Winter Storm Destruction

It's a fact - when you live in the Pacific Northwest, winter storms are a part of life. This year, the November and December weather has been particularly brutal, especially on Vashon Island.

The Thanksgiving Week snowstorm brought only a couple of inches of snow, but that was shortly followed by sub-freezing temperatures and a windstorm with wind speeds around 70 mph. Trees were toppled all around Vashon Island, and power to the entire island was cut for almost a day and a half. In the next couple of weeks, more storms would follow with high wind, lightning and torrential rain.

Not only did Camp Sealth see extensive damage, our sister camp in Port Orchard, Camp Niwana, was hit equally hard.

At Camp Sealth, the damage included:

• 10+ trees and large limbs came down across the camp road and Knoll House road
• Several more trees down over trails
• Damage to two sections of bulkhead in front of Village
• 17-foot rescue boat "Jack" found battered and washed up on the beach
• Two sections of floating dock broke apart
• Newly donated 25-foot Catalina sailboat sunk in 20 feet of water
• Hopsing cabin in Wrangler suffered extensive water damage from a broken sprinkler pipe - the cabin is likely a total loss and will have to be rebuilt

At Niwana, losses included:

• Many electrical lines around camp came down
• The cooks cabin next to the dining hall demolished by a tree
• Staff cabin has a hole in the roof from a tree
• One other cabin and the bridge in Happy Hollow are damaged

Most of the immediate clean-up has been taken care of (trees cleared from the roads and power restored), and insurance will cover much of the cost of repair/replacement of the camps' facilities. But much more work will need to be done before camp is ready for the 2011 spring and summer seasons. A Service Weekend has been scheduled for January 29-30 at Camp Sealth. Volunteers are needed to help clear trails, pick up debris from the road and around cabins, etc. Housing & meals are provided at no cost for service weekend volunteers.

To register for the Service Weekend, contact Nick Cirignano at 206 463 3174 or nickc@campfire-usa.org. Although most camp staff are gone for the holidays, we'll be back shortly after Christmas.

New Website Launched

Camp Sealth has finally entered the digital era, and upgraded to a new website! Check it out for yourself at http://www.campsealth.org/ (should be easy to remember). The new site features easy-to-find information links to the blog and current news stories, all the forms you might need to register for camp or apply for a job, and tons of pictures. Enjoy!

New Bouldering Wall Completed

Camp Sealth now has it's own bouldering wall! Built on a 25-foot tall concrete water tank, the bouldering wall reaches about 8 feet high and almost completely encircles the tank. The water tank bouldering wall is conveniently located right across from the existing low ropes challenge course.

The bouldering wall was built by Megan Crandell (a.k.a. "MegaTron"), as part of an internship to complete her degree in Outdoor and Environmental Recreation. It was first used this past summer for groups of all ages to learn basic climbing and cooperation skills.

In the future, we hope to expand the bouldering wall into a full climbing tower, if a source of funding becomes available.

Tack Shed Remodeled by YVC Summer of Service Kids

For those campers and staff who have been involved with the horse program in the last 20 years, it was pretty evident that the tack shed, which was built in 1992 along with the rest of the Wrangler unit, was just not big enough. Not big enough to store even the saddles, let alone grain, medication, saddle bags, grooming supplies, and everything else that goes with caring for 27 horses.

This summer, the camp maintenance staff and four determined youth in Camp Fire's Youth Volunteer Corps Summer of Service program, worked every day for two weeks to complete the long-awaited renovation of the Wrangler tack shed. The kids learned basic carpentry skills and earned 100 hours of service through the SOS camp. The end result is a beautiful and functional horse supply room downstairs, plus an upper deck with new seasonal housing for the horse program leadership staff.

A great big thanks to everyone who made this construction program a success:

• Chad & Steve (camp maintenance staff)
• Liora, Sam, Sophie and Ciaran (YVC youth)
• Thistle and Mo (camp counselors)
• Marjean & Kelly (YVC staff)
• Youth Volunteer Corps of America, who provided funding through the Corporation for National Community Service grant

Camp Sealth plans to offer this opportunity again in 2011 for high-school aged youth. Kids can attend camp at a reduced rate ($600) for two weeks in exchange for service work during the camp session.

