For first Camp\u2019s first blog post, I felt it was appropriate to reflect on my first summer back at O-AT-KA, this time as our new Executive Director. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been asked a lot since the summer ended about how my first summer in the role went.\u00a0I obviously reply \u201cGreat!\u201d as it truly was a GREAT summer.\u00a0With perfect weather, an enthusiastic staff team, and a wonderful group of campers, the summer of 2025 was a special one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hadn\u2019t been on staff at O-AT-KA since 2006, so returning in 2025 I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect.\u00a0I often asked myself how much had changed in almost 20 years?\u00a0I quickly found out that only the perfect amount has changed: buildings had been updated, programs have been added, and the fields had been improved.\u00a0\u00a0More importantly however, most things were unchanged; the Galahad Program was still as lively as ever, the Commons had the same tables, chairs and benches, the dive tower still had to be carried out during staff week, Green Grow the Rushes Ho was still sung, passwords still happened, King\u2019s Day was still the best day of the year, Sebago Lake was crisp and clean, Maine summers really are the best, and O-AT-KA was still producing boys and men of character.\u00a0I could tell from every person I had met, campers and staff, that had been at O-AT-KA for even just one summer prior, was someone who had been impacted by Camp.\u00a0They represented themselves, and Camp, positively and proudly, and displayed positive attribute after positive attribute.\u00a0It was refreshing to see that the impact O-AT-KA made on me, was still getting made on everyone who steps foot on campus.\u00a0All in all, that is what made the summer of 2025 as special as it was for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For first Camp\u2019s first blog post, I felt it was appropriate to reflect on my first summer back at O-AT-KA, this time as our new Executive Director.\u00a0","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,26,24],"tags":[33,31,30,27,42,41,32,28,44,29],"class_list":["post-15770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camp-life","category-from-the-director","category-news","tag-best-summer-camp","tag-boys-camp","tag-camp-life","tag-jimmy","tag-maine","tag-maine-summer-camp","tag-overnight","tag-reflections","tag-sebago-lake","tag-traditions"],"yoast_head":"\n