Camp Merrie-Woode situated, Celebrated on Fairfield Lake, Sapphire, North Carolina, USA

 

On this page you will find the newest information about Camp Merrie-Woode® and the Camp Merrie-Woode® Web site. For previous news items check the links to your right.

April 21, 2008
Betsy's Engaged

Big news…Merrie-Woode has another upcoming wedding to announce! Our new senior staff member, Betsy Reese, is engaged! Her fiancé, Josh Helms, proposed last Friday evening on the counselor deck at camp. Josh grew up in Charlotte, earned his undergrad degree from UNC, and a Masters in Divinity from Wake Forest in 2004. They are both looking forward to being around camp this summer and enjoying their engagement. Congratulations, Josh and Betsy!

Max, the new camp dog!April 11, 2008
Meet Max, the New Camp Dog

Merrie-Woode has a new camp dog! Max came to live with the Dunns after Debi found him wandering around downtown Cashiers for a few days. Seeing him alone and hungry, Debi decided to stop and take him into camp Max, the new camp dog!for the day. He then had a trip to the vet and after confirming that no one was looking for Max, he ended up making Merrie-Woode home. He and Gracie have made fast friends. Max is sweet, mellow and a little bit shy, and has proven himself to be a very agile climber. Max is excited for camp to start and meet all his new camper friends!

April 4, 2008
Long-range Planning Survey, We Need Your Help...

Our upcoming master plan will help to guide the future use of our land here at Camp Merrie-Woode. The result will be the continued stewardship of our 390 acres, ensuring that the "built environment" is developed and managed in harmony with the "natural environment".

We are asking for input from all of our extended family - our alumnae, campers, parents, and staff - to help ensure that our master planning efforts "hit the mark". Please take some time to complete this short survey. Thanks! Long-range Planning Survey

April 2, 2008
New Head Counselor: Betsy Reese

Irma (the beagle) with new Head Counselor Betsy Reese.We are thrilled to announce that, after a long search, camp has hired a new Head Counselor! Betsy Reese will join our staff this summer to fill this full time, year-round position. Many of you will remember Betsy from her many years here at Merrie-Woode. She was a camper from 1989 to 1996 and a counselor from 1998 to 2004. During her years as a staff member she worked as a cabin counselor, Would-Be leader, Head of the Waterfront and assistant to Senior Staff. She also worked in camp one off-season to assist with the ACA audit. Her many years of camp experience, and understanding and devotion to camp's traditions, made her the perfect candidate for the job! Betsy has been working as a high school English teacher at Charlotte Latin School in Charlotte, NC since 2005. She earned her masters degree from Western Carolina University. We are very excited to have Betsy joining us! She has long been a highly respected member of the Merrie-Woode family by both campers and counselors alike. She is eager to be back for her first summer on Lake Fairfield in a few years and can't wait for the summer to start! Welcome back, Betsy! We can't wait to have you back at camp where you belong!

March 22, 2008
On the road again recruiting counselors

The Merrie-Woode staff has been out on the road often the past few months. Jim, Denice, Julie, Christina and Lindsay have been hitting the recruiting trail hard in 2008! Staff recruiting included trips to UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, Sewanee, UVA, Washington and Lee, and Appalachian State. It was great to catch up with many Merrie-Woode girls on our travels and see what everyone was up to! And now, with recruiting trips done and summer just around the corner, it looks like we're shaping up to have a great group of counselors this summer!

March 15, 2008
Julie's Baby Shower

We all threw Julie a surprise baby shower here in the camp office last week! Annette Herstek and Sid Long both joined the regular year-round CMW crew to help celebrate. Denice conveniently kept Julie in a meeting all morning in her office, while the rest of us snuck over to the program office to decorate. By the time we were done the program office was all decked out with balloons, streamers, posters, and baby decorations. We all enjoyed a lovely lunch of sandwiches and soup, and dessert was a cake designed with an ice cream container and pickles. After lunch, everyone had a ball watching Julie open all her baby gifts! Everyone is starting to get excited as the due date, May 18th, gets closer and closer!

