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Guiseppi Marzelli & Alan Finlay—Entrepreneurs—Coniston: 1997-2006

Guiseppi and Alan believe that building a great network filled with good people is vitally important to growing ideas. Growing up in the family of a local business owner, Guiseppi directly saw the impact of technology and its role in commerce. While large corporations had the resources to learn to navigate new technologies, small and local businesses struggled to bridge the gap. Guiseppi and Alan teamed up to found Boomtown, turning their camp dreams of entrepreneurship into reality. Guiseppi points out that “reflecting back on the journey, it is crucial that it is understood that I could not have done this without Alan.” Today, Boomtown has 80 full time employees and 2,000 active technicians around the United States.

“Coniston personally taught me how to better understand everyone’s individual talent, creativity and personality. Not every person is the same and some people are extremely different than others, but when you’re off the grid and only have the same resources, you learn to be patient with each other and better understand the meaning of community. Coniston truly helped in the initial stages of building a company by being more thoughtful of other’s thoughts and ideas. If you look past others because they don’t have the same ideology, you will quickly find yourself siloed from the rest of society. It’s important to know your integrity is the same and without many resources you can still accomplish many things as a team.”

I know this will sound hard to believe, but there were times running the psych ER at Bellevue where I felt that lightness and ease and unity that I associate with Camp. One night, I had a bunch of patients singing “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” with the patients making up the verses. At one point, we were all singing, He’s got the Bellevue Hospital in his hands” and I really felt it. I believed it. I believe in the power of people coming together as one, in song, in nature, under “God” whatever we perceive that to mean. Camp gave me optimism. It made me believe in Oneness, and that is a great gift.”

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Julie Holland—Psychiatrist & Author—Coniston: 1975-1984

Julie graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a major in The Biological Basis of Behavior, a combination of neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. While starting her own private practice in psychiatry, Julie worked at Bellevue Hospital. She is married with two children and is a published author, a noted lecturer, and a frequent guest expert. 

“My father-in-law used to call me “omni-capable.” I credited Camp with that. Every summer, learning different skills, whether archery, riflery, guitar playing, canoeing, or lifesaving. That kind of comfort with novelty, and most importantly, learning how to learn, is what I use in my professional life. Camp taught me how to do this with openness and compassion. Coniston helped me get in touch with my own talent for empathy, and that is a skill I use daily in my professional life.

I know this will sound hard to believe, but there were times running the psych ER at Bellevue where I felt that lightness and ease and unity that I associate with Camp. One night, I had a bunch of patients singing “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” with the patients making up the verses. At one point, we were all singing, He’s got the Bellevue Hospital in his hands” and I really felt it. I believed it. I believe in the power of people coming together as one, in song, in nature, under “God” whatever we perceive that to mean. Camp gave me optimism. It made me believe in Oneness, and that is a great gift.”

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Rua Kelly—Trial Attorney—Coniston: 1984-1988

Rua was introduced to Coniston at 13. She spent the next four “life-changing” summers at Camp. Today, Rua is a dedicated mom and senior trial counsel with the Securities & Exchange Commission in Boston, working on investigating the many forms of financial fraud.

Rua recently reflected on how Camp influenced her life—“As a CIT and a counselor, I learned so much about leadership and decision-making.  When an 8-year old girl is homesick and crying inconsolably, you don’t have a manual to tell you what to say or do. You are constantly having to rise to the challenge.  I never felt like I was good at anything, or could make a difference in people’s lives, until I came to Camp.  My ability to succeed really came from Coniston.

Leadership, building teams, empathy, not judging people based on stereotypes – those are all skills and traits (gained from Camp) that I use in my job, especially when I have had to appear before juries in court, and make arguments that persuade people from all walks of life.  But the most important place I have used those skills is as a parent.  I learned how to really listen, how to empathize, and how to help people who are feeling vulnerable find their way when things are hard.”

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David Koch—Chief Commercial Officer—Coniston: 1977-1982

After Coniston, David studied Mechanical Engineering while in the ROTC at MIT and was a Naval Aviator and Flight Instructor. After receiving his MBA, David moved into the corporate world and is currently the CCO for FI.SPAN, a company he helped found. 

 “… I was probably the youngest CIT and a young kid when I was exposed to Camp, and I consider myself lucky to have experienced it at a time when I could learn from those experiences and nurture them. In high school I wasn’t doing all the leadership things, so Coniston and the CIT program gave me the ability to launch some of my talents and use them. That gave me the confidence to continue on…”

“Each piece of your life builds on the other. For me, it was Camp that had a big impact on the things I was able to do in my later years of high school and that translated to what I brought to MIT. I don’t think that without that confidence I would have been successful in ROTC and the military. It’s also possible that people would suggest camp is nothing like the military, but I would suggest camp and the military are not so different and that a lot of things I learned at camp were directly attributable, to and directly helpful to succeeding in ROTC and the military. I’m not sure I thought that at the time, but looking back I think that’s absolutely true. I think Camp indirectly, [and even] much more directly, helped [me] in the military. The military piece that translates to later in my career is leadership. I left behind the technical skills of the military because I don’t fly anymore but the leadership piece carries over.”

