2026 Newsletter #8

Hello from the very quiet shores of Lower Baker Pond,

It’s been a few weeks since the Pemi 2026 season wrapped up, but I’m back (later than planned) to share a few details and thoughts from those final days of Pemi’s 119th summer. Later this fall I’ll also provide a write-up of our post-season events including Family Camp, Women’s Weekend, and several fall buildings and grounds projects. For today, however, our focus remains on the Pemi summer and the incredible last week that we had together. Pemi Week competitions went down to the wire, our end-of-season dramatic production thrilled audiences, Final Banquet left our stomachs full and our hands sore from all the applauding we did in celebration of so many well-earned recognitions, and the last day of camp included stellar final Bean Soup and Campfire performances. On Saturday, August 15th, we said goodbye to our full- and second-session campers, closing the books on another remarkable and inspiring Pemi summer. With the benefit of a few weeks of settling into the home and school routines, I hope you enjoy this look back on the last days of the Pemi summer before we turn our attention fully to 2027. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read these newsletters this summer; I hope you enjoy this final installment!

On Wednesday of Pemi Week, we started off the two days of Pentathlon with the Lowers and Seniors competing in the morning. Pemi’s Pentathlon consists of the 60-yard-dash, the mile, high jump, long jump, and shot put. This year we also added in a cabin component with a 4×100 relay race. Boys can opt in to competing in any single event or as many of them as they’d like, offering campers the chance to try out a number of individual events that they may not get to do anywhere else. This year, as in almost every year past, we had boys discover that they’re actually quite good at the long or high jump or that they had an undiscovered ability to send a cannon ball a great distance. Nearly every boy participates in at least one event, with many pushing themselves to do all of them. The Juniors and Uppers had their pentathlon on Thursday morning, but I’ll share final results together here. The individual winners and runners-up were as follows:

Lower-Juniors

Winner: Ollie Lehn

Runner-up: Zach Goobic

Upper-Juniors

Winner: Owen Goobic

Runner-up: Landon Dow

Lower-Lowers

Winner: Sid Grays

Runner-up: Trex Lehn

Upper-Lowers

Winner: Felix Grant

Runner-up: Otis Stevens

Uppers

Winner: Parker Brown

Runner-up: Wade Fleming

Seniors

Winner: Emmitt Baggish

Runner-up: Brecken Putzel

Congratulations to all these guys and to everyone who competed and made it such a fun series of events! Wednesday morning also included cabin soccer for the Juniors and Uppers. The Uppers matches were the final round of their tournament, and when the final whistles blew, Upper 5 had taken the cabin soccer trophy for the division. Their top-level talent and depth proved too much for the rest of the division. The Juniors played another spirited game with multiple cabins grouped together to form two teams within the division. As had been demonstrated throughout the summer, our 10-and-unders had some serious soccer players this summer, and everyone had a great time competing and supporting each other. 

On Wednesday afternoon and evening we had our two showings of The Wizard of Oz. An abridged version of the classic tale, it made for a stellar one-act play. Longtime Pemi film critic Clive Bean attended and reviewed the matinee, and his professional opinions are shared below. Before getting to his review, however, I want to add my own special acknowledgement to the play’s director, Noah Spinar. In addition to being new to Pemi this summer and serving as the counselor of Junior 5, Noah took on the task of directing his first ever production, and he more than rose to the occasion. It was an amazing directorial debut, and while we hope that he puts on many more Pemi shows, I also have no doubt that his acting and directing career will take him far beyond our shores if he so chooses. Please join me in offering well-deserved thanks and congratulations to Noah for his excellent work! And now for Clive’s review: 

Patrons of the Pemigewassett Opera House were treated Wednesday afternoon and evening to a lively, finished, and hugely entertaining production of The Wizard of Oz. For a show that turns on a ferocious windstorm, rain on a rust-prone Tin Man, and a witch who melts when water splashes on her, it seemed eerily appropriate that the matinee took place in the middle of a Lower Baker tempest. Be that as it may, it was an absolutely wonderful way to spend three quarters of an hour and a spectacular payoff for a season’s worth of hard work by all those involved.

