BIG NEWS for Camps Mondamin and Green Cove in 2013!!!!

It will be time for the third generation of Bells to take on the adventure of running summer camps in Tuxedo. In the fall of 2013, after 41 years as director of Mondamin, Frank Bell Jr will retire. Andrew Bell, Chief’s grandson, will be the third director in 93 years. Andrew has been a camper, counselor, canoe and kayak instructor, trip leader, Head of the Paddling Program, and Assistant Director. He has been on staff for 16 years and has been here year round for 8 years.

Also in the news:

We are now accepting Credit Cards

Meds-for-Camp program

Canoe building

Paddling Clinic

From Frank:
 “The year 2013 will be my 41st as director of Mondamin, and my last. Andrew Bell, my son, will take over as director for 2014; he will be only the third director of the place since 1922, when Frank Bell, Sr (“Chief”), founded it. I can’t imagine a better qualified person to lead the camp for the foreseeable future, and I believe he will find ways to improve the place and the program well beyond where it is now, or perhaps ever has been.

Mark Twain is quoted as saying, “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”  I believe a good camp can be one of the most positive educational experiences a child can have, and being a part of that experience has been hugely rewarding. The best part has been watching hesitant new campers, many away from home for the first time, find themselves on a trail or a river or a mountaintop, taking on whatever challenge presents itself, and learning to love it. It’s been a wonderful trip.”

Credit Cards
We now accept credit cards! We are using a third party company to process credit cards. The company, Simply Easier Payments, charges a security and delivery fee for the service (we don’t get this fee… the card company does). We still happily take paper checks, and the e-check option on our website will still work; either is frankly less expensive to use (no fees at all), and it really doesn’t matter to us.  But we do offer the option now for those who prefer a card.  Our Online Payment page at http://www.mondamin.com/payonline.html and http://www.greencove.com/payonline.html has been updated.

Meds-For-Camp program
For many years there have been programs available to supply prescription medications to camps for campers. We have not used them because we like our local pharmacies and want the program to be friendly to parents. Now, our local Walgreens has been working with camps in our area to create a program that is local, works well for parents, and helps camps handle the daily delivery of medications to campers.  Medications are delivered to us in blister packs labeled as to day and time, which greatly simplifies things for our nursing staff.

We will include the necessary forms in our online forms on Campminder. We are asking all parents to work with the program so that we have a unified system for medications. Parents will need to make sure their information is updated at the nearest Walgreens. Since Walgreens has a national database our local pharmacy will be able to access current information. Prescriptions will be sent to our local pharmacy to be filled prior to the beginning of camp. We will have medications ready and waiting on opening day. This will also help reduce lines at the nurse’s station on opening day!

Canoe building
Since we have what may be one of the largest wooden canoe fleets in the camp world, we have been in the wood canoe repair business for years. Several years ago we started building boats from scratch, using a homemade mold. We’re not into high speed production… campers do the building, and we turn out perhaps two boats a summer, in addition to routine repairs on the older boats. We’ve just started on a new mold, which we think will produce an even nicer boat.  The mold will be ready to use by camp time, and we’re anxious to see the first one to come off.  We’ll start it in June Camp, but it’ll probably be up to some Main Session campers to finish and launch it.

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