Summer 2010 at Camp Sealth

Session 7 is shortly coming to a close, then one more week before Summer 2010 is over. It's been a great ride so far, and we're still excited for one more week of kids.

By the time Da Boata heads back to Shilshole at the end of Session 8, over 1,600 kids and 100 staff and volunteers will have been a part of the 90-year tradition of camping at Camp Sealth. The highlights of Summer 2010 include:

• Session 4/5 Color Wars with Village and Horizon
• Our new bouldering wall
• Renewed Tripping Program included two successful trips: Backpacking the Peninsula and Cascades in Action
• 81 campers with diabetes and 25 campers with gluten intolerance
• 30 campers from Taiwan
• An outstanding musical performance during Session 3 by the Camp Sealth Musical cabin group
• Six sessions of windsurfing, sailing, canoeing and kayaking in Kiwanis
• 25 high school interns, 2 Riding-Staff-In-Training and 19 Counselors-in-Training

A huge thank-you goes out to the camp staff who gave up their summer to make camp possible for all of our kids. The staff, who have been here since mid-June, gone through 10+ days of training and worked hard all summer long, are an incredible group of young adults dedicated to making a difference in kids' lives.

Thank you also to our partners and collaborators, volunteers and Camp Sealth supporters. We truly could not have camp without all of you!

Here's to another 100 years of Camp Fire USA, and many more years of summers at Camp Sealth!

NCCC Team Silver Two takes on Camp Sealth

NCCC Team Silver Two poses for a picture during their two weeks of work at Camp Sealth's sister camp, Camp Niwana.

Camp Sealth is the second project round for the ten members of Silver Two. Previously they have had a split project with both the Utah Food Bank and the Sacramento Zoo.

Team members are certified as Type 2 Wildland Firefighters and Class A Tree Fallers (they are one of four such teams from the Pacific Region); they make up the first fuel reduction team (FRT) that Camp Sealth has ever hosted. In turn, this is the first fuel reduction project for the team. Silver Two's primary focus is creating defensible space (fire buffer) around camp facilities; they are also building trails and working in reforestation in Kitsap County.

Corps Members have already restored 30 acres of habitat, laid down a trail, planted 5,000 trees (in three days), and cleared about 15 tons of underbrush, trees and invasive species from around camp buildings. In addition, they have transformed 3,000 lbs of driftwood into 2 cords of firewood to last Camp Sealth through the entirety of the next recreational season. They have sent out 7,100 lbs of driftwood that had washed ashore back to sea. The team is currently working on widening the camp's service road and scraping & painting Holiday House in Village.

Here is a little bit more about each of the team members:

Never before working at Camp Sealth have they...
Paul Klockars - Team Leader (Chicago, IL): canoed on the Puget Sound

Anthony Amadio (Reading, PA): hummed the tune to Mario while cleaning a chainsaw

Maggie Fisk (Gallipolis, OH): wore the same dirty clothes to work every day

Finley Janes (Boston, MA): seen a bald eagle in the wild, or seen one fight with an otter

Ben Mastrangelo (Boston, MA): used a bow saw

Warith Muhammad (Philadelphia, PA): seen 6 crazy teammates do a polar bear plunge into the Puget Sound
Mike Muir (Alexandria, VA): gone up the Space Needle

Joey O'Brien (Tulsa, OK): drank out of a filthy water bottle with dirt caked around the mouth, and not caring at all

Christina Vuong (New York, NY): gleefully waged a vendetta against salmonberry and blackberry

Ronald Wheaton (Grand Rapids, MI): been on an island

AmeriCorps NCCC is a part of AmeriCorps, a network of national service programs created to improve the environment, enhance education, increase public safety and assist with disaster relief and other unment human needs. The Pacific Region campus, located in Sacramento, California, serves Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and the territories of Guam and Samoa, as well as the Gulf Coast Region. The Pacific Region campus is one of five campuses in the United States; the others are located in Perry Point, MD, Denver, CO, Vinton, IA and Vicksburg, MS.

