CCAA Holiday Fundraiser Ends Dec 2, 2019

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CCAA Holiday Fundraiser 2019

The Camp Carysbrook Alumnae Association’s annual winter fundraiser is here! Cure your long, cold winter months camp blues by donning some new Carysbrook gear, all while supporting the CCAA Scholarship Fund to send girls to camp.

The CCAA is invested in building a bridge between past and present campers and staff, and our community has been integral in establishing ways to give back to Carysbrook. All proceeds of the winter fundraiser go to the Scholarship Fund, which in turn helps girls experience Carysbrook, regardless of economic, racial, geographic, religious, ethnic or social background.

Sale ends December 2, 2019 to ensure delivery for the holidays!

If you’re interested in international shipping, please contact Erika in the camp office.

Support now: https://tinyurl.com/CCAAwinterfundraiser

95th Anniversary Reunion September 21-23, 2018

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More info and registration details to follow! Mark you calendars for September 21-23:

Celebrate 95 years of Camp Carysbrook and many more to come!
Open to all Camp Carysbrook camper/staff alum 18+
Return to camp days, sleep in cabins; meals in the dining hall; activities; silent auction to benefit the Scholarship Fund; alum service project; campfire and s’mores!
Reconnect and meet other alum who hold Carysbrook near to their hearts!
$50 for CCAA members/ $100 non-members
email emweb13@gmail.com for more info

2017 Camp Carysbrook Alumnae Holiday Gift Fundraiser

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The Camp Carysbrook Alumnae Association fundraiser ended December 7, 2017! Thank you to all who participated! We sold 96 shirts and sweatshirts and raised $1550 for the CCAA Scholarship Fund. If you missed out, please contact the office. We have a limited number of green and brown long sleeved shirts still available.

The Carysbrook holiday ornaments that ship with your choice of green, brown, or purple ribbons are still available. All proceeds benefit the CCAA Scholarship Fund.

https://goo.gl/forms/dSYrrQqTVod0pt202

 

 

 

Alumnae Spotlight May 2014: Tori Fazio Capeletti Brown-Purple

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Tori and Cesa

Tori and Cesa

How did you find out about camp?
Our parents went to a camp fair and they met Toni and BB. I think they liked the idea of the traditional girls’ camp and the location was close enough to DC. I wonder if our parents knew they were making one of the most important choices that would affect us for the rest of our lives.

Describe Your First Summer
1986 I remember being so excited that we were going to stay at camp for the whole summer. My favorite activities were tennis, swimming, and riding. I really like that the only activities that were scheduled were swimming and riding lessons. I liked the freedom to go to different activities when I wanted to. I think this helped developed the strong sense of independence that so many of my camp friends still have today.

Counselor Days
1994-2002 My home away from home was the Rifle Range. I worked there as a WIT and counselor, and I was head of the range for a few summers. I carry the experiences from camp with me everyday. This is where I learned that anything boys can do, girls can do! I also learned that with focus, practice, and commitment, I can achieve my goals and get to the next level. I learned that it’s ok to be silly and it’s ok to be silent sometimes and just think. Camp provided me the opportunity to make friends from around the world. I know wherever I go, I’m close by to someone I know from camp. Camp friends are for life. Five of the six girls that were bridesmaids in my wedding are camp friends.

Education and Professional Life
I graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in Foreign Service and I have a Masters in Instructional Technology. I have been teaching middle school for eleven years and I credit camp for so many of my teaching skills, ideas, and classroom management. Camp was a place where people cared about each other and helped each other learn and grow as much as possible. I try to create the same atmosphere in my class. Everyone is equal and everyone deserves the chance to try.

90th Anniversary Alumnae Weekend 1923-2013

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Thank you for reconnecting and reliving some of our fondest childhood memories as well as for your generosity in supporting the CCAA Scholarship fund. Stay in touch for years to come by joining the CCAA today!

Alumnae Spotlight July/August 2013 Travis Giles Schnell Brown-Purple

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How did you find out about camp?
I come from a family that has Carysbrook in its blood! The tradition of Carysbrook goes back 3 generations for me.

