The Tradition of Summer Camp at Adirondack Woodcraft Camps Continues
Feb 09, 2019
The Tradition of Summer Camp at Adirondack Woodcraft Camp Continues
It's hard to believe that one year has gone by since camp officially changed hands. Our deepest thank you to the Leach families for their support and for the opportunity to continue the tradition of summer camp at Adirondack Woodcraft Camps. We felt it fitting to share with you last summer's most special dinner announcement. Thank you for believing in us and we can't wait to see you for Summer Camp 2019 at Adirondack Woodcraft Camps! -- The Bartlett Family
Last Dinner of Summer 2018: Special Announcement
Tonight we want to make sure two very special people get a patch they truly deserve. We also want to find a way to thank them from the bottoms of our hearts. My dream of having camp be part of my life forever started when I was 13 years old. I remember, one sunny Adirondack afternoon just like the one we had today, watching my camp directors from behind the buddy board as they were setting out to sail on one of the camp boats. A little thought crept into my head like this: wow, being a camp director looks pretty AWESOME. And I thought if I had that job, life would be great because I would never have to leave camp. Fast forward about 14 years when I met Doug. We were both camp directors — you wouldn’t know it now but Doug was a cowboy back then and was directing a summer ranch camp out in Arizona. Cowboy boots, hats, rodeos the whole deal. Long story short, we started a new dream together. It started as an idea and casual conversation… we spoke about how incredible it would be to one day have a camp of our own to call home where we could have our own family be part of this camp adventure we loved so much.
Fast forward once more to February a year ago when we found this crazy listing in a real estate magazine after a day of skiing at Gore mountain. It read: “Adirondack Woodcraft Camps—For Sale” and it showed pictures of stained wood buildings with red tin roofs in the snow. A couple of weeks later we found ourselves swishing our boots through that snow around camp in awe of this beautiful property and the magic we felt here. At the end of our tour, we met John who was tinkering and fixing something in the garage and we had a great conversation about camp and camp life and about Woodcraft.
Here we are now, our very first summer at Woodcraft behind us and the future ahead. What we also have behind us is the tremendous support we feel from the Leach families which we are so grateful for. This brings me back now to that patch and those two very special people who have earned them. The title of this patch is “Director Emeritus.”
Now, we don’t actually have a patch for them, but instead we have two beautiful photos, kindly donated by the talented Kurt Gardner, that we would like them to have so they can see and be reminded of all that they have created, accomplished and inspired here at Woodcraft. Courage, confidence, community, tradition, and a sense of belonging to a home away from home for so many campers that have been here before all of you. John who is with us here tonight, and Dave whose memory will always live here, continued to build on the Woodcraft tradition that Chief Abbot started and made Woodcraft what it is today. We have the utmost respect for both of these gentlemen and would very much like to thank them and honor them this evening with these great photographs presented to John & Lesley by some of our past chief’s knife’s winners. Please join me in a round of applause.
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