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2024 Newsletter #4

Hello from Pemi!

A quick note if you’re just now starting to read these newsletters for the summer: they’re typically posted on Tuesday or Wednesday, and all photos can be enlarged by clicking on them to see the full-sized image.

Today’s newsletter comes right at the midway point of the 2024 summer. On Saturday we said goodbye to our first session campers while the full session boys enjoyed a special day by themselves, and on Sunday we welcomed in a large group of second session boys. With our new session lengths of a three-week first session and four-week second session, this year’s changeover was a new rhythm for all of us. The early returns are extremely positive, as the new schedule let the first session boys have programmed activities right up to and through their last full day, while the second session boys began a full slate of week 4 activities on their first full day of camp. From the Birthday Banquet on Friday night to our full-season extravaganza on Saturday through the opening second session campfire on Sunday night, it was a jam-packed weekend at Pemi! This is a bit of a combination newsletter, with part one covering the end of first session and our full session celebration and part two covering the start of second session. While it’s always sad saying goodbye to one group of boys, the thrills of arrival day on Sunday let us build on the momentum we’ve gathered during the first three weeks, and the energy and spirit at the start of second session have brought things to a whole new level! Enjoy reading about yet another fun, full week at Pemi.

End of First Session & Full Season Extravaganza

The final few days of first session included a number of marquee events, but none packed a bigger punch than the first session music and arts showcase on Thursday night. The talent, support, and energy on display epitomized the Pemi community at its very finest. Boys from every division performed, with the combination of music and theatrical performances creating a varied set list that left the audience exhausted by the end after repeatedly feeling the urge to jump up and applaud act after act after act. The Bucket Drums activity group of Benny Candia, Noah Goebel, Charlie Milgrim, and Ethan Onysko kicked things off with an impressive display that left the audience amazed at the sounds and rhythms that can be created with just a set of buckets and some drumsticks. Next we had an amusing skit entitled “Yes, Your Majesty” by Juan Cediel, Sam Fox, and Luke Wiesel, where Juan and Sam portrayed a pair of bumbling palace attendants preparing for the entrance of the queen, played by Luke. Darren Calhoun then performed a monologue about character that provided a thoughtful touch to the evening’s proceedings.

Asher, Charlie, and Evan perform

Ethan Onysko wowed us with a variation on Chopin’s Prelude in E Minor. Ethan played the piano and had head of music Evan Anderson on the cello to create a beautiful version of this classic piece. Manfred Creane, Charlie Milgrim, and Connor Smillie were joined by head of music Daniel Fulham to perform an original guitar piece that Manfred composed. He continues to impress us all with his musical prowess! Next up was Bryce Madom on the bass playing a song by the Cold Stairs, with drum support by Daniel. Luke and Max Wiesel gave us a taste of some more contemporary music with a great performance of Stick Season by Noah Kahan. Will Bonner then took to the drum kit, accompanied by Evan on bass, for a fun dance/techno/trance style performance which was supplemented by a smoke machine and light show to build a fun atmospheric effect.

The night’s finale

While all the performances were excellent, the next one may well have been the most memorable act of the evening. Junior One’s Asher Goldring took to the piano and vocals, with Charlie Knapp on drums, to perform The Beatles’ Here, There and Everywhere. It was a flawless performance that boys and staff alike are still raving about almost a full week later. Thatcher Tang kept up the run of Junior Camp performances by jumping on the drum kit, accompanied by Daniel Fulham and Nathan Gonzalez, to play an instrumental surf rock piece that earned a standing ovation. This incredible night was closed out with a full sound jam band made up of Ethan Onysko (synth), Manfred Creane (electric guitar), Mason Winell (percussion), Evan Anderson (bass), and Daniel Fulham (drums). The quintet played a brief set that got the audience up and moving as they jammed away. The raucous applause at the end was both for this amazing playing and, I suspect, in appreciation and admiration of the entire evening’s worth of performances. It was a fantastic night of the arts taking center stage, and the entire community loved it!

The parade of turkeys!

After enjoying the last morning of week three activities on Friday, boys spent the afternoon either packing or organizing and cleaning their cabins ahead of Saturday. With that process complete, we headed to the Mess Hall for the Birthday Banquet. This annual celebration of everyone with a birthday during the Pemi season serves as the culminating event of the first session. Boys and staff alike dress up in their Sunday Meeting finest and enjoy a magnificent feast prepared by our kitchen team. While we’re spoiled with incredible food all summer long, Tom Ciglar and his crew pull out all the stops for the banquets. According to the 200+ food critics assembled in the Mess Hall, this year’s Birthday Banquet featured turkeys to rival any Thanksgiving meal any of us has ever had. After we finish eating the main course, each table is served a full birthday cake that, like the turkeys earlier in the meal, get paraded around the Mess Hall by our waiters before being brought to the tables.

Birthday greetings from the DMV

With the dining complete, we moved on to birthday greeting followed by birthday limericks. The birthday greetings are a fun Pemi tradition that lets up recognize and celebrate the wide variety of cultures represented in our community. Boys and staff offer greetings from their home cities, states, and countries, along with greetings in a variety of languages and from other important groups such as all four Owens on staff or anyone in camp with red hair. This year featured greetings from nine different countries, which didn’t even account for the full set of nationalities represented at Pemi this summer, along with a variety of city and state greetings. Next up we had birthday limericks. Written by the Bean Soup editors, with perhaps a few assists from an editor emeritus, these limericks give each birthday boy and girl in the community a moment to stand and be celebrated. It’s a fun, lighthearted tradition that often includes lots of humor mixed with plenty of genuine praise and acknowledgment. In addition to a limerick, each birthday celebrant gets a poster with their name on it. This year’s versions were made by a combination of the boys in week three’s first- and second-hour art activities – Timmy Lorig, Ezra Otubusin-Reese, Sebastian Velez, Bodie Wein, Finn Scott, and Wills Waitzkin – along with art staff members Pierce Haley, Owen Gagnon, Nolan Katcher, Scout Brink and head of art Robin Asbury. Their beautiful offerings had the Mess Hall looking fun and festive all night long!

