sending us every encouraging note, text, and email and every uplifting prayer. We called on every ounce of positive energy you could afford us. We felt your love from afar, and there were days when it kept us going.
And to our 2021 Summer Staff, no words of thanks will ever be enough. What you held, what you gave, and what you accomplished together as a team is something very few people will ever fully understand. You will be a chapter in the greater story of Merrie-Woode that will forever be told to exemplify dedication, sacrifice, resilience, and love.
With our love and gratitude,
CMW Senior Staff
2021 CMW Senior Staff: Jim and Denice Dunn, Courtney Foster, Lindsay Garner Hostetler, Tara Tecce, Betsy Reese Helms, and Morgan Elmslie
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