Meredith Willson's Music ManMarch 1, 2008
Announcing the Main Session Musical of 2008!

Get ready for a parade of 76 trombones through camp this summer! The Main Session musical of 2008 is The Music Man! Meredith Wilson's classic musical of Smalltown, USA at the turn of the 20th Century follows the story of charming, fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys' band he promises to direct - despite the fact that he doesn't know one note from another. His plans to skip town with the cash are foiled when he falls for Marian the librarian, who manages to transform him into a respectable citizen by the time the curtain falls. With a slew of memorable songs including "Seventy-Six Trombones", "Goodnight My Someone", "Ya Got Trouble", "Wells Music ManFargo Wagon", "Gary Indiana" and "Till There Was You", this show moves from one show stopping number to the next.

The Music Man is unquestionably one of the most beloved shows of all time. The original production ran on Broadway for 1,375 performances and took home five 1958 Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Actor in a Musical for Robert Preston. The Music Man turned Robert Preston into a star. He went on to play the title character in the 1962 film version of The Music Man, which also starred Shirley Jones and a very young and redheaded Ron Howard. The Broadway revival of the show in 2000 took in eight Tony nominations as well as several Music ManDrama Desk Awards and nominations.

As American as apple pie, the Fourth of July and Cracker Jacks all rolled into one, The Music Man is destined to become a camp favorite on the Castle stage, and seems the perfect fit for our 90th anniversary of camp!

If anyone has any old band instruments they don't use anymore, Merrie-Woode could certainly use them this summer! If you do have an instrument to loan for the summer, please contact Lindsay in the camp office at 828-743-3300.

February 2008
ACA Conference in Nashville!

Jim, Denice, Christina, and Lindsay just returned from the American Camp Association (ACA) national conference in Nashville, Tennessee! The conference was very informative and we came away with great ideas for camp this summer! We also enjoyed seeing the sights in Nashville. Lindsay was in heaven in the capital of country music! Some of the highlights of the trip included a tour of the Ryman Auditorium where the Grand Ole Opry is performed, line dancing at the Wild Horse Saloon, and enjoying dinner at The Bluebird Café while listening to a group of singer-songwriters perform their songs. Christina, a huge Dukes of Hazzard fan, was thrilled to see the orange Dodge Charger, General Lee, used in filming the television show. It was a great visit in Nashville! In typical camp style, we worked hard, played hard, and came back home exhausted but ready for camp!

February 2008
Merrie-Woode Gang in NOLA!

The year-round Merrie-Woode staff has just returned from a week in New Orleans, Louisiana! We had a fantastic opportunity through the St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church and their program, Rebuilding Hope In New Orleans (RHINO), to work for a week with Habitat for Humanity on the construction offive new homes that they are building on an inner-city block. Camp family members Ellie Lane and Georgia Simpson also came to join us to work for a day. A church member took us on a driving tour of the city to see the devastation that is still left even two years after Hurricane Katrina. It made it all the more inspiring to witness and be involved in the rebuilding and recovery of such a great city.

We also found some time for fun, as it was conveniently the week of Mardi Gras! We went out on the town one night and enjoyed walking through the French Quarter, riding in cable cars, and sipping coffee and eating beignets at Café Du Monde. We were able to catch a few parades while dining on the front porch of Bobby Hassinger's home. The Hassingers are a long time camp family. Bobby has served several years on the board and two of his daughters, Betsy and Catherine, both attended camp.

George and Fran Villere graciously opened their home to our group, with the help of Mathilde Currence and Jill Nalty, for a very traditional New Orleans dinner of red beans and rice and King Cake. Christina was especially excited at the idea of the King Cake when she heard a rumor that whomever finds the hidden baby gets to be queen for a year! We quickly informed her that it was queen for a day, not a year! We were able to see many other members of the New Orleans camp community as well, while hearing from countless Merrie-Woode families while we were  in town with well wishes and endless thanks.