NCCC members, ages 18-24, must complete at least 1,700 hours of community service during the 10-month long program. In exchange for their service, they receive $5,350 to help pay for college or school loans. Other benefits include leadership development, team building skills, increased self-confidence, and the satisfaction of knowing that they have made a real difference in communities across the country. AmeriCorps is administered by the corporation for National Civilian and Community Service. For information about NCCC and other AmeriCorps programs, visit the website at http://www.americorps.gov/.

-Written by Christina Vuong

New Home for the Totem Pole!

After 5 years of waiting, the Camp Sealth totem pole has finally found it's new home - on the front of WoHeLo! The totem pole was removed from its previous location in front of the dining hall when Rounds was under construction in 2005. Since then, it has lived in the Orchard, until a new home could be found.

The totem pole is no longer structurally sound enough to stand upright on it's own, so it needed a place where it could be supported by a building. The 40-foot tall pole is so heavy that it takes at least 10 strong adults to move it even a few feet. With the help of a construction company who had equipment here to replace electrical poles, we were able to move it to this new location in the front of WoHeLo, where everyone who comes into camp will be able to see it.

Welcome, NCCC Team Silver Two!

Camp Sealth has been fortunate this year to work with two energetic and capable teams from the Americorps NCCC campus in Sacramento. After Team Bluno left at the end of January, two weeks later we welcomed the arrival of Silver Two.

Silver Two will be here until the end of March - they are working both at Camp Sealth and Camp Niwana. Their projects include:

• Brush and debris clearing at Camp Niwana
• Fire reduction and brush clearance around all buildings in camp
• Trailwork and clearing on several trails around camp

January & February Projects

Americorps NCCC Team Bluno left Camp Sealth at the end of January to head back to Sacramento and start a new project. These pictures show the rest of the projects they worked on during their spike at Sealth.

This is a shelter from one of the two new campsites - NCCC built this shelter with help from the maintenance staff. The campsite is located near the former "Primitive" campsite, not far from Uncle Wig's cabin. The second campsite is very close by, and looks over the bluff towards the Olympics. Both campsites will need to be named before we use them this summer.

The picture on the right is the newly reconstructed boardwalk through the wetlands - it replaces the old wood walkway that comes out behind the Milky Way cabins. No more muddy feet on the way to Lower Archery!

Although we don't have pictures to post, the other projects that have been done over the winter (by NCCC and other service groups) include:

• New screens on all the Bluberry Hill cabins
• Trailwork on YVC and Sylvan trails

Construction Project Updates

The camp staff and NCCC team Bluno have been extremely busy this winter, completing construction and service projects that are making camp even better. Renovation of the Milky Way Freddy is nearly complete (picture above). The interior is all updated - new shower and toilet stall partitions, fresh paint, new waterproof wall coverings in the shower, an epoxy coating on the floor and new paint on the walls. Still left to do: shower & toilet stall partitions, new storage shelves and trim work.


NCCC spent much of their first month here working on the waterfront. The photo above shows the sections of the swim dock that were removed from the water, then the undersides were scraped and cleaned. In the next two weeks, these sections will be put back in the water. The floating docks must be removed and cleaned every 2-3 years to keep the growth (mussels, kelp, anemones, sea stars, etc.) from permanently damaging the docks.

If you've spent a lot of time at the waterfront, you know that storage for canoes & rowboats can be a nightmare! NCCC and the maintenance staff rebuilt the canoe racks - they now stack 3 canoes high instead of two, leaving more room for storage for the rowboats, sailboats and windsurf boards.

In the next couple of weeks, we'll be posting pictures of other projects that are currently in the works:

• New screens on all of the Blueberry Hill cabins (and hopefully soon, the Horizon cabins as well)
• Rebuilt boardwalk on the Milky Way trail to lower archery
• Two NEW overnight campsites

Teen Leadership Retreat

This past weekend, Camp Sealth hosted the second annual Teen Leadership Retreat. Fifteen teens who participated in the CIT, RSIT and High School Internship programs in 2009 spent the weekend reconnecting with friends, doing service work and skills workshops, and playing outside. The retreat was planned in large part by Chickpea, who was the Teen Leadership Coordinator in 2009 and is returning again in 2010.