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Special note from the Grantham School District, Superintendent

YMCA Camp Coniston worked with the Grantham School District to explore options for reopening schools. We offered our property to the school district to run open air classrooms. Even though our space wasn’t needed knowing we were there to help mean’t a lot. Read a special note of thanks from the superintendent below.

Dear Camp Coniston,

Kristen and I were both recently discussing Camp Coniston, and having some concerns about the fact that our teachers opted not to take advantage of your incredible offer this fall to use your space. 

I should have written this letter sooner, but I hope you know that your outreach to us and your willingness to help us through this horrible situation meant the world to us. Even though it didn’t work out the way I think we all imagined, your kindness and generosity was truly a bright shining light and a source of hope during a time where we were lost. 

The school board’s decision to open in hybrid and our teachers’ decisions to stay in the building this fall had nothing to do with how incredible and wonderful Coniston is. I think we were all trying to strive for the most normalcy we could find in this situation, and our staff was already facing too many uncertainties. They were focused on navigating their own spaces in a completely different way every day with our new protocols, and I think the prospect of navigating yet another space was just too much. 

There’s no doubt in my mind that our staff and students would have benefited immensely from time at Coniston. You have a special and beautiful place there — one that exudes a feeling of goodness, even just walking around taking a tour.

I hope you understand the perspective of the precarious state we were in with reopening. I also hope you know that — even without an actual program developing there — that the impact of your kindness resonated with many and will always continue to be one of the truly positive things that’s happened during the pandemic. 

Again, I should have written all this to you sooner, and for that I apologize. I’m not sure where you stand with your programming for this coming summer, but my hope is that you’re able to get back to some sense of normalcy. Thank you for the work you do with children and for all the good you do for the community. To use one of my very favorite quotes from Maya Angeou, “Good done anywhere is good done everywhere.” There’s no question that the Consiton good ripples out into the world. 

With thanks, 
Sydney

Dr. Sydney D. Leggett, Superintendent
Grantham School District, SAU 75

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What Camp Coniston gave to me…

I grew up in an Italian neighborhood in The Bronx, New York, in the 1960’s. My tiny world of a few blocks was very safe and sheltered. There were parks to visit, but no real wilderness that I was aware of.

Some years later, my mother informed me that I would be attending a summer camp in a place called Grantham, New Hampshire. As far as I was concerned I was headed to a far away land…possibly near Siberia. I went very reluctantly.

Up until that point I had only been to one other camp where I spent two months living in an open lean-two cabin…3 walls and an open door to raccoons, spiders and the occasional snake. I was terrified…but at the same time, I was starting to have an awakening to something special that lay beyond my four concrete blocks in The Bronx.

I remember the drive to Coniston…so many rows of pine trees on some never ending highway. I remember the first time we walked past the general store and down the slope leading to the lake. My first view of the lake that would begin a great adventure within my imagination. Little did I ever imagine that by summer’s end I would be sailing a Sunnie by myself, or learning to save a drowning swimmer when I could barely swim myself. I didn’t know I would be firing rifles and eventually teaching younger campers to do the same, or that I would be camping out in the dark woods and eating s’mores and being told it was lights out and  to put a sock in it! In what, I wondered?

At the end of my first summer, I remember sitting in the back of my parent’s car on the long ride back to New York…and I felt a sadness I had never known. I couldn’t believe it was already over, and that I might not see these incredible friends for a whole year. I just didn’t want it to end.

But I had a secret. A secret I couldn’t tell….

I was not the same person that arrived two months earlier. I was still Chris, but I was also now a member of the Church of The Great Outdoors. I just didn’t want to be inside. I wanted to be outside…to breathe the air, to smell the trees, to feel the river, to climb the hills…

And from that moment on, the insects were my friends, the thunder and lightning were music to my ears…

If not for Coniston, I would have always been a city kid…a little afraid of the dark woods, of the unknown, of the animals and sounds of the forest…

But no more….

And by the time I was 21 years old,  I was going down The Mighty Amazon River in search of the rarest monkey in the world, and soon after that driving in an 8500 mile race across South America…eventually discovering  that photography could take me anywhere I wanted to go…

And the adventures continued…

But I am here to tell all future campers…that you will never know what a summer at Coniston will unlock within you.

I had no idea when I drove down the driveway for the first time, that the key to my destiny might lie at the end of that road.

