Alumni
This is the place where Camp Wakonda Alumni can share information and keep up on upcoming events.
If you attended or worked at Wakonda, we’d like to hear from you! Let us know where you are and what you are doing.
As we plan for the 50th Reunion coming up on July 3-5, 2009, we are looking for contact information of all who still call Wakonda their home away from home. Please e-mail our director, Ben George, at bgeorge@cantoncpc.org with your name, address, phone number, and any other related information.
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I went to the camp for several years and worked there for a couple more. I simply couldn’t get enough and would like to be a part of the anniversary. Additionally, I was a member of John Knox PC.
I now live in Phoenix with my wife and two children (ages 2 and 9).
Gosh, I miss Wakonda. In the real world, people look at you funny when you start pounding the table during the chorus of “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo.”
I was a camper and a counselor for several years in the 1980s and made some lifelong friends at camp. I’m grateful to still have people in my life who understand that I’m not talking about a spa treatment when I mention the mud pit.
I now live in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where I’m an editor for the daily newspaper, the Winston-Salem Journal.
Camp Wakonda! This wonderful place, along with the amazing CUPC Youth Fellowship, was the biggest part of my adolescence. Currently living in the metro D.C. area, I fully intend to bring my two daughters to the 50th anniversary celebration. And to think I remember the 25th as if it was yesterday! I hope plenty of my fellow campers/friends return as well to reminisce
with me!
I attended Camp Wakonda for several summers starting 34 years ago…to the best of my recollection. I sooo loved it and have many, many pleasant memories. I attended as a youth at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Canton, Ohio. I was an active member there for most of my life with the exception of the time I lived in Cleveland. Just this last year I moved to Bexley, Ohio and now attend Brookwood Presbyterian in Columbus, Ohio. I am married to the Senior Pastor there. I would love to attend a reunion at Camp Wakonda!!!
Camp Wakonda - Oh,my goodness. I still remember every corner of every cabin, the lodge, the trails to the lake, even the lake itself. I attended for most of my childhood and served as a counselor as I grew older. I loved it so much that as a child I would start packing in January for our July trip. I have great memories, from the trumpets that woke us to Vespers service and beyond. Capture the flag… canoeing to the spring… camp songs ( I was there when many were folk songs used in the anti-war movement.) Oh - and Michael Row the Boat Ashore - my favorite. I remember sitting on the lodge deck just taking in the beautiful scenery. Campfires. Lanyards. It’s all indelibly printed in my brain, Once in a while my friends and I returned for a visit, but not for a very long time. I think I might drive my family down there for a visit. I was always sad that Calvary (Presbyterian Church in Canton, Ohio) became too small to support the yearly camp migation south by the time my children were of age…
I worked as a counsellor & waterfront director in 1993 when I was on a year out from studying in Australia. I have never been made to feel so welcome & part of a community as I did during that summer there. i have carried the experiences and memories with me and often ‘return’ to that special place that wakonda was, and no doubt still is. the friendships and bond between the counsellors during my time there was incredible and dick barnard invited me on the trip out west afterwards to pine ridge, which was another amazing experience. I have lived in london for the past 8yrs but do hope one day to return to the amazing, spiritual place that is very much still in my heart.
Hi, I spent three very happy summers at Camp Wakonda in the mid-70’s as a Camp America councelor and still miss Camp and the wonderful staff and campers I met. To say that Wakonda was life changing experience is a huge understatement. Through working at Camp and the experience it gave me of America, I eventually started my own business sending Brits to the US for vacations. I have travelled to almost every US state and love the country very much. I am hoping to attend the 2009 reunion and meeting up with my old friends from camp. As a PS, my 18 year old daughter is heading for California this summer as a Camp America councelor teaching horse-riding. I only hope her experience of summer camp is as wonderful as mine was. Thanks to Dick Barnard!!
I quite literally grew up at Camp Wakonda, starting as a camper in 1967. I went to camp a day late in 1969 so I could watch Neil Armstrong land on the moon. From 1975-1978 I spent my whole summers there, first as Waterfront Director and then as a counselor for three years. (I was fortunate to overlap Mike Easton’s tenure–see his entry above.) Barb (Thomas)and I met on the second trip to Taize in 1975. We were both on the Wakonda staff in 1978. We dated for 7 years and have now been married for 26. It was at Wakonda that my music ministry began, scrubbing away on the old songs we all still remember. Now I play guitar for the contemporary worship service at St. Luke’s Episcopal in Minneapolis, Barb’s and my church home since 1983. I’m a pediatric radiologist and Barb is a preschool teacher and sunday school director. We hope to be able to be with you all at the 50th Anniversary Celebration next summer!
Hi all. I first went to Camp Wakonda as a camp counselor in 1995. It was a 21st birthday gift from my parents. They told me to choose a country and I did. I thank God everyday for halping me make that choice.
It was a real difficult time in my life too, the previous year my aunt died of Cancer. We were really close. I loved spending time at the river just crying my heart out to God. I remember sitting in the counselor’s rec room all alone and listening to Sandi Patty’s song, “Was it a morning like this?” In that small room God spoke to my heart and gave me the peace that I needed, to know that everything will be okay.
I was amazed at how nice people were to me. It was a bit intimidating to be in the USA, but all that vanished when I would spend time with so many people. Two of my closest friends at Wakonda that first year was Maggie (Vranek)and Jason Thorne. They are married now.
The one thing that I will always say about Wakonda is that it holds and always will hold a Piece of my heart.
Then I went back to Wakonda in 2000. That was Gods doing entirely. The circumstances were perfect as only God can do it. It was as though God knew why he needed me to be there. This was 6 months after my MOM died of Cancer.
If God loves Wakonda and a piece of my heart is in Wakonda then God loves me ALOT. LOL
Thank you for this website.
Best wishes to the people of Camp Wakonda as the facility celebrates its 50th anniversary. In reviewing the archives of our church retreat center, Windy Ridge, I came across a 1964 prospectus to our congregation for the purchase and development of our facility. It includes a page describing Camp Wakonda’s inception. It would appear that your camp was the inspiration for our retreat center. How cool!
I will send by email a transcript of our prospectus text about Camp Wakonda, which may be of historical interest to you.
In Christ,
Marshall Waddell
Director
Windy Ridge Retreat Center
I can’t express how delighted I am to see this site (thanks for the tip Laurie!)
I spent quite a few happy weeks and many great weekends at Wakonda. I went to Taize retreats from my freshman or sophomore year in high school up until about 1983 or 1984. I was a counselor for the summers of 1981 and 1982. I spent quite a few weeks prior to that in high school working the grounds and maintenance while the Boehms were in residence for groundskeeping and kitchen work. I wasn’t as linked in as many of the Canton/Massillon area were as I lived quite a bit farther away, but the friends I made and things I learned through CUPC and Wakonda fed quite a bit of what I think and feel today about the nature of community and Christianity. I currently work for a “blood banking” organization in the Puget Sound and I see daily the selflessness of people who, whether they realize it or not, are performing a very Christian act.
Many of the friendships formed during my Wakonda days persist to the present day I’m happy to report, thanks mostly to the internet, and the names of many of you who have posted are familiar to me. My last venture to Wakonda was 15 years ago now, for Dick’s retirement party in 1993. I’m long overdue for a trip back home, and would love to make it back for the 50th anniversary! Hopefully I’ll be able to introduce my by-then 11 and 13 year old to a place that I still love so well. I’ll hope it’s not the year of the cicadas!
Shalom to all!
Chad Emerson
Seattle, WA