Farewell, Bread!

Tomorrow (Friday, December 10) is Bret Olson's last day working for Camp Sealth. After his holiday travels, Bret will be leaving western Washington for Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center in a remote area of the Cascade Mountains near Lake Chelan. For the next year, Bret will be working as the "Garbologist" for Holden Village.

Bret has been on staff at Camp Sealth for three years - he originally started working here through the Washington Conservation Corps with Americorps as the assistant for Environmental Education. During his first year, he made great contributions to the EE program, including construction of an organic garden and revitalization of our composting worm bin.

Bret has also held several other positions at camp, including Program Assistant, EE Instructor, and summer ACD. For the past year, Bret has coordinated and hosted all outside group rentals, and community service groups as the Group Host and Community Service Program Manager. User group rentals increased in 2009, and camp made $7,000 more in rentals this year than we did last year.

Many thanks to Bret for all of his hard work and dedication to Camp Sealth over the past three years. We wish him lots of luck in this new venture!

New Construction on Milky Way Freddy & YVC Trail

Renovation on the Milky Way Freddy is certainly long overdue, but within the next month or so, it will look like new! These toilets are patiently waiting outside in the cold for the interior to be completed, then they will be reinstalled. Our own maintenance staff, Steve and Chad, have done most of the work themselves, with a little assistance from a subcontractor to re-do the shower floors, and some demo work from our NCCC crew, Bluno. Here's a look at the inside:

Here's what's been done so far: Total demolition of the interior (except the sinks and counter), structural work on one of the walls, the walls have been repainted, new plumbing for the toilets, and new floors in the showers. Still to do: new walls and paint in the showers, new partitions for the toilet stalls, and reinstall the toilets. NCCC will be helping complete this project in the next two weeks. We hope to have renovation completed by December 30.

NCCC has also done a lot of work on the trail system, including Blueberry Trail and YVC. The pictures above are on two sections of YVC. The first pic is from the uppermost switchback, where much of the trail had become eroded was a bit sketchy. New steps were added and the bank reinforced. The other picture is just above the Hilltop cabins, where a giant madrona tree had come down over the trail - this section has been reinforced, and a simple rope handrail built.

Next week, we'll have pictures and info about more cool projects going on around camp: new canoe racks, all the sections of dock removed and cleaned, and new screens on the BBH cabins!

Camp Sealth Welcomes AmeriCorps NCCC Team Bluno

We're very excited this week to welcome the Blue One team from the Sacramento campus of AmeriCorps NCCC. Blue One, or "Bluno", arrived Tuesday evening with 10 Corps Members and their team leader Jim.

AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) is a team-based community service program. Corps Members serve for 10 months, traveling to different sites around the U.S. to provide direct service to non-profit organizations, schools and government and tribal agencies. The AmeriCorps website http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/nccc.asp has more information about NCCC.

Bluno will be living at Camp Sealth until the end of January (except for a holiday break at the end of December), working on improving camp through a number of different projects:

-Several trails, including YVC/Hilltop, Sylvan, Kiwanis and Bluberry Trails, will get reinforcement on switchbacks, new/replaced stairs and boardwalk, waterbars, drainage ditches, and widening at some points.
-Construction of two new campsites, including a log shelter at one of the sites, and building permanent fire pits at some existing campsites.
-Take out all sections of floating docks, scrape and clean the undersides.
-Tear out old canoe storage racks and build new ones.

The Team:
The 11 members of Bluno are from around the United States. They've been training in Sacramento for the past several weeks, and Camp Sealth is their first major project. They are:

Team Leader: Jim, Germantown, WI
Corps Member: Charlotte, Philadelphia, PA
Corps Member: Kim D., Phoenix, AZ
Corps Member: Erinne, S. Bend, IN
Corps Member: Kim H., Fairfield, CT
Corps Member: Lacey, Rochester, NY
Corps Member: Ethan, Boston & Chicago
Corps Member: Maggie, Tallahassee, FL
Corps Member: Noemi, Port St. Lucie, FL
Corps Member: Steve, Duluth, MN
Corps Member: Samuel, Florence, SC

We're very excited to be working with this team - they have a lot of energy and are ready to get to work! Welcome, Bluno!

