The Bear Essentials from North Woods

"No S'mores? What kind of operation are you running anyway?!!" complained Yogi. Well, we did have Klondike bars... Due to the fact that the Great Hall floor had just been oiled, combined with the driest April on record forcing Smokey to post extreme danger warnings, eating S'mores by the fireplace didn't exactly seem like a great idea. So we went with ice cream, just to placate a certain member of the work crew's cravings!

Many thanks to the pack of volunteers who took part in the first "official" work weekend of the season (but certainly NOT the last): Andy Sherman, Todd Fournier, Adam Elboim, Mike McCarthy, Kate Bowie, Keith McCarthy, Herb and Dave Brasseur, Jill Gary and Greg Keohan.

By the time we left on Sunday evening, camp had begun to come out of hibernation:

- A truckload of desks, file cabinets and other donations from the Massachusetts Association of the Blind had been driven up from Boston and unloaded along with the new "Fireside Foos".

- To make room for the program additions to the basement of MacGregor Hall, the first waves of vessels were taken out of Fireside and are now ready for distribution to the Waterfronts during successive work weekends (hint).

- The Farmhouse kitchen was cleaned out, swept, mopped and rearranged so that even Goldilocks couldn't find fault, much less any porridge left out.

- Brush piles were stacked throughout the old Senior Section and attacked by the trio of Brush Bandits who left nothing behind but Grizzly sized mounds of chips ready to distribute all over camp (hint, hint).

- We even managed to find a moment to pick up a washer and dryer generously donated by Stephen Gordon to help with the laundry challenges generated by the junior section during the summer (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

- By the time the temperatures soared on Sunday, the Junior House provided refuge from the sun. Shirley's room was swept and plenty of books dusted off and shelved in anticipation of the Cub Scouts from Milford arriving for their pre-season weekend at camp.

Who knows, maybe next week we'll be doing Polar Bear swims to cool off instead!

So bring your mother and celebrate in style!! Well, at least come Saturday and get your paws dirty!

David Goodwin

North Woods Director

"The other day, I saw a bear... a great big bear, Oh, way up there..."