After dinner we had our first session awards ceremony, where we had the opportunity to celebrate all of the incredible accomplishments from our first session campers. We had dozens of polar bears and distance swims; boys who played anywhere from one to eight sports against other camps; archery and sailing achievements; patches for musical and dramatic performances, authoring Bean Soup articles, and prowess in the wood shop or water skis; and three boys who received their five-year bowls: Angus Eslick, Charlie Milgrim, and Noah Goebel. We love celebrating our longtime campers and deeply appreciate their love of Pemi!We also said goodbye to five 15-year-olds who were wrapping up their Pemi camper careers. It was a bittersweet moment celebrating Alex Andersson, Cormac Anderson, Tim French, Finn Pages, and Rowan Stewart, and we hope that we’ll be seeing these boys back at Pemi as campers on Pemi West, staff members, or ideally both!

Full session Juniors enjoying the waterpark

On Saturday morning Kenny spoke to the Mess Hall about the importance of first session boys taking some of the Pemi spirit back to their home communities. As the first session boys then prepared to depart, the full session boys packed their bags for the first part of our day-long party for them. Step one of this celebration was the trip to Whale’s Tale waterpark. The boys loaded the bus and a van to head off for a fun day of sliding, riding, surfing, and floating. With all the hot weather we’ve been having, it was the perfect way to relax, enjoy some thrills and spend time with friends and cabinmates. The weather cooperated, and we had a blast! Back at Pemi, we feasted on grilled steak and chicken fajitas, freshly made guacamole, and Italian ices for dessert before heading down to the Senior Lodge to watch a movie and enjoy Saturday candy as a theater snack. On Sunday morning we woke up a bit early, all jogged down to Junior Point, and did polar bear at its historical location where the lake drops off after just a few feet of shoreline. After polar bear the boys enjoyed homemade doughnuts and hot cocoa before heading to breakfast!

Start of Second Session

Second session began on Sunday with bright sunshine, blue skies, and an air of excitement as over 100 boys arrived to begin their four weeks at Pemi. Campers flooded in from across the country and world for what promises to be an energetic and spirited second act of Pemi 2024. With a large contingent of veteran campers coming back, along with 28 new boys, the vibes in the Mess Hall on Sunday night were as upbeat and excited as I can remember. Down at the campfire circle that night, we had wonderful performances from the Three Wise Men – Carter Glahn, Luke Young, and Marcelo Emal-Langrand – as well as Manfred Creane and Connor Smillie on guitar (who we’ll never tire of seeing perform), and a highly skilled and fun alto sax solo from Nick McCay!

Lower 1 at the opening 2nd session dinner

Just as the first session boys sprinted to through line, the second session boys took the baton from them and were up to full speed right off the bat. Week four activities started on Monday, as did our second session athletics season. The 15s tennis team of Will Bixby, Alex Fernandez, Aurelian and Florian Henry-Labordere, Zander Sargent, Robert Dorros, Kavin Aggarwal, Luke Young, and Bryce Madom went over to Walt Whitman for a BVT. We had strong play from Robert, Zander, and Kavin, though all the boys performed well, especially given that a couple had arrived at camp barely 24 hours prior. As I write, the 13s pickleball team of Tom Mele, Sidney Harris, Graysen Woodbury, Graeme Newman, Sam Chapin, Emmett Baggish, Marcus Vitale, and Zach Pierson is over at Walt Whitman for another BVT, while the 15s baseball team is hosting Kingswood. Based on the cheers I keep hearing from the big diamond, it sounds like quite a game so far!

Juniors 1 and 2 up Rattlesnake

The trip and nature programs have also wasted no time getting boys off camp and out to the mountains, rivers, and trails of New Hampshire and Maine. A group of full session 14s set out today with Reilly McCue and Phil Landry to the Rangeley Lakes region in Maine for four days on the water. The group of Kavin Aggarwal, Alf Andersson, Manfred Creane, Lenny Herbert, Sasha Honig, Vikram Jay, Bryce Madom, Connor Smillie, Jonathan Thibault, Miles Whitcombe, Mason Winell, and Everett Wooldridge is in for an incredible stretch of paddling, along with some top-tier naturalist, environmental, and character training from Reilly and Phil. Day trips also went out today, with Juniors 1 and 2 – Landon Dow, Mac Casertano, Bode Gunther, Noah Laas-Drysdale, Finn Pike, Haben McNulty, Hibbard Brown, Dylan King, Rafe Romine, Henry Nevius, and Jeffrey Eng – scaling nearby Rattlesnake Mountain and Parker Brown, Brecken Putzel, and Everett Goodnow traveling south to Hanover to complete more miles on the Appalachian Trail. Meanwhile, Nico Richards and River Hambleton headed further north along the Connecticut River for a nature photography trip this afternoon. Pemi’s boys have wasted no time getting the second session underway!

The rest of this week will see three overnight trips depart, dinner paddles across the lake, Junior cabins heading up Pemi Hill, sporting events every day, a cookout tomorrow evening, the loon count on Saturday morning, and so much more. There’s never a dull moment at Pemi, and we can’t wait to share more of it with you over the next four weeks!

– Pat Clare

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