Looking back, it was a whirlwind of a week, but undoubtedly well worth it! Habitat for HumanityAnd while we certainly made time for some fun in the Big Easy, it was truly the work and our time on the Habitat job site that was the most memorable. We left with a feeling of accomplishment and pride at the work we were able to do to help revive such a beloved city filled with history and culture.

For more information on the RHINO missions program and to view pictures of the construction site, please visit the following link: http://www.scapc.org/Pages/rhino.html

January 25, 2008
Goin’ to the Chapel and We’re Gonna Get Married!

Wedding bells will be ringing at Camp Merrie-Woode this year! We have not one, but two, engagements to announce…and both proposals happened on Christmas Day! Gary Hostetler, who works on our year round maintenance crew and has taught both woodworking and theatre tech classes during the summers, is engaged to Lindsay Garner. Lindsay works year round in the office and heads up the theatre program in the summers.

Another member of our maintenance crew, Corey Pressley, is also engaged. He and Mary Ashley Cole of Cashiers, NC have decided to tie the knot. Congratulations to both couples as they start this exciting time in their lives!

January 15, 2008
Announcing the winners of our First Annual CRAZY CAMP PHOTO CONTEST!……

CAROLINE REEVES

Congratulations, Caroline! Your photo made all of us in the office laugh whole-heartedly!

Second Place: Ella Janvier
Third Place: Shelby Lopez

Your prizes will be mailed to the three of you this week!

First Place Photo by Caroline Reeves


C
RAZY CAMP PHOTO CONTEST!

To the right in rotation are some of the photos that won an honorable mention.

We hope everyone enjoys them! The honorable mention photographers were Abigail Panitz, Caroline Reeves (again), Parker Chambers, Perry Ellis, Stuart Bowers, and Kelsie Dodson.

Thanks to everyone who participated!


January 11, 2008
New Addition to Merrie-Woode staff!

We have a new addition to the Merrie-Woode Office! Christina Daniels has joined us, as we continue to restructure our year round office staff. She will be our new Program/Development Director. Many of you will remember Christina as she has worked at camp for four summers. She spent three years as the Head of Ceramics and, just this past summer, worked as our Summer Program Director. Christina comes to us from Summit Charter School in Cashiers, NC where she worked for three years as the Art Instructor and was then promoted to the Middle School Lead Teacher. We are thrilled to have Christina with us!
Julie (the lower of the two with arms spread) has officially moved to Atlanta with her husband, Casey, and will continue to help with staff recruiting from a distance until the summer. We plan to fill the Head Counselor/Staff Recruiting position before June.



January, 2008
Announcing the First Annual
(and possibly the last)
CRAZY CAMP PHOTO CONTEST!
It's a cold, windy day here in the mountains as we found ourselves going through funny photos of camp. Then we had a thought…


Yes, we are announcing our very first "Crazy Camp Photo Contest"! Here is how it works…you send us your very favorite goofy camp picture of this past summer. It can be of anything from silliness in the cabin to ridiculous costumes at evening programs. Be sure to include your name and the names of everyone seen in the picture. Email all entries to Lindsay@merriewoode.com by January 4, 2008. Only one entry per contestant! Winners will be announced in January right here on the "What's New" page and, along with seeing their photo posted on the web site, will receive a prize in the mail! So go dig through all those crazy camp pictures and pick the best one to send us! In the meantime, here are some of our favorite pictures here in the office for you to enjoy.




Visit this page for information on a Camp Merrie-Woode screensaver and wallpaper!We offer one of the newest additions to the Camp Merrie-Woode® Web site-preparation of an image suitable for a computer monitor's screen saver or wall paper. You can find out on this link. There are instructions for making the image your screensaver or wall paper too on both MAC or PC platform.

 

last update 4/14/2008
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Julie Christina Christina Second Place by Ella Janvier Third Place by Shelby Lopez