Living and working in the same place for long stretches of time, as many camp directors do, can slowly develop a sense of how a space connects with the area outside its boundaries. Having spent the last five years here I have expanded my own mental map that links Camp Burgess with hundreds of locations around the globe – staff from Hungary, campers from Spain, airports in the UK, the Atlantic, the canal we all cross to get here, homes of alumni, beaches, theaters, hiking trails. A vast web of places that all have the imprint of this camp as part of their own story.

And then there are our neighbors, the few families who live on beautiful Stowe Road. We often don’t see that some of the best connections are right at our doorstep. The very first home off our property belongs to a sweet lady named Priscilla. She’s been connected with camp her whole life. She grew up on these grounds in the mid 1900’s as various members of her family worked to turn this land into a camp. She worked at Hayward in its founding summer and has helped camp in many ways since. She belongs to a small group of past camp staff/family who still reside in Sandwich. I see them around town and listen to their stories of old. Priscilla is a grand story teller. I brought the summer staff to her house one night to meet her. She recalled the history of camp in her own special way for almost two hours. Her tales were epic and scary and lovely and intimate. She held nothing back and our staff was transfixed. In the end of the summer she wrote our staff a letter about the character and will it takes to succeed in working with kids. Mostly she thanked them for acting as great stewards to this camp. She is quite a lady. She helped set the tone for another great summer and for that I give her many thanks. And there she still resides for another year on the corner of Triangle Pond, informally representing camp as she travels the area, building connections each day between here and the world outside.

By Asa Gallagher – Burgess Director