Happy Halloween from the Heavenly!

Happy Halloween from the Heavenly!

Sunday, October 30, 2005

It is absolutely gorgeous in the Heavenly World this week. We are enjoying a much later than usual fall color season, in large part due to our unseasonably warm weather. The colors looking out towards Dunn's Rock are vivid and varied. We have had almost a month of gorgeous Carolina Blue skies, and I am convinced that there is no prettier place than Camp Illahee in the fall...maybe all year round! Our family took my favorite hike up to Tennent Mountain last week and I wish all of the 6th graders who went with me this summer could have been up there with us. We could see twice as far as I have ever been able to see before...360 degrees in all directions! Amazing!

Laurie and Gretchen have been on the road showcasing our brand new camp DVD from the summer of 2006. They both have enjoyed crisscrossing the country and seeing all of those current and future Illahee girls! Laurie reports that highlights from her recent trip to Florida included sampling all of those great treats from the Illahee cookbook in Tampa compliments of representative daughters Jennifer Ruff and Darby Smith. In Orlando, the Bethel triplets gave expert instruction in lanyard tying. Ormond Beach was a terrific turnout at new representative Nancy Abate's house. Laurie also enjoyed spending the night with campers Margaret and Mary Shaffer Willets (also a veteran camp director with her own Camp Cotton Candy!) in Jacksonville.

Laurie really enjoyed having enough time to stop by the Kappa Delta house at the Univ. of Florida to check in on Jess Stephens, Paige Redfield and Tara Cheek. She saw Nicole Kalamaras as well. All are well and very busy with nursing programs at school. Paige still seems to find time to try on new costumes in preparation for camp, and Tara practices her canoe strokes in the bathtub every day.

Back at camp, all sorts of activity is going on. Our three main tennis courts were paved this week and they look great! We need to let them rest for about a month, but then we will surface them with 4 coats of surfacing materials and color. On the pasture side, Harriet and our riders are going to be so disappointed! The courts are gone and the area has been graded and reseeded. It really looks beautiful down there. Don't worry though! The staff parking lot is well on its way to become two new courts.

We heard from our very own tennis pro Dave Hartsock this week all the way from Ohio, and his varsity girl's tennis team won the state torunament! It is a first for the team and a big compliment to Dave's coaching skills. He is going to be pretty excited to have the very best camp facility around with brand new courts next summer!

Gordon has a call in to Al to see if he can accompany him around town tomorrow night for trick or treating. Do you think anyone else will dress up as a Big Fig?! Illahee love to all!

On the Road Again!

On the Road Again!

Sunday, October 16, 2005

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the Heavenly World, marked by the start of the fall travel season. Laurie had terrific showings in the D.C. area, Charlottesville and Richmond, Raleigh and Charlotte. She will tag team with Gretchen this week who is hopscotching the country with visits to Texas and then Chicago. The week will culminate with our mega visit to Hot 'Lanta and the Jenks' home on Sunday! Campers have been very excited about the new camp DVD, and it is always fun to catch up with camp buddies from your own hometown, even if they are in a different session! If you want to know more about our travel schedule, click here or on the link at the bottom of each page.

Back on the camp front, Gordon and James have been busy with tennis courts and other projects. Three of the courts will be paved this coming week, and then we will start on the two new courts where the parking lot used to be. We are going to have the BEST tennis facility around! We are also busy buying stuff for camp to get ready for next year...new kayaks, and bows, rifles, and PFDs, canoes, and all sorts of other stuff. It feels a little like playing Santa Claus! BUT, we all know that the BEST thing about camp are the counselors (and campers), and we are BUSY already lining up the cream of the crop for 2006. It is going to be the BEST summer EVER, and one that you are not going to want to miss! Keep checking back and let us hear from you!

New Tennis Courts Underway!!

New Tennis Courts Underway!!

Friday, October 07, 2005

It has been beautiful in the Heavenly World with warm sunny days and cool star-filled nights. The Strayhorns have been enjoying every evening on their deck overlooking the canoe lake and barn. It is such a treat to sit as a family and eat dinner, catch up on the day's activities, and look out toward Dunn's Rock. We do live in a magical place! The leaves are starting to look like they are ready for the fall color show, but it is still very green. I don't know if the warmer than usual weather has made the leaves linger, but I bet we are in for a beautiful couple of weeks coming up.

The girls in the office have been BUSY processing applications. It seems that everyone wants to come to Illahee and be part of the BEST summer ever in 2006! We have also been keeping up with staff, and making plans for new activities for next summer as well as improving the ones we have. We have also just finished the new DVD with terrific footage from the summer of 2006, and Laurie and Gretchen will be heading out on the road for camper shows starting this weekend in D.C.

Speaking of improvements, last week a backhoe came and tore up the old asphalt from the three tennis courts below Curtis next to the Rec Lodge. We hauled in 17 dumptruck loads of new gravel, took down the fencing, and will repave the courts with 3 inches of brand new asphalt this coming week after setting new nets and posts. Tennis is such a strong program at Illahee, and our tennis pro Dave Hartsock from Ohio is thrilled with the planned improvements.