And here are a few photos from the life that I owe to 2 summers in the years 1976 and 1977….

Thank you Camp Consiton and to the many friends and staff I got to know in my youth.

…and to my dear mother, who raised us on meager means, but always sought out and found the meaningful adventures on our behalf.

— Chris, 70/80’s Alumnus

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Coniston’s New Program

CLICK HERE to Become a Tutor

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello.

In my last video update—I mentioned that exciting opportunities were in store for our Coniston Community.

I told you about Community Days. You heard almost 3,500 visits were made to Camp this summer.

Even though we closed our normal operations this summer, we didn’t let what we couldn’t do, stand in the way of what we could do. That is exactly the type of journey I’m asking you to take with us.

I’ve always tried to care for every kid at Camp. This project is just an extension of that philosophy.

Through funding from the State of NH, Coniston is starting a virtual tutoring program. Our first cohort will be New American, middle and high school-aged students from Concord. We need our community to step forward and serve as tutors.

Six years ago, we intentionally began to bring kids from this community, and others, to Camp. We wanted to ensure that Coniston looked like the state we’re in, and the state we want to live in. Now we are interested in beginning a program that may just light a path for all Coniston campers in the future.

Volunteering is open to everyone in our community. You can be anywhere in the world. All it takes to be part of this is access to a computer and to say “I’m in.”

Sessions will be on Zoom. We have a staff member who will help orient you. Her name is Izzy Caruso.

English, Math, Science, Social Studies—we need folks who can be matched with students needing help with a variety of subjects.

So click here. It will lead you to a google form. There you can give us information and Izzy Caruso will contact you.

If you are interested in more details we have a webpage for that. The address is www.coniston.org/tutor

Coniston needs you. Our community needs you. Campers THEY need you. Please.

I’ll be back with even more good news soon!

John

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YMCA Camp Coniston Land Acknowledgement

YMCA Camp Coniston in Croydon is located on the lands within the Lake Sunapee watershed in N'dakinna, the traditional lands and waterways of the Abenaki, Pennacook and other related Wabanaki Peoples past and present, we acknowledge and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations for thousands of years from the beginning of time.

Paul W. Pouliot, Sag8mo and THPO Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People COWASS North America, Inc. Abenaki Nation of Vermont, Inc.

The following is a little lesson in Ethno-Etymology:

We have been in the process of decolonizing the numerous colonial narratives and town folk tales and histories that seem to always be embellished to create a sense that someone or something unique happened in that local.

What we can tell you is that most of the “place name” tribal identities were created by colonial people and later by ethnologists that were seeking to micro-manage our histories.

As for the Sunapee area, it was probably inhabited by extended family groups from the Merrimack valley areas of the main village of Pennacook.

For your information here is a little narrative that we previously submitted to another interested party in Sunapee.  The Sunapee translation has been revised and anglicized by and for historical commercialism “Goose Lake” such as seen lately – “Soo-Nipi.”

The actual translation in Abenaki for Lake Sunapee is “Seninebi” = rock = “sen” + (in) water = “nebi” == “Seninebik” = = rocky lake place.

Within the word Sunapee or Soo-Nipi – there is no Abenaki reference to the wild goose or a lake in the shape of a goose.  Our case in point is that the Abenaki translation for:  Goose = “W8bigilhakw” / Goose (Canadian) = “W8btegwa” / Goose (wild) = “W8btegua” or “W8btegwak” (locative word form).

We think that there are possibly two explanations for the changes:

  1. Goose was added for some commercial, tourist, or hunting purpose.

  2. The Goose reference was removed from the original lake name – which we actually think was the case because colonial people could not say the word.   It is our belief that the original name was something like “the Stoney Waters of (or where) the Geese (came) or were to be found.”   This would be something like this – Seninebikw8btegwak = “rocky water place where the wild geese were located.”

For example: This was found to be the same case in Rochester’s Gonic” area where the actual name was “Msquamanaguanagonek,” “at the narrow salmon spearing place,” later shortened by early colonial writers to “Squamanagonic,” and finally condensed to “Gonic” (Rochester).

FYI – In the Abenaki language the “i” is the strong “e” sound and “8” = Ô or ô = French nasal long “o” sound.

We know that we have been going off track from your original inquiry, but we think that it is important to first “de-colonize” the history related to any place name inquiry.

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CARES Act Tax Credits

In late March 2020, Congress passed a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill in response to COVID-19, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and with it came many tax benefits for almost any taxpayer who makes charitable contributions in 2020. This blog is written to help educate our community on how it can impact your charitable contributions in the 2020 tax year. Please consult a tax advisor to discuss your specific circumstances.

The window for taking advantage of these benefits closes on December 31, 2020. Be sure to plan accordingly.

Are you planning to itemizing deductions?

Prior to 2020, households who itemize their deductions could only deduct a maximum of 60% of adjusted gross income (AGI) for cash donations. For 2020, the CARES Act has eliminated this cap and households can deduct 100% of their adjusted gross income.

This could theoretically mean zero taxable income. For example, if you have an AGI of $100,000, you would normally be able to deduct up to $60,000 for gifts to charity.  With the temporary changes in the CARES Act, you could now deduct up to your full AGI of $100,000 if you give that much to charity in 2020.

In the event you have made a multi-year pledge, you might want to accelerate payment of the pledge balance in 2020 to take advantage of the deductions available.

Are you planning to take the standard deduction?

The CARES Act allows for up to $300 in charitable contributions per individual and $600 per household to qualify as an above-the-line deduction, meaning you don’t have to itemize deductions in order to claim the deduction.

For example, if your individual and you don’t have $12,400 in qualifying expenses to deduct then you take the standard deduction (standard deduction for an individual is $12,400). The CARES Act increases that amount up to $12,700 if you donate $300 to a non-profit. Thus you would get more money back in your return. Pending your tax bracket it could be anywhere from $50 to $150 back. 

Are you interested in corporate giving? 

In the past corporations were able to deduct charitable donations up to 10% of taxable income. The CARES Act raises the cap to 25%.

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The Missing Summer by Alumnus Jack Berthiaume

What are your greatest camp treasures?

Skills and lessons? Yes. Lifelong friends? Absolutely. But when you gather a group of alumni together though, camp stories become equally treasured. The sillier, wackier, and more unbelievable, the better. Camp stories beg to be shared and stretched like silly putty across our collective Coniston memories, gaining magic and bending accuracy with each pass.

There is one story, however, that did just the opposite. It disappeared.

A couple years ago, alumnus and camp legend Paul “The Wall” Marcotte donated some amazing items to the camp archive that he came across online. There were postcards and letters that gave a bit more insight into what camp life was like through the last century. Even among this wealth of new archival material, there was one item that stood out: a letter from former camp director Maynard L. Carpenter, who helmed Camp Soangetaha (which eventually became Coniston) during its early years.

The contents of the letter were as shocking as they were brief. It read: “As you know there was no camp last year on account of the War but I hope that you will be able to be with us this year.” It was dated May 14th, 1919. Camp was cancelled for the summer of 1918.

Fast forward to this spring. I was devastated to hear that traditional camp programming was not going to happen this summer. But after the initial shock set in, I could not stop thinking about the other missing Coniston summer and the war that cancelled it.

To me, the truth behind why we never heard about that summer is because the real story is not about what did not happen. The real story is about what happened afterward. In the summers following 1918, summer camps all over began to change. People returning from serving in the military, many of whom were about the same age as summer staff, introduced elements of their experience as they redesigned camps. Camps went from weekend outing clubs to far more structured, sophisticated organizations.

Consider Camp’s layout for example. Coniston’s layout dates to the early 1920s. We have rows of uniform cabins with a central base area. We have daily flag ceremonies. We start the day with reveille and end it with taps. These traditions were adapted from the shared hardships and military experiences of the counselors who would come back to camp starting in 1919. In contrast, suburbs were popular in the 50s and 60s, and camps from that time are spread out like suburbs.

The traditions that were introduced almost 100 years ago, because of that missing summer, have become a part of the DNA of Coniston. In the same way that you can tell the story of a tree by looking at its rings, our shared experiences in 2020 will join to shape the Coniston community of the future.

It is hard to imagine the camp that would become YMCA Camp Coniston during the missing summer of 1918. At that time camp was just a group of individuals with some supplies, borrowed space in the woods, and the belief that time outdoors, together, was the cure to a lot of what was wrong with the world. Through the darkness of this year, I find inspiration in picturing how much we have grown in the past 100, and how that growth has been able to positively affect the lives of countless individuals. I find hope in imaging the summer of 2118. What will it look like? History would dictate that the answers begin with the Coniston community of 2021.

The fact that for the two times camp has been canceled, they are almost exactly 100 years apart, during a pandemic, going into the 20s is a special coincidence.  It reminds me of a dining hall quote from Ivy Baker Priest: “The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end, may also be only the beginning.”

Jack Berthiaume spent each summer (and a couple winters) at Coniston from 2005-2019. Today, he applies his camp lessons daily as a graduate student at the University of Washington and in his work at a nonprofit on Vashon Island, Washington.

Coniston has a track record of success in the face of society’s biggest challenges. If you found this read interesting, you may also like coniston.org/history. There, you will see how Coniston has used the power of camp to overcome everything from the Great Depression, to international political strife, to the plight of wild songbirds.