Describe your first summer
My first summer at camp was 1987! I lived in Finch with some other girls from Norfolk. I loved looking for my mother’s name written in toothpaste in the cabins. Wendy Anderson was my cabin counselor. I remember washing my hair in super cold spickits. I remember how cool it was to try new things that I had never done before. I remember Kathy Baker was my riding instructor. She taught me in importance of not saying “I can’t!” She taught me always to try new things and not give up. I remember working together as a cabin for Air-Rock Concert. In fact, I have so many wonderful memories of my days at Carysbrook as a camper. I loved going on caving trips, I loved hanging out in the hammocks during free time, and I even loved skinny dipping in the lake after taps! The friendships that were created along the way were and are some of the best friendships that I’ve ever had!

Counselor Days
I had quite a few roles in my Seven years on staff! My early counselor days I taught swimming and synchronized swimming. I also taught Canoeing. Other summers I taught Music. My last summer at camp, I was the Programing Director. Ever since my WIT year, I’ve always had a passion for younger children. I lived on Junior row for 5 summers! Mockingbird was my second home! What was incredible was that I was able to continue working with girls that not only was I a CIT with, but girls that I had known since my first summer at camp!

Education
I attended Randolph Macon Woman’s College. I earned a BA in History in 1999. I returned to Virginia Weslyan College in 2002 to complete my teaching certification for and Elementary Education. I taught for 3 years before I became a mom! Now I am excited to be able to share with my daughter the love that I have for camp one day.

 

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Alumnae Spotlight June 2013 Elizabeth Fox Ball Green-Purple

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Camp Carysbrook is literally in my blood. Carysbrook was started by my two great great aunts. My grandmother went to the camp before it moved to where it is today. My mother and sisters were also campers. I grew up on Carysbrook stories. I was fortunate that Toni reopened Carysbrook so that I could go.

My first summer I was a little homesick but Alison really made me feel at home. I met a lifelong friend that year, Carter. I loved being able to experience all the activities that I soon fell in love with especially riding and riflery.

I loved being a counselor and helping create some of the magic. I remember reading stories to Bob White and Toni yelling at me from the office because I am so loud and my voice carried.

I went to Guilford College in Greensboro, NC for psychology. I am now a clinician working with individuals who have mental illness, substance abuse, and intellectual disabilities. I am married and a mother to two boys. I named my second son Stuart Preston after my great great aunt. I still love camp and now tell my boys camp stories. They love the camp songs especially Tom the Toad..

Alumnae Spotlight May 2013 Rachel Steury Brown-Purple

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How did you find out about camp?
Toni Baughman was married to Earl, Earl worked with my dad, my dad wanted to send me to camp for the summer so what else was he to do?

Describe your first summer? Camper years 1983-86
I started in Dove and I think I was there 2 years, then Bluebird then Swallow. Once I was a returning camper, I kept hearing about this girl, Jen “Sally” Mehler. She was my doppelganger- always came for the first session, I came for the second, she was the Brown Team captain, I took over after she went home, she slept on that bunk, I slept on that bunk! I kind of felt inferior every time I got to camp- Oh, Jen slept there. Oh, Sally was the team captain, oh oh oh! Once she and I met in person, our CIT summer, we became fast friends and she’s still one of my closest peeps in DC! I wouldn’t be who I am without Camp. I love Carysbrook with all of my heart and am so grateful for her presence in my life.

Counselor days: 1989-90
As a counselor, my cabin was Bluebird twice. I was the gymnastics counselor because there was no one else to do it and I could do a somersault!

Education/Professional Life
I got my undergrad at University of Wisconsin. After spending 20 years in Milwaukee, I returned to the East Coast via a short trip to Connecticut for grad school at Yale. Now I work as a Nurse Practitioner at the Heart Institute at Children’s National Medical Center. I still see Sally Mehler Rardin as much as possible and know her daughters will be Carysbrook girls, in fact her oldest’s first gift from “Auntie Rachel” was a BROWN blanket. Camp taught me that a silly song goes a long way, grilled cheese and tomato soup make the sun shine on the rainiest of days and that no matter where we came from or what our family was like, if we were sitting in a hammock, waiting for lunch; walking quietly through the dark to campfire; sweeping out the cabin for morning inspection or just hanging out at fire patrol, we all shared camp. Thanks CC!