It doesn't stop there though! After the paving is through, we are going to build two new courts where the staff parking lot used to be, redirect the exit road from camp, and build a new staff parking lot up on the hill and out of the way (and out of sight)! There is a lot going on at camp right now. We had a camper tour yesterday and two scheduled for this weekend. I hope they don't think this is the way our courts always look...because Illahee is the prettiest camp around!

We have some other exciting news to report! Frank and Elizabeth Tindall, former directors and owners of Illahee, have become involved as partners in Falling Creek Camp for Boys in Tuxedo, NC. Frank will assist new owner and director Yates Pharr in the operation of the camp as an associate director. Frank has missed camping since leaving Illahee, and this opportunity gives him another chance to do what he loves best. Ironically, Falling Creek is where Laurie and I met in the early 80's. She was on the canoeing staff, and I was on the mountaineering staff and a program director. We wish Frank and Yates the best, and encourage you to take a look at Falling Creek if you have brothers interested in camp!

Hurricane Update

Hurricane Update

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Fall greetings from the Heavenly World! It is hard to believe that more than a month has passed since camp was bustling with girls playing tennis, throwing on the wheel, riding horses, zipping on the zipline, dressing up in goofy outfits and forming lifelong friendships. Some days I am convinced I still hear the echo of laughter on the hills and the bell ringing to remind me to move on to the next activity! It has been a busy month. We have received and processed numerous applications, reviewed and taken into account feedback from the surveys and begun many projects all to make the summer of 2006 the best yet! This is also an exciting time of year as we plan our fall travel season.

We look forward to seeing you and sharing fun summer memories. Our thoughts and prayers these past few weeks have been with our New Orlean's families and all the others who are affected by Hurricane's Katrina and Rita. We have had the opportunity to contact many of our families and we have certainly discovered a thread of resiliency that is common in their stories. They have relocated (some temporarily, some permanently), settled into new schools, continued working in new office spaces and begun establishing a sense of routine. We wanted to share the whereabouts of those families we have been able to contact thus far: Emeline Leyens (Cabin 6, Mini-I) and family have re-located to Houston. Emeline is attending St. Francis Episcopal Day School with her four brothers and sisters. Julia Morton (Cabin 6, Mini-I) and her family spent time in Knoxville immediately following the hurricane and are planning their move to Lafayette, LA. Georgina Martin (Cabin 8, Mini-I) will also spend the remainder of this year living in Lafayette, LA with her grandparents. She and her family hope to return to Metairie in January. Rachel Steiner (Cabin 11, July) and her family are living in Austin, TX. Katie Thompson (Cabin 13, July) is living with her grandparents in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, the town where her mother grew up. Carolyn Holtzman (Cabin 14, July) and her family plan to be in Baton Rouge for the remainder of the year. Lizzie Jeremiah (Cabin 15, July) is living in Lillian, AL. Isabel Lanaux (Cabin 15, July) is temporarily living in Houston, TX. Nicole Weinmann (Cabin 16, July) is attending Trinity School in Atlanta. Cheney Gardner (Cabin 20, July) and her family are temporarily residing in Destin, FL. And Elizabeth Heebe-Russo , also from Cabin 20, is living in Dallas, Texas. Ann Grace Martin (Cabin 36, July) has moved from Metairie and is temporarily living with family friends in Encino, CA. Sarah Parkerson (Cabin 36, July) and her family plan to be in Birmingham, AL until January. Lizzie Cordes (Cabin 38, July) has started boarding school at St. Margaret's School in Tappahanock, VA. Her family is living in Leland, MS. Emily Rigamer's (PVL, July) family has relocated to Baton Rouge and Emily has experienced a smooth transition to St. Joseph's Academy. Also in Baton Rouge is Aimee Cutrer (PPP, July) and her family. They have bought a new house and Aimee and Emily have enjoyed seeing one another. When we last spoke to Meg Ellis' mom (Cabin 38, July), her dad was working from Baton Rouge and Meg and her mom were planning to be in Baton Rouge or Houston. Emily Tastet (Cabin 29, August) is living with her grandparents in Boutte, LA.

Several of our staff members are also affected by the hurricanes. Lawton Fabacher and her mom and dad have been living in Memphis while Caroline started her senior year at Rhodes. They plan to return to New Orleans as soon as they are able. Becky Trudel had moved into her dorm room to start her freshman year at Tulane and had to evacuate the following day. Instead she started the semester at UVa! Megan Bel works as the policy analyst for the Governor of Louisiana and has been working around the clock in the aftermath of the storms. She emailed and said that she would love to hear from and get together with any girls who have relocated to Baton Rouge. At times like these we desire to be "hands-on" during the relief effort, to help clean up the debris and rebuild the damaged homes. We recently received an email from Ginger Rigamer regarding Emily's experience and were reminded of the various levels of comfort, support and relief needed in a time of crisis... She said: "Emily's Camp Illahee friends have been such a blessing to her. All her New Orleans friends are scattered throughout the country, and locating and communicating with them has been difficult, at best. Her camp friends, on the other hand, have been easier to "find," and they have been very sweet and a great comfort to her.

I am certain that many of our campers have felt and will continue to feel support from their Illahee friends. Thank you to those of you who have reached out and been in touch with your friends during such a time of need. We will continue to contact families and find out how they are doing. If we haven't reached you yet, please give the camp office a call at your convenience. We definitely want to know how you are!