Meet the Staff

Meet the Camp Sealth Staff:

These are the nine of us (plus one) who are privileged to work at Camp Sealth all year long. Most of us live on site and are pretty fortunate to call it "home" as well as work. This picture is from Halloween 2009, in downtown Vashon. Here's a little more about each of us:

Rick Taylor - Director of Camping

Rick is a recent convert to Camp Sealth and Camp Fire USA. He has a long career in camping across the country, and started as the director at Sealth in February 2008. Camp Name: "Treebeard".

Steve Lomax - Facilities Manager
Steve joined the year-round crew in December 2007 after a career with an ambulance company in Seattle. Camp Name: "Egon"

Chad Lawson - Onsite Facilities Manager

Chad has worked at Camp Sealth since 2005. Hobbies include boating, scuba diving, snowboarding, golf, woodworking, and watching sports - especially Nebraska Huskers football. Camp Name: "Pipeline"

Carrie Kishline - Senior Program Manager

Carrie is a Camp Sealth lifer - she's been a camper and staff here since 1990, and joined the year-round staff in 2004. Carrie enjoys knitting, crafts, cooking and logic puzzles, and has degrees in math and religion from PLU. Camp Name: "Carebear"

Laura Force - Assistant Camp Director

Laura recently joined the Camp Sealth staff in January 2009 after several years of working at Girl Scout camps in Washington, Alaska and Virginia. Her hobbies include making popcorn, watching movies, reading and crochet. Camp Name: "PopCorn"

Mary Roden - Food Service Manager

Mary has been a part of the Camp Sealth family for 14 years, although she has been on the year-round staff for just three years. Hobbies include fly fishing, camping, gardening and studying ancient culture & architecture. She brings many years of experience in the food service industry. Camp Name: "Ratatouille"

Martin Bremer - Environmental Education Program Manager
Martin joined the year-round staff in the fall of 2008. He has studied education and physics, and enjoys sailing, kayaking and scuba diving. Camp Name: "Papa Steve"

Nick Cirignano - Office Manager/Group Host and Rental Manager
Nick has worked for Camp Sealth full time since February 2008, wearing a variety of hats around camp - if you need to know how to do something at camp, ask Nick. In January, Nick will take over as the Group Host and Rental Manager. One of Nick's main hobbies: "Finding out random things about Alan Thicke." Camp Name: "Caesar Augustus Fresh III"

Bret Olson - Group Host and Rental Manager

Bret has been on the year-round staff since the fall of 2006, also in a variety of positions. His hobbies include listening to music, playing music, reading and throwing things at Martin. Bret will leaving Sealth in December for a new job at Holden Village. His favorite thing about working at Sealth is "seeing the gleam in a child's eye when they encounter something in nature for the first time." Camp Name: "Bread"

Camp Sealth Launches News Blog

Welcome to the Camp Sealth news blog! If you're a parent, camper, staff member, alumnus, or just a fan of Camp Sealth, we'll keep you updated on what's happening year-round.

News: At least once a week, we'll post a blog about the latest news from camp. We'll tell you about new programs that we're introducing, construction or improvement projects, changes in the year-round staff, or anything else that you might be interested to know.

Photos: This might take some time, but we'll start getting pictures loaded on this site so you can feel connected with camp, and show friends and family who have never been here what camp looks like.

Meet the Staff: There are always 8 to 10 staff that work at Sealth year-round, so check out the "Meet the Staff" blog to learn more about us. The 100+ staff that work here in the summer are another story - there's too many of them to post! But we will start featuring a monthly bio on some of our favorite seasonal staff, including what they're up to the rest of the year.

Polls: We're always interested in what you think! You can help by letting us know what you want: your favorite menu items, camp songs, t-shirt designs, activities or anything else we can come up with.

Let us know what you think! We will constantly be adding to this blog and improving it. Send us an e-mail and give us your opinion, or if you have any ideas for news stories.