Apologies for being out of touch for a little while. I wanted to share with everyone some of the remarkable things that happen at camp when things don’t go as planned.
Last week over 45 families chose to spend their Labor Day Weekend here at Ockanickon for our bi-annual Family Camp. There was swimming, boating, challenge course, Gaga, and more.
One of the less glamorous side notes to operating a facility like this is our use of water. While at camp guests take showers, brush their teeth, hydrate, and go to the bathroom. On the Ockanickon side of the property, we have 30 showers, 38 toilets, and 21 sinks. All of these facilitates run off of one pump, that draws water from one well, that supplies everyone with that one basic necessity. And, our dining hall uses it too.
On Sunday morning of Labor Day Weekend that pump drew it’s last few gallon of water from that well and decided to call it quits. For the rest of the weekend we would be without showers, bathrooms, and water.
What would transpire over the next 24 hours was absolutely astounding and something that I can imagine could only happen at camp. Twenty three team members continued to run program with all of our families. Gary and his team transported water from Matolly to Ockanickon and provided four more meals in the dining hall without any running water. Jim and his crew manually flushed every toilet on camp, more times than anyone would care to consider. Mike moved Mr. Bob’s from locations all over camp into the villages. James and Matt moved hundreds of gallons of water from Matolly to Ocky so that each family had acess to fresh, clean water in their villages.
And finally, our Family Campers held strong, undeterred, and continued to enjoy all that camp has to offer.
Yvon Chouinard, the co-founder of the Patagonia Conservation Trust, said it best,
“It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong.”
Thanks to everyone who made this Labor Day Family Camp so memorable.
Happy Camping!
Dave Kaubin
Outdoor Recreation Director