There are not too many iconic American heroes any more. Here are two, together, slalom skiing, no life jackets, in 1962.
(Originally found on boston.com)
Responsible gift giving for the holiday season...
Over the next month or so most of you will be inundated with gifts - both giving and receiving. While it is undeniably fun to exchange presents, rarely do kids or their parents think about the impact those gifts will have on our planet.
Plastic toys, textiles (clothes), and electronic gadgets and trinkets take tremendous resources to produce, package, and transport and then typically end up in a landfill after a season or two of use (if they get used at all). In fact the textile/garment/fashion industry is the second most polluting sector on our planet with number one being the oil industry! Anything made of plastic is no better: every piece of plastic ever produced still exists today and will be around long after we are all gone to pollute our waters and poison wild creatures.
With that (downer) in mind, here are the top five gifts to give this season with our planet Earth in mind.
- Your time/company
- Instead of a tangible gift why not plan and commit to a trip, meet-up, getaway, or a weekly hour of time that you get together with friends or family to relax, eat, talk, or see a movie? Must-have gift fads are fleeting but quality time is precious. Disconnect and enjoy good company!
- Handcrafted (wood) Gift
- Unwrapping a box is half the fun over the holidays but that does not mean the surprise inside should be a thoughtless commercial item. Wood is a renewable resource that sucks up carbon while it grows and then becomes our homes, furniture, and a variety of fun items. My ski poles are made of (super) renewable bamboo that I built with a DIY kit from Soul Poles. Coach Ryan's favorite game is Kendama which campers have surely seen him playing with at camp. You can also add that extra touch and build something yourself to give away. Wood is easy to work with and building with someone is an extra bonus as you learn new skills and enjoy some quality time (see #1).
- Donate to a charity
- What better way to show someone you really know them then donate to a charity or nonprofit that exactly reflects their passion. There are organizations for every cause from the environment to wildlife to child welfare to cancer and disease prevention. Even better, give to a local animal shelter or food pantry to keep the benefits where the gift recipient lives.
- Online subscription (Netflix / Hulu / Spotify)
- Setting aside the pollution endemic to the modern internet, a gift of a subscription service can be a lasting and awesome present that eliminates a plastic DVD or CD (if those even exist any more). Streaming services provide limitless entertainment as well as knowledge through documentaries and podcasts. This is a gift that will get the recipient to think of you every time they log in...which is likely every day.
- CAMP!
- Sorry for the shameless self promotion. Giving the gift of camp is something that a kid will go crazy for. I listed all of the reasons in a previous post so I will not go into detail here but suffice to say camp is worth way more than the price of tuition.
I hope you enjoy the holidays and if this post gets you to replace one 'traditional' gift with something more environmentally responsible then I have accomplished something this year!
P.S. Recycle!
-Evan
Fall at the lake...
Fall is always bittersweet here at camp. The foliage is gorgeous, the lake is calm and empty, and the sun is still warm and high in the sky but our cabins are empty and there is no one to play with!
This year the state decided to drop the water level for the winter on Merrymeeting by releasing water from the dam.
This long anticipated lake draw-down will help residents fix up their shorelines, walls, and docks. The water by our beach is down around five or six feet!
Getting the property ready for winter is a lot of work. It takes a long time to store away furniture and equipment, winterize the buildings and boats, and rake up the thousands and thousands of leaves. (Check out this post from last year to see what I do in detail).
Tuckerman can always be counted on to mess up my leaf piles, drag sticks back onto the grass, and jump in the lake every 20 minutes or so for good measure.
Enjoy the season. Have fun outside. Cross your fingers for lots of snow this winter. Keep shredding.
-Evan
617-855-WAKE (9253)
evan@watermonkeycamp.com
2016 season recap
Well we made it…Water Monkey Camp just wrapped up its fifth season of wakeboarding / waterskiing / wakesurfing / wake skating fun on the lake. While it has taken a lot of work behind the scenes to make it all happen, the credit goes to all of our loyal camper families for continuing to trust us to give your campers an amazing experience each summer. (At the bottom of this post are links to all of the 2016 pictures)
Year five was also the second year at our permanent property and we are really starting to get comfortable now. Seeing campers and staff take advantage of our epic location by playing Spikeball on the beach, having flipping contests off the dock, lounging in the hammock chill zone, or engaging in intense ultimate Frisbee matches on the field is just an added bonus beyond the time spent on our ridiculous boats.
Speaking of boats, the 2016 Mastercraft NXT22 was the perfect addition to our program. It is versatile and ideal for teaching and shredding! We told everyone this summer that we would be replacing the 2015 Axis A22 for next year but, by overwhelming popular demand, we will be running it for one more summer. It is just loved by so many of our staff and campers that there is no rush to get rid of it yet.
Now some fun 2016 stats!
- 103 campers over 7 weeks
- Each camper stayed an average of 1.5 weeks at camp (longest stay by any camper was 4 weeks)
- Average number of campers per week was 14.71
- Campers were 61% boys, 39% girls
- Average camper age was 13.9
- 33% of campers were returners, 67% were new (huge growth summer!)
- Campers came from 13 states (AS, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, MA, MD, NH, NJ, NY, OH, VA) as well as Canada, China, Dominican Republic, France, Hungary, and Turkey!
- 17,068 unique visitors to watermonkeycamp.com in the past 12 months
- 9,308 pictures uploaded for parents and campers to enjoy
- Average water temperature during camp was 76 degrees
- 4 broken screen doors (campers like to just walk right through)
- 1 black eye
- 608 homemade meatballs
- 1,200 water balloons for 1 brand new camp game – Monkey Ball
- 25 flotilla swim parties
- 250 hours on the Mastercraft and 230 hours on the Axis A22 (for a total of 430 in 2 seasons)
- 2,300 gallons of gas consumed on the lake producing roughly 20 metric tons of CO2 offset with a contribution to Cool Effect (cooleffect.org) Alto Mayo Conservation Initiative to protect land in Peru from deforestation. (We offset an additional 10 metric tons to cover camper transportation to/from camp.)
Next summer is a ways off still but it is not too early to start planning! Enrollment is officially open and some families have already reserved spaces for their campers. As you start thinking about next year I hope that you will keep us in mind for a week or two of camp for your camper(s). Word of mouth is far and away our biggest recruiting tool so please help us fill our bunks and take advantage of our $300 referral bonus for each camper you send our way who enrolls for at least one week.
I hope you all have a terrific year until we see you again and feel free to e-mail, call, text, write, Skype, or visit any time!
Sincerely,
Evan
617-855-9253
evan@watermonkeycamp.com