Camp Alton Message Board

I had yontif dinner last night with Stuart Fine and his family. He is now a big name in the music biz...rap I think...not sure if it is Jiffy or Sahran...anyhow he sends his greetings to all, but especially to Harold Goodman, his counselor for two summers!

I take a company van to work with a Turkish man driving and about 15 Mexican workers. For some reason everytime I get in the van I think how Jeffrey Greenfield would have already had the workers doing a class A cheer..I will work on it!

L'shanna tovah!

neilbrier@yahoo.com

Some people may already know this-- and maybe it is premature to even mention it. But, what the hell... My brother Jeff and I are both teachers in Chicago at a community oriented independent school (surprisingly reminiscent of camp). We have been talking for many years about one day starting a camp in the spirit of Alton. While we could never and woud not want to re-create an Alton clone, our educational philosophies and values were shaped by our combined 20 years at Camp Alton-- and any camp we are able to start will certainly be guided by these principles and built upon that which worked so well at Alton. While we have both been program directors at a camp after Alton closed, we have not had the opportunity to really run a camp. This past summer we took our first major step in this direction by starting a day camp based out of our school. While the camp was small (about 50 kids) and nowhere near as complex to manage as an overnight camp will be, it did provide us the opportunity to gain experience handling hiring, payroll, creating program, recruiting, dealing with parents, insurance risks, and other concerns that will help us when the time comes. We plan to stay with the day camp until it is stable and profitable, and then build upon this experience. We will need to attract investors since there is no way for us (as teachers) to come up with the necessary capital. Jared Kasher just had a baby boy-- so the way I see it, I have 7 years to build him a camp! When it happens (and it will), we are hopeful that the Alton community will embrace the camp, feel a connection, and infuse it with the same genuine spirit and magic that has sustained us all since camp's closing ten years ago.

Rstone29@aol.com