Alumnae Spotlight April 2013 Paula Rainey Benson Purple

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How did you find out about camp?
Toni was my step-mom’s cousin and we went to Carysbrook for a family reunion during the late fall of my senior year of high school. I fell in love with camp… the fields, forests, and cabins that weekend and was thrilled when Toni offered me a job at Rec. Sports for the following summer. Two weeks in, I actually traded activities with another counselor and worked at Outdoor Living Skills (where I worked for the next 4 summers).

Describe your first summer:
My first summer at camp was purely amazing. We built 1-match fires and made lots of s’mores; stayed up late, camping under the stars to watch meteor showers; canoed down the Little River; sang songs after every meal; and experienced the magic of Saturday night Campfire. Though the purpose of Carysbrook is to provide a wonderful camp experience for the campers, the staff is provided the same experience, just through a slightly different lens. I can be a very shy person, but I was encouraged to share my interests and talents. Carysbrook really helped me to establish who I am as a person without all those media-driven ideas that we are bombarded with on a daily basis at home. I was introduced to people and cultures from around the world and made amazing friends (friendships that will last a lifetime)! And not least importantly, I was encouraged to be silly… to have fun… and to play in one of the most beautiful places imaginable.

Counselor Days
I was a counselor at Carysbrook from 1997-2000, teaching Outdoor Living Skills. In 2002, the summer after Toni passed away, I returned, along with lots of former staff members, to do anything I could to help keep the light of Carysbrook burning. I came back again in 2003, and then from 2004-2007, my family lived at Carysbrook as the off-season caretakers of the property. I was also able to work during those summers as the CAP instructor. I consider myself to be unbelievably fortunate to have experienced Carysbrook year-round, and that my son, Ethin, could spend three of his formative years growing up at Camp Carysbrook.

Education.
My first 2 years of college, I studied Outdoor Education at Montreat College, in the mountains of western North Carolina. I transferred my junior year to Columbia College in South Carolina, where I earned my BA in studio art. While living at Carysbrook, I earned my MFA in studio art at Radford University. And, I actually just recently completed my K-12 teaching licensure in art education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.

Alumnae Spotlight February 2013 Cesa Fazio 1986 – 2004 Green – Purple

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How did you find out about camp?
We lived in DC and my parents met Toni and BB at a camp fair. They instantly knew Carysbrook was something special.

Describe Your First Summer
Made lots of friends and learned how to be one. Learned to build a one match fire and how to roast the perfect marshmallow. At eight years old I’m sure I was pretty rambunctious.
Colleen and Dimple were my first counselors in Mockingbird. Lake Catherine was and is still my favorite place in camp. Ashley Parker was my first team captain… 1986!! Go Green! Tori was on the brown team!

Counselor Days
When we were CITs we got to try out working at different activities. And of course I ended up at the dock! And that was my home every summer for the next 10+ summers. I was head of the dock and head counselor for a few summers, and when the time came when I couldn’t spend the whole summer at camp, somehow I made it back to Riner for a birthday visit!

Without camp I wouldn’t be who I am today. I still have my quote book that I started as a camper…. I remember being so excited to write down a new poem that Toni read at campfire or the new sayings of the summer! My favorite camp song is “I Know a Place.”

One of the most important lessons I think about all the time is to make sure that people always feel included. Everyone is the same.

Education
After graduating from the University of Florida with a BS in advertising with a minor in Spanish, I worked in advertising for a little bit but I knew that I wanted to work with kids, so I started teaching elementary school 10 years ago. Every day I am reminded of something I learned at Carysbrook. And when my students are humming a camp song that I’ve taught them, I sit back and think of that little place we call camp.

As a counselor I learned that every person on the team is essential to the success of the team. I am currently the team leader for 5th grade at my school and being a counselor at camp taught me to work will many different personalities and to find the good in each person. Camp taught me to be reliable and responsible.