Dylan Thibault was absolutely stellar as Dorothy, rendering the show’s one musical number—“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”—with poignant professional verve. Dylan’s acting, too, was top-drawer, as was that of Rhodin Bernstein as Dorothy’s little anthrodoodle Toto. Rhodin had reportedly spent hours watching Bogey chase tennis balls, and it showed. Fortunately, he was a very good dog and didn’t require any on-stage clean-up from Dorothy.

We all know about the Barrymores, Gyllenhaals, and Skarsgards, but who knew there was such acting talent in the Waitzkin Family? Brother Shields was assured and appropriately floppy as The Scarecrow, and Wills (who deftly parlayed his Texas background into a wicked Wicked Witch of the West) did a far better job stealing the show than his character did stealing Dorothy’s ruby slippers. Wills made a scarier lady than Elphaba by far and was a cinch for this year’s Johnnie’s Plaque.

Joining Shields in the brilliant central Oz trio were Charlie Toomey, delivering The Tin Man with towering presence and ease, and Pierce Golay, whose Cowardly Lion bordered on impossibly cute.

Kabir Mehra played Glinda the Good Witch with the nurturant depth of feeling that could only have come from spending his Dartmouth sophomore summer as a midwife. I need to find out where he got those great wings. Maybe it was the same Upper Valley location where Ethan Lambrecht got the fabulously slinky gown he rocked as the Wicked Witch of the East. Oh, special thanks to Ethan for loaning his flashy new hiking boots as the ruby slippers.

Rounding out the leads were George Kingdon, a very credible (as in completely phony and untruthful) Wizard, Micah Tolbert and Charles Golay as Dorothy’s  aunt and uncle (and prime sources of urgent weather alerts), and Finn Cashman as The Wizard’s equivalent of Kim Malcolm, guarding her boss as fiercely and frighteningly as Kim keeps anyone from checking their mailbox before the end of fourth hour.

Kudos to the ensemble players as well. Timmy Lorig and Leo Schirippa were beyond good as the Flying Monkeys, sporting the most elaborate of the costumes fabricated by Kassidy Rae. Their wings were almost as good as Kabir’s, and their orange and protuberant ears even better. “Storm Extras” Ry Dean-Slobod and Kaelen Frye did an excellent job emulating a tornado. When asked how they rehearsed, both said they just reproduced what they did every morning at Reveille when they awoke in hopelessly-tangled bedsheets. Meanwhile, Henry Moore, Joe Harrison, and Manfred Creane demonstrated the importance of farmers keeping their barnyard animals in underground bunkers. Finally, the chorus of Munchkins—Lucca Bonanno, Nick Brown, Henry Kaminski, Wiston Moore, Jay Wall, and Joe Harrison—absolutely kicked in colorful costumes that looked a little like they’d come out of the lost-and-found bin at the recent World Cup. Their voices were all high, squeaky, and Munchkin-perfect, since they all clearly inhaled helium shortly before the performance.

I mentioned Kassidy above, and her costuming for the show, not to mention her make-up, were jaw-droppingly good. My one question regards her dressing Dorothy not in a Kansas-style dress but instead in a jean/shirt combination that reminded me of Al in Home Improvement. I have to think Ethan Lambrecht stole Dorothy’s dress. Frank Roberts, Nik Groleau, and Phil Benoit of B&G and Mike Herrod from Art World were all key to the production, and Evan Anderson truly graced the show at the keyboard and behind the cello. The off-stage star of the show, though, was assuredly first-time director Noah Spinar. You’d never know he was not a veteran of the Pemi Opera House. Scenes were tight and well-blocked, lines were delivered clearly and at-pace, the acting was solid, and the additions to the script were appropriate and often hilarious. Kudos to Noah for a terrific job.

There were honestly times when the story seemed to swerve towards a commentary on current events, particularly when it came to certain revelations about the Wizard and a bitterly vengeful witch, but this reviewer was honestly more struck by the way this seemed to be in part about Camp Pemigewassett. It helped that the Tin Woodsman had suffered a similar fate to Metal Boy; Spinar even threw in a joke about Goombah Grease. Then, too there was the distinctly Pemi cheer for “Wicked Witch-killer Gale, Dorothy.” But, when you think about it, it’s a story about young people who find their way to a beautiful and far-away place and seek to acquire something, or become something, that they hadn’t had or been. One of them needed to become smarter, and he did. One of them needed to become more feeling, and he did. One of them needed to become more brave, and he did. It’s a little like Pemi, no?, where, if everything is working the way it should, we all end up as better people than we were before. As for Dorothy, she started out not fully appreciating all of the things she had at home in Kansas, and when her adventures in Oz are complete, she’s learned that, in truth, there’s no place like home. All in all, this was a perfect play for a place like Pemi. Here’s hoping every one of us goes home on Saturday a little smarter, and more caring, and more courageous than we were before. And when we spend our first night back in our own bed, in our own room, in our own home—let’s almost see it as though it were the first time, and appreciate more than ever how much security, and family, and supportive love mean to us all. Thanks, Noah and crew, for the fun and the wisdom, both. Until next year!

As you can probably tell, it was quite the show; well done, all! Thursday was yet another full Pemi day, with the aforementioned Junior and Upper pentathlons in the morning alongside cabin soccer final matches for Lowers and Seniors. In the Lower-Lowers the crown went to Lower 1, in the Upper-Lowers it was Lower 7, and in the Senior division Senior 3 took home the title. All matches were hard-fought and included a mix of soccer-lovers and boys playing competitive matches for the first time. Seeing cabinmates go out and play together across such wide skill and interest levels is one of the joys of Pemi Week, as inevitably the high-level soccer players end up providing excellent support and encouragement to their cabinmates who don’t play regularly or at all. It’s about the cabin camaraderie, stepping out of your comfort zone, and competing for the fun of it all, which is why cabin soccer remains one of the best-loved Pemi Week traditions. 

On Thursday afternoon we had a large number of open opportunities across program areas for boys to enjoy one more crack at a favorite activity or, in true Pemi fashion, maybe even try something new right at the end. Immediately after rest hour we had the Pentathlon relay races, helping to usher everyone up to the soccer pitch before heading off for the rest of their afternoons. They were an unquestioned success and added a fun cabin element to an otherwise individual Pemi Week event. We held a lacrosse showcase event for campers of all ages who play lacrosse at home, giving these boys a fun opportunity to compete in a marquee event. Other activities included awards shoots in archery, the chance to finish up wood shop projects, the wiffle ball championship, and more. Boys squeezed in every minute they could before getting ready for the Final Banquet. 

What a feast it was! As they did all summer long, our kitchen crew spoiled us on Thursday night with a delicious, fresh, and all homemade meal. Pemi’s traditional banquet fare of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, salad, gravy, cranberry sauce, and bread left everyone in a bit of a food daze, and that was before the glazed pineapple-upside-down cake for dessert. I’ll have more to say about Tom Ciglar, the head of our kitchen, down below, but for now join me in thanking Michael McMurray, Nancy Cushman, Nate Bankester, Greg Buckhalter, Valeria Mopan Giraldo, Jonathan Ciglar, Carlos Flores Leon, Luna Hernandez, Ruby Márquez Esquivel, Mars Marsh, Emerson Muñoz, and Santiago Villamil Mendoza for their work on the Banquet and on all our meals throughout the summer! 

The highlight of the evening, however, had to be the awards ceremony honoring many of the incredible accomplishments earned by Pemi campers in 2026. The full list will be published in Bean Soup and is too long to include here, but suffice it to say that many boys were recognized with accolades and many multiples more could have been as well for all they did this summer. Awards were given out across all Pemi program areas and for all-around excellence in the community. Many of the major program area awards came from the ranks of our 15-year-old and/or full-session campers, a testament to the cumulative benefits of the Pemi experience over time. While every award deserves a mention, time and length constraints will limit me to acknowledging the major awards given out at the end of the ceremony. 

The Achievement Trophy goes to the boy in each division, “who has made the greatest all-around achievement, measured by the dual consideration of distance gained and goal achieved.” It recognizes boys who have made the most of the Pemi experience and embraced the idea of doing it all. This year’s winners were Charlie Woolley, Thomas Sullivan, Jacob Modzelewski, Dylan Thibault, Julian DeLisle, Ronny Guerrero, and Charlie Knapp. 

The Divisional Citizenship Trophy, whose inscription speaks for itself, is awarded, “for the best all-around citizen in each division whose generous and unselfish spirit gives success, happiness, and self-esteem to others. The 2026 winners were Tristan Peterson, Hibbard Brown, James Brennan, Alvaro Rodriguez Samaniego, and Toven Putzel. 

The final award given out each year is the Founders’ Citizenship Trophy. As the inscription states, “in memory of Doc Gar, Win, and Reed, on this trophy is inscribed each year the name of him who is considered to have contributed most to camp beyond the line of duty.” The 2026 winner could not embody this award any better. Last year’s winner of the Counselor Athletic Trophy, he found himself sidelined by injury this summer and unable to participate in most athletic events, the area that had been his forte in prior summers. Instead of letting this dampen his summer, our winner simply dove into other areas of camp with the same enthusiasm and determination. At the same time, he remained the unquestioned leader of our athletics program and his age group, guiding younger campers and peers alike, and cheering louder than anyone during sporting events. I don’t think anyone in the Mess Hall was surprised when this award was announced, as everyone ages 8 to 80 could clearly see how deserving a recipient he was. Please join me in congratulating and thanking our 2026 Founders’ Citizenship Trophy winner, Tom Mele. 

On Friday night during our final Bean Soup, we had the opportunity to recognize another 15-year-old for his leadership and achievements throughout the summer. From setting the tone on Allagash with his peers to taking more seriously than anyone his role as a Senior mentor to his Junior buddy, from the lacrosse field to the stage of the Pemigewassett Opera House, this young man put together an incredible summer. And he did it all with the highest integrity, standing firm in his ways no matter what others did around him. While Bean Soup sang his praises Friday afternoon, he inadvertently put it even better himself on Friday evening with a stunning a capella rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” After spending several summers hiding this particular talent from us all, it was a revelatory performance and the perfect capstone to an outstanding summer. Bean Soup’s Camper of the Year for 2026: Charlie Toomey. 

Immediately after Bean Soup, we awarded our one major staff award that gets voted on by the full staff. The Joe Campbell Award, named after a legendary Pemi counselor from the 40s and 50s who also became a staple of Pemi reunions until his passing, goes to the counselor who best embodies Joe’s qualities of “integrity, generosity, happiness, enthusiasm, modesty, and an unsurpassed ability to give laughter to all who knew him.” Another inscription that speaks for itself. The 2026 Joe Campbell Award winner went to our Upper division head, head of sailing, the engine of the Intermediate Hill and Mess Hall, and a young man who loves Pemi with all his heart: Simon Taylor. 

Normally that would be the end of the recognitions portion of this newsletter, but this year we had one more member of our community to honor on Friday afternoon. 2026 was Tom Ciglar’s 25th summer at Pemi and, for the foreseeable future at least, his last. It’s with mixed emotions that we congratulate Tom on an exciting professional opportunity that he’s earned which will bring his time running Pemi’s kitchen to a close. In his 25 years on staff, Tom held a number of jobs across a whole range of areas. He was a chef, a baseball coach (mine, in fact, but don’t hold my lack of talent against him), a mentor to campers and staff alike, the Head of Staff, Head of Program, and of course Head of Dining Services. Tom also spent eight years as a proud Pemi parent. Few people in Pemi’s history have had such sustained success across such a diverse range of jobs. To further honor Tom, here’s an excerpt from Kenny’s speech to the community:

Tom’s brand of loyalty, consistency, and quiet dedication — it’s rare. It’s the type of thing that doesn’t often get the spotlight because Tom’s work has always been behind the scenes: before the sun’s up and long after everyone else has gone to bed. If you are looking for examples of integrity, you’ve found an exemplar in Tom. 

Tom — thank you. Thank you for every meal, every early morning, every extra serving, every loaf of bread, every morsel of food made with care and with the best intentions. You mastered the art of an allergen free dining experience. Thank you for being a steady, dependable presence through decades. Thank you for feeding our soul and, in doing so, feeding the spirit of Pemi.

Twenty-five years is a legacy. And Camp Pemigewassett is a better community because of you.

He’s not someone who seeks or wants the spotlight, so I’ll cut this off here, but rest assured I could continue for pages and pages and not come close to hitting all the ways he’s benefited Pemi as a community and so many of us as individuals, myself included. As he heads into this next chapter of life, we thank Tom for all he’s done and wish him good luck, long life, and joy! 

On Friday evening we had our final Campfire of the summer, always a poignant and special gathering that showcases our community’s immense talent and gives us all a chance to reflect on the summer. We had wonderful performances from Cairo Clapper; Henry Beals; the ensemble of Jeffrey Eng, Pierce and Charles Golay, Myles Woolley, Henry Kaminski, Henry Moore, and David Kriegsman; Nick and Wes McCay; Dylan Thibault; Lower 6 (Declan Donohoe, Felix Grant, Caleb Greenberg, Pierce O’Shaughnessy, Ashe Pages, Henry Raslavicus, James Soldano, Xander Wasinger, and counselor Oliver Giraud); Will Drummond; our Spanish campers (Santi Losada; Pepe, Manolo, and Enrique Sevillano-Luque; Alvaro Rodriguez Samaniego; Carlos Martinez; and Alex Fernandez) accompanied by Gavin Solomon, Kabir Mehra, and Kaelen Frye; the Rocket Men (James Wasnick, Mason Russell, Moses Pyle, Parker Brown, Thomas McNelly, Nolan Shah, Wills Waitzkin, Brian and Timmy Lorig, and Ben Miller); the aforementioned Charlie Toomey; and finally our 15-year-olds for a group performance of Lukas Graham’s “7 Years.” A special shoutout goes to 15-year-old Nick McCay who performed at every campfire this summer and all his prior summers, gracing us each week with a piece on his saxophone. As we locked arms and sang the “Campfire Song” one final time, there weren’t many dry eyes among our oldest campers and even with many of the younger boys too. It was a fitting and moving end to our summer, especially for the boys singing for the last time as campers. 

Please join me in thanking our 2026 15-year-olds for all that they gave to Pemi this summer and throughout their camper careers. It was a fun-loving and spirited group with wide-ranging interests, close friendships, and deep love and care for Pemi, and I know we’ll be seeing many of these guys back on Pemi West and as our counselors of the future: Axel Kangas, Trip McNulty, Toven Putzel, Enrique Sevillano-Luque, Gray Axel, Emmitt Baggish, Sam Chapin, Kai Karsan, Tom Mele, River Morgan, Ezra Otubusin-Reese, Zach Pierson, Charlie Toomey, Marcus Vitale, Rudi Wei, Nick McCay, Thomas McNelly, and Graeme Newman. 

Pemi 2026 provided 281 boys the opportunity to enjoy the magic and transformative power of a Pemi summer. At the same time, those 281 boys provided 112 staff members across all roles the opportunity to fulfill Pemi’s mission of inspiring and supporting them in finding their own distinctive paths to become self-reliant, caring, and engaged citizens of our diverse and ever-changing world. For those of us lucky enough to take on that lofty challenge, it was a privilege and a pleasure. Pemi campers inspired us all summer long with their kindness, empathy, integrity, joyfulness, talents, sense of wonder, creativity, curiosity, determination, and camaraderie. The boys bought into the idea of living simply, disconnected from technology, and in close community with one another. They sacrificed personal space, time at home, and other opportunities to reap the rewards of a summer in the mountains of New Hampshire with peers and mentors who care about them as individuals and want the best for them as they grow and learn. In the process they created another magical and joyful Pemi summer that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives. 

To our alumni and friends of camp reading these summer updates, thank you for your ongoing support of all we do at Pemi. You know better than anyone the truly lifelong benefits that accrue from time spent at camp, and your continued support and encouragement helps drive that home for today’s campers and parents. Pemi exists not only as the beautiful physical space that we all know and love, but also as a dispersed community that spreads our mission and values around the world. Just this week I received a photo from a former staff member who’d last been at Pemi a decade ago as she rendezvoused with a current staff member in Puebla, Mexico. The two never worked together, missing each other by years in fact, but the Pemi connection was enough for one to open her home and table to the other. Thank you to all of the Pemi alumni community for helping us as we continue to grow the Pemi family and support each other in all stages of life. 

To our current Pemi parents, thank you for your trust and commitment to our mission. Just this week I was emotional dropping my son off at daycare for the very first time, giving me a tiny taste of the sacrifices you make and the promises you expect to be upheld when sending your sons to Pemi for the summer. There’s nothing we take more seriously than the awesome responsibility of caring for and supporting our campers, but none of it would be possible if you didn’t believe in us and our mission. Pemi has always understood that our partnership includes not just the relationships between campers and counselors, but the vital relationship between parents and Pemi as well. Thank you for sending your sons to us this summer and for letting us be part of their journeys of growth and development. 

I mentioned above that it was a privilege and a pleasure for our staff to be here this summer, and that’s undeniably true. It was also an incredible commitment on their part, trading in all of the typical freedoms and independence of a college summer for the daily routine and demands of camp life. Our cabin counselors, especially, gave up all personal space and autonomy for the summer in order to provide our campers with the mentorship, care, and support they needed to thrive in this setting. Pemi’s staff come here because they love working with children, they value the outdoor environment and program offerings, and they believe deeply in Pemi’s mission. They worked unbelievably hard this summer, sprinting a marathon from June 27th to August 15th. Their dedication to this place, each other, and their campers is genuinely inspiring. Our campers are so lucky to have them as mentors and role models. Thank you to all of our staff for all you did this summer. 

Of course it’s only fitting that I circle back to our campers to end this newsletter. Now that you’re all back home and getting into the full swing of the school year, boys, I hope you’ve taken some moments to appreciate everything you did this summer. Living away from home for the first time, trying activities that may have scared or intimidated you, making new friends, consoling a homesick cabinmate, cheering on a teammate, giving your all in a performance and game, speaking in front of an audience for the first time, setting and achieving a goal, setting a goal and coming up short but holding your head high, and so much more – you did it all. You trekked across mountain ridges, learned about different species of ferns, picked up a guitar for the first time, learned to hit a curveball, and did it all while navigating cabin dynamics, building your independence, and figuring out how to advocate for yourself. The skills you developed, challenges you overcame, friendships you forged, and kindness you spread to others will serve you well this school year and for a lifetime to come. As you head into the fall, I hope you take to heart Kenny’s closing message to us all: If we all take a little bit of Pemi back home with us, a little bit of the integrity and kindness and empathy with which we operate here, and spread it to our communities, we’ll make the world around us a little bit better. With the whole Pemi family doing that, it adds up to a lot of improved communities filled with more integrity, kindness, joy, and caring. Thank you, boys, for everything this summer. 

With that it’s time to close the books on Pemi 2026. On behalf of Kenny, Johanna, and the entire Pemi family, thank you for joining and/or supporting us through another amazing summer here on Lower Baker Pond. I’ve said this before, but it somehow becomes more true with each passing summer: it is truly a privilege and the joy of a lifetime to share these updates with you, and I am immeasurably grateful to get to do so. Thank you for reading this summer, thank you for being a part of the Pemi community, and I already can’t wait for June 26, 2027!

Wishing you good luck, long life, and joy,

Pat