Spring 2017
When Scatico first opened in 1921 as a boys camp in Wingdale, New York, the sleepaway camp industry in the northeast United States was going through a period of considerable growth. Many parents wanted to provide opportunities for their children to escape from urban areas during the hot summer months—to provide simpler, less crowded, and healthier environments with lakes, trees, sunsets, and star-filled skies. The programs would focus on physical activity, creative and performing arts, and outdoor living skills (then called nature and pioneering). From the very beginning, learning how to be a positive citizen in a community, instilling values, and character building were at the core of the mission. A look at roster lists from Scatico’s first summers in the 1920s and 1930s confirms the sense of camp as an urban escape; right through to the beginning of World War II, more than 75 percent of the campers came from New York City (all 5 boroughs) and other nearby urban areas like Newark and Paterson.
A lot has changed in the United States in the ensuing 97 summers. Eighteen presidents and too many wars. The invention of antibiotics, television, space travel, personal computers, and the internet. Greater awareness of the rights of individuals—the distance traveled in this pursuit and the realization of the distance still to travel.
A lot has changed at camps.... Campers don’t just travel to Scatico from “urban” metropolitan New York, but from many different communities, including 12 states in addition to New York and New Jersey and 4 other countries. The range of activities offered has also evolved and expanded. Climbing towers, cooking centers, mountainboarding, film-making, gymnastics buildings... were not part of camp landscapes in the 1920s and 1930s.
But a lot has not changed.... Parents are embracing the principal objectives of Scatico (and camps like Scatico) more than at any time during the last generation: getting kids outdoors and active; teaching them to work and live in groups; and helping them form the kinds of friendships and life values that will serve as signposts as they navigate the journey through adulthood. Although the “escape” now isn’t so much from cities, but time spent in front of screens and indoors, the foundation provided by a summer at camp endures.
At Scatico this summer, it will often be the simple routines of day-to-day camp life that will cumulatively make the experience so impactful: walking to and from meals and activities with bunkmates; afternoon general swims at the lake; morning and evening full-camp line-ups and announcements; the minute-by-minute creep of darkness blanketing the campuses at the end of the day....Maybe even clean-up after breakfast!
New to Scatico in 2017
- A renovation of the girls gymnastics building includes new siding; addition of a deck with built-in seating for about 20; wall-to-wall gymnastics flooring; and garage doors on both sides of the building to open up the space.
- A new flag football field. The archery range has been relocated to the former riflery range (by the boys campfire circle) and all the woods are now cleared from the C court out to the ballfields (grass soon to follow!). The leveled ground will allow for a 60- by 40-yard field. (Sorry, no more “cheap” homeruns into the right-field woods on Field 1 during Twilight League.)
Flag football field
Gymnastics building, not quite finished yet
Nat Holman—Still in the News
In the buildup to Madison Square Garden hosting the NCAA Division I basketball tournament Eastern Regionals (rounds of 16 and 8) this past March, feature stories about Nat Holman and the 1949-50 City College team that he coached appeared in The New York Times and the Daily News. Nat was even mentioned by Villanova head coach Jay Wright in an interview on ESPN television. When asked about the fashionable suits he wears during games, Coach Wright said he was following in a tradition started by Nat Holman at City College.
All of this shouldn’t be too surprising since perhaps the single most memorable moments in MSG college basketball history occurred in March 1950 when CCNY won both the NIT and NCAA tournaments in a single year (back then they weren’t played concurrently). CCNY’s team, comprised entirely of players from the metro-New York area, was the first integrated team to win either of these tournaments. In the excitement that followed in the wake of the victories, Nat made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and was featured in a cover story in Newsweek.
Remembering Nat
During the off-season following the summer of 1951, Bob Hirsch received the postcard to the right from Nat Holman congratulating him on winning the MVP award when his Englewood, NJ, Junior High School team won a championship. It is a classic Uncle Nat letter—formal, uplifting—and equally wonderful that Bob has saved it as a camp souvenir for more than 65 years. Bob and his wife Ellie now live in Baltimore and they shared the postcard along with the photo with Uncle Nat from an early 1970s Visiting Day when their children Karen, Elizabeth, and Eric were campers.
Calling all Photos
We are looking for classic (and even not-so-classic) photos to print in future issues of the Alumni Newsletter. Send by e-mail as an attachment to info@scatico.com or by mail to:Camp Scatico, PO Box 6, Elizaville, NY 12523. We will return the originals, if requested.
To the right—Visiting Day 1957 (outside the canteen)— Larry Fleder (1960s-70s) sent in this photo with (left to right) his grandmother Jennie Sirota, sister Cheryl Fleder Sloane, and Ruth Jackson Holman (Nat’s wife).
Carrying on the Tradition
More than 100 alumni will have children at camp this summer as campers or counselors. In no particular order: Doug Florin, Sloan Zuckerman, Pam Weiss Caldara, JJ Shapiro, Shawn Chudnoff Goldberg, Randi Madison Zelkin, Shana Madoff Swanson, Katie Deutsch Eichel, Hillary Nahoun Krane, Dusty Fox, Ken Vallario, Hillah Wiczyk Mendez, Scott Madison, Jason Sanders, Aaron Wattenberg, Stefanie Birbrower Greer, Kara Haback Freeman, Andrew Tannenbaum, Alan Ranzer, Lara Holzer Miller, Julie Nahoun Hartstein, Beth Yurdin Metzendorf, Jessica Clark Newman, Pam Weiss Schwartz, Jeff Araten, Corey Gluckstal, Barry Pisetzner, Melissa Rosenblum-Pisetzner, Linda Lowenthal Tolstoi, Debb Falk Zerwitz, Justin Lapatine, Greg Mazarin, Adam Holzer, Pavel Mozga, Maggie Parwanicka Mozga, Patti Klyde Press, Todd Fass, Julie Strauss Greeley, Dan Rubin, Gerald Stein, Melissa Fass Karlin, Andrew Zuckerman, Gregg Rosh, David Rosh, Laura Danford Mandel, Jessica Weiner Mester, Rebecca Feuer Holden, Katie Mazarin Derasse, Carolyn Mitchell Kane, Todd Sherman, Michael Smiley, Larry Max, Dave Kedwards, Ian Ranzer, Randy Goldstein, Dori Popkin Chait, Jen Florin Finkel, Ken Senior, Michael Vickers, Jon Cooper, Andrea Baron Cooper, Marc Stiefel, Kara Horowitz Bockstein, Roger Lowenthal, Samantha Nahoun Gornstein, Tom Rubinson, Jennifer Fleischner, Scott Yurdin, Beth Gustave Bochner, Eric Kleiner, Arthur Roses, Kerri Berkman Winderman, Stacey Lipton Schumer, Whitney Scott, Mandi Zucker, Joel Beck, Rana Grossman Leibowitz, Susie Oshatz Perlman, David Rothenberg, Andrew Rubinson, Wendy Nedlin Schindler, Laszlo Nemeth, Wendy Sheldon Brown, Richard Croland, Jon Feldman, Mark Goldner, Larry Hamburg, Susan Greenbaum Gross, Mike Madorsky, Elisa Segal Madorsky, Leslie Wayte Heineman, Dick Hecker, Nancy Klyde Hecker, Sharon Beck Kochen, Brandt Josephson, Ketti Krieger, Michael Lippman, Jill Herzog Phillips, Rob Rosen, and Elyssa Berger Schecter.
Literary Scatico
References to Scatico appeared in two recently-published novels....
In Paul Auster’s 4 3 2 1 we follow Archie Ferguson through four “versions” of his life (choices can make a difference). In each life he attends a fictional Camp Paradise. In life number three Paradise plays Scatico in an intercamp game.
When mystery writer Lisa Lutz’s protagonist is running from the law and her past in The Passenger, one location at which she chooses to hide for several weeks is a summer camp during the fall. If the description of the mattresses and names in graffiti on the ceiling may seem familiar to Upper Hill boys side campers (as well as scenes in nearby towns of Rhinebeck and Red Hook), that’s because the author lives near camp and visited to case out (research) what a summer camp looks and feels like when empty during the off-season.
We Will Miss You
- Aline Greenberg Lawrence passed away on November 23 at the age of 96. Aline met her husband Seth Lipsky at Scatico when they were 16 years old and they married at 20.
- Bess Hurwitz Shay passed away on March 7 at the age of 82. Bess attended Scatico with her brothers David and Eddie in the 1940s-50s. A graduate of Cornell University, Bess received a Masters from the University of Maryland and was a middle school guidance counselor in Howard County, MD. After retirement, she worked as a substitute teacher and volunteered at the National Zoo and the Holocaust Museum.
Staying in Touch
Stay connected with fellow Scaticonians by e-mailing news, photos, and recollections to info@scatico.com. If you prefer the regular mail and printed pictures, that works just as well. We will even return the photographs after reproducing them for the Alumni Newsletter. We always love to hear about Random Scatico Sightings (RSSes)....
Jeff Bukantz (1980s-