The camp aides were Sue Purdue, Sandra Hines, and Norma Hancock. “It was Super’s first year as a staff member,” she wrote,” and this is not always an easy transition to make from camper especially when your friends are here, but Sue hurdled this part of growing up and did eventually become a full fledge staff member.” She taught tennis with great skill, even for the beginners, and was so dependable and pleasant in the kitchen, doing more than her share easily with her co-workers. Dorthe felt she seemed to enjoy her summer, “in spite of not having the most pleasant or easiest job”. She expressed an interest in coming back.
The junior counselor program in the activity report from 1969 listed three who worked in different areas that summer. They assisted during inventories, repairs and preparation. Sometimes they took over cabins for evening programs if someone was ill, needed rest, or had time off. They had the same amount of time off as the senior staff and were usually free on cabin days unless asked to accompany an outing. The senior counselors always helped the juniors become acquainted with the campers and were described as versatile, since they could float from one activity to the other when needed, despite the fact Dorthe believed the junior counselor program rendered the staff less efficient.
Emmy Host was the crafts director in 1967 and ran the camp store. She was described in the report as organized, and Dorthe never felt she had to worry about her, since she ordered all the supplies and made samples of the items to be made by the girls each summer. She trained two girls at pre-camp for the crafts section.
“She was my sounding board and unfortunately I overburdened her with my woes. She found it difficult to participate in camp activities and to relate to the staff, but she did try and personally felt she had outgrown camp,” wrote Dorthe Balaskas in her report in 1967.
“There was a banquet at the end of the year and all the kids had gone home and just the staff were left. I think it might have been Dorthe’s last year there and we didn’t know it. Her partner Emmy didn’t like being at camp, “ said Ann Carney. “Dorthe called me into her office and said there will be two people speaking and I think Ann Obey was the other one. Then she called me in to read my speech to her. It was a big deal to be in a room with her approving or disapproving my speech. We both cried after I read it. She never stayed for the banquet. She left before I got up.”
Ann Obey served in campcraft and boating and Dorthe found her to be a joy and an asset to the staff with her alumni status. She had cabin two the second session, which was the younger girls, and she treated them with patience, understanding and great responsibility, noted Dorthe, who felt she could always call on her. “Ann’s loyalty to Maqua was very apparent and greatly appreciated.”
“The counselors were such great female role models,” said Betsy Falvey. “I think it was Dorthe’s last year the first year I was there and then it was Beanie’s (Barbara Haggart ) first year. Ann Carney also felt the leadership within the camp. “Dorthe had high standards, but a very good sense of humor. My sense was that she had a real sense of responsibility of being the only grownup in a camp that was thirty miles from nowhere.”
The camp daily activities probably appeared to be smooth and effortless for young little campers, but behind the scenes Dorthe dealt with homesick counselors who would have been great had they not gone home; staff with personal problems that interfered with their effectiveness; surprise visits from state agencies and camp associations for inspection; supplies that ran out; paperwork, lack of sleep and medical emergencies; horses, children, insects, and water; duty charts, cabin lists, staff reports and shopping.
Did your sessions seem to run smoothly and were you ever aware of the director as a young camper?