Hello everyone…
Chef Jason here to introduce another Guest Blogger. Lauren Correia has been a Camper and Staff at Camp Matollionequay for years. As a Staff member Lauren has held many titles culminating with being our CIT/LIT Director for 3 years running at Matolly.
Here is a very sweet little story that I found on Lauren’s personal Blog and I asked if we could share it here. Thankfully she said yes!!
Without further ado… Ms. Lauren Correia…
Isobel Sloan (pictured left) and I (pictured right) had the great fortune of being Camp Matolly’s boating directors for the summer of 2008. Besides killer tans, bulging biceps, and the satisfaction of successfully teaching a Cherokee how to boat well enough to avoid the bushes, one of our biggest takeaways from the summer came even before the first campers checked in for session 1– never judge a book by its cover.
This is Art Kleinspehn.
In order to become the skillful and knowledgable boaters we are today, Isobel and I had to take a two day canoeing crash course instructed by Art. He paid the closest attention to the two of us because he said we were the prettiest girls in the class and held our boat up to the dock to have us demonstrate different strokes while our classmates were left to learn on their own around the lake.
We braved the blistering sun and some ridiculously strong winds, while Art sat under a beach umbrella in a lawn chair on the dock and yelled “CLASS!” into a megaphone to get our attention. Near the end of the first day, we finally saw Art get into a boat and the whole class was blown away. Not by the wind rushing over Lake Stockwell, but by how much we had underestimated Art’s skill in a canoe. In his old age, he kicked our butts up and down the lake, moving with more precision and ease than any of us teenagers and twenty-somethings would ever have on the water.
Art came and checked up on Isobel and I in the middle of the summer and sat in on one of our boating periods with the girls. Every summer since, I’ve been around to see him teach the course to new boating directors and I always try to have a quick chat with him. Although I’m not sure he always remembers me, I’m certain that I’ll never forget him.
Art was born on March 16, 1918, making Friday his 94th birthday. He’ll be instructing the class again this summer and I’m positive he’ll row circles around his new crop of students. He is definitely one of the most interesting people I’ve had the chance to meet in my life and my experience in his class helped shape one of the best summers I’ve ever had. Happy belated birthday, Art!
