What a gift it was to spend summers for 10 years in that place high above the swiftly moving Delaware River — a place with endless grass, tall pines, and tidy, worn, clapboard buildings.
It was a place to connect and re-connect, to challenge myself physically and emotionally — and to grow. As the third child of four, it was also a unique opportunity to begin to figure out who I was — far away from my New Jersey home, family and friends (except Sally Weidenbacher!) — and who I wanted to become. To begin to discover that independent self in my early teens was enormously important to my growth into early adulthood — and well beyond.
Hagan was a place to sing, to laugh (hysterically at times) and to celebrate community. It was a place for story-telling — among friends, at evening Vespers, and with cabin mates before Taps. And it was a place rich with rituals, so unlike our day-to-day lives at home — and we engaged in it all together. I loved that!
Thank you, Camp Hagan, for 10 wonderful summers that will never be forgotten.