SHARON, Vt. (AP) - The sun hung high above the pines as a voice came booming through the loudspeakers and bounced off the hills, calling campers to lunch. From cabins the color of Lincoln logs, past clotheslines heavy with beach towels, the campers rambled down to the dining hall and found their places at long tables set with melamine plates, heaps of round dinner rolls and huge bowls of iceberg lettuce. Seated together so tightly that their shoulders overlapped, the campers and staff joined in song, the words jumbling together like the pans of goulash waiting in the kitchen:
The Earth is good to me,
And so I thank the Earth
For giving me the things I need:
The sun and rain and Camp Downer -
Yeeeeehaaaaw!
Tucked in the Downer State Forest along a twisting dirt road in Sharon, Camp Downer feels untouched by time, from the flag that’s raised every morning to “flashlight time” in the tightly packed cabins after lights out; from arts and crafts, archery and fishing to campfire songs and ghost stories around the bonfire.
One thing that will change at the end of this summer is the presence of Harold and Sherry Mitchell. Harold Mitchell - Mitch, as everyone around here knows him - lending his voice to the yeeeeehaaaaw from a table in the middle of the melee last week, and his wife, Sherry, threading her way through the lunch crowd for a hug from a staff member, plan to retire at the end of the summerl, ending 40 years leading the camp.
For Camp Downer veterans, and there are a lot of them, it’s hard to imagine camp without the couple that not only transformed it into a flourishing institution but created a culture and community that brings children back year after year and generation after generation.
“It’s their vision, their love, their generosity and their commitment that have made Camp Downer what it is today,” said Emily Myers, a former camper and staff member who began serving as director of the camp this year in anticipation of the Mitchells’ retirement. “I think the biggest gift they could ever give was of themselves and their time here at camp. They’ve touched thousands of lives.”
Opened in 1945 as a 4-H camp in the 700-acre Downer Forest, Camp Downer was in rough shape when the Mitchells, both public school teachers in northern Vermont, arrived with their three young daughters in 1980. It had fallen onto difficult financial times, and the buildings and grounds were in disrepair. Some weeks, a third of the cabins were closed for lack of campers.
“We walked in, and we thought, OK,” said Harold Mitchell, 74, sitting at a picnic table outside the same cabin where the family took up residence that first summer.
Little by little, the Mitchells made and oversaw repairs and renovations and managed to get the camp back on solid financial footing. Meanwhile, they transformed the camp atmosphere, replacing militaristic rituals such as lining up tallest to shortest with fun, nurturing routines - and, over the years, making those routines into beloved traditions.
“We really, really try to keep traditions here,” Harold Mitchell said.
Those traditions are the glue that binds together generations of campers - Mitchell estimates the camp has hosted 24,000 young people during his tenure - many of whom come back to serve on staff.
“They’ve established traditions and a community that stays the same year after year,” said Julia Sinton, of Ithaca, N.Y., who attended camp as a teenager and now works there as an administrative assistant.
Those two things - tradition and community - are inextricably linked, said Luke Burton, of Montpelier, who came to Camp Downer for about six summers as a camper and has served in various staff roles for eight years.
“Summer camp is one of the last oral cultures,” he said. “The myths and legends and all the little things like the way you stand by the campfire - they’re not written down. They’re passed on by those who came before you.”
Burton, who was tending to a few repairs around the grounds in anticipation of reunion weekend (held every three years) last Friday evening, met his partner, Alanna Gaylord, at Camp Downer in 2012, when they were both working as counselors. They’re one of many couples - and dozens more lifelong friendships - that trace their origins to Camp Downer.
“I’ve never seen a group of people that care for each other so dearly as the Downer staff,” he said.
But there’s something else that sets Camp Downer apart, something Harold Mitchell said he hears again and again when he talks with campers about their experiences. “Every single time I ask, the answer is the same: ’When we come through these gates, we’re all equal. . Here at camp, I can be who I really am,’ ” he said.
Because rates are affordable - this year a one-week session is $445, in contrast with other area summer camps ranging in price from $700 to more than $2,000 per week - campers come from a wide range of socioeconomics backgrounds, Mitchell said. And the differences between them melt away when they’re singing goofy songs around the campfire, playing sports and games together on the field, or sharing junk food and stories after lights out.
Campers are mixed by age, from 8 to 16, throughout much of the day as well.
“It’s like a family, and you know everyone,” said Hazel Albee, 15, of Fairfax, Vt., hanging out with her friends outside their cabin after lunch last week.
For 13-year-old Summer Herrington, of Waterbury, Vt., that family atmosphere has helped her forget the pressures she feels in her daily life. “I used to have really bad anxiety,” Herrington said. “Camp has helped with that a lot.”
A few things have changed over the years. The camp “clans” now bear the names of Vermont wildlife - deer, coyotes, bobcats - instead of Native American tribes. And campers can choose from gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options, along with typical camp favorites at mealtime. New traditions are always being forged, too. During Camp Downer Olympics, held on the weekend in the middle of the camp’s only two-week session, clans get a variety of awards ranging from a gold cup to a toilet seat, which they proudly display above their tables in the dining hall for the remainder of the summer.
For the most part, though, Camp Downer is the same as it’s ever been. The closest thing you’ll find to modern technology are the walkie-talkies that hang on staff members’ belts. Electronic devices are strictly forbidden.
Mitchell remembers one parent getting angry about the policy and insisting that her child be allowed to keep her cellphone. A few hours after registration, the child surrendered it herself.
“They almost seem happy that they don’t have to be on their phones,” Mitchell said.
The policy certainly isn’t keeping people away, at any rate. There’s room for about 1,000 campers at the six one-week sessions and one two-week session, and the slots have been filling up within minutes for the past six or seven years, Mitchell said.
Strong programming - the camp has 36 different programs, ranging from traditional favorites like woodworking and swimming to a new program called food for fitness - also attract campers, said Sherry Mitchell, 71, who serves as executive director and whose job description includes basically anything that needs to be done on a given day.
The Mitchells began discussing retirement about five years ago, but Sherry Mitchell wanted to fulfill a dream first.
“It was important for our granddaughters to be campers before we left,” she said. Last year, one of their three granddaughters attended camp.
The Mitchells, who now live in the Champlain Islands, will remain familiar faces around the camp as they hand leadership off to Myers. They’ve offered to help out whenever needed and will attend special events such as the Camp Downer Olympics.
When they return, they’re likely to find things pretty much as they left them.
Myers, who recently moved with her family back to Norwich from Alaska, after her husband wrapped up a 21-year military career, intends to preserve all the things that make Camp Downer special.
“That’s the biggest gift that I can give to them is just to carry on the traditions,” she said.
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Information from: Lebanon Valley News, http://www.vnews.com
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