Sunday, March 20, 2005
Miss those camping days? Here's your chance! The Illahee 85th Anniversary and Reunion will be held Friday May 13th through Sunday, May 15th, 2005 and will be your chance to reunite with camp friends and favorite staff members alike! More info...
Laurie, Gordon, Kris, and Gretchen returned today from 4 days in the Big Apple where they attended the American Camp Association's Tri-State conference. Over 3000 people attended from camps all over the country. Sessions included everything from technology to developmental issues like preventing bullying and identifying eating disorders, to creating terrific staff orientation sessions. 
Both Laurie and Gordon were speakers at this conference. We all enjoyed meeting up with Kim Aycock, who will return to the Heavenly World from Jackson to help us all stay organized and get to activities on time. Her husband Jeff will join us to run the high ropes course. We had fun one night trying to perfect (and eat)the gutter sundae when we all went to dinner with long time Illahee girls Susan Edwards, now a trainer at the Container Store in NYC.
Speaking of the high ropes course, three new poles were set over the weekend, and this week, Jimmy Bennett will help us get new platforms up in them so we can add all sorts of new elements. These 3 new poles will eventually allow us to add 6 new elements on the high course! This summer is going to be a blast. Today is the first day of spring. It won't be long until you are joining us in the Heavenly World for the summer of a lifetime!
Sunday, March 13, 2005
We are thrilled to welcome Carol Konkle to our year-round Illahee team! Carol has been head of hill on Pineview for the past several summers, and most recently a fifth grade teacher at Brevard Elementary. A native of Indiana, Carol decided to move to Brevard after graduating from Indiana Univ. Bloomington in May of 2003. Carol will help out in many roles when she joins us full-time when school ends in May, most notably as bookkeeper and Gordon's right-hand with all things organizational and financial. After Carole Shereda's retirement after eleven years in the Heavenly World last fall, we knew we wanted to find someone who could carry on as capably as our retiring Carole...and, Gordon jokes, he couldn't figure out how to change the username on the computer. Carol and Assistant Director Kris Bush are roommates in Brevard, but that too will change after camp as Carol is engaged to long-time beau Jonathan...they plan a Brevard wedding the week after the Junior session ends. We are thrilled to promote someone from within, and especially someone else who has such a full knowledge of camp and its programs.
We awoke today to a gorgeous Sunday in the Carolinas as temperatures quickly rose to 75 degrees. Gordon ran in to long-time August camper Eliza Nixon with her dad and brother up for a visit yesterday. Those beautiful dogwoods in our backyard are about to bloom, and the daffodils are everywhere! We are heading north to NYC on Wednesday for a conference, and then the Strayhorn clan will join friends for some late season skiing in Copper Mtn. Colorado for Easter week. We are so looking forward to Illahee's 85th summer and have some great staff joining us...this week, Lauren Eversol Bennett and Sarah Ruscik from 2003 committed to return to join Brian Williams and Amanda Clark on the climbing staff. More staff news later...think camp!
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Speaking of camp, we are wide open and getting excited. Laurie and Gordon took a trip down to Abbeville, (near Greenwood) S.C. to visit Harriet Morton, our riding director, who was hosting an intercollegiate riding event with a number of S.C. colleges in attendance. Her barn and facility looked terrific, and it was fun to catch up with Lauri, Beth Ann, Bianca, Kellie, and Heather as well as Harriet and Kevin.
We are all getting super-excited about camp and are ready for the arrival of all of your forms for camp. If you lost anything, you can download new ones in the LOGIN section of the website. Please do not hesitate to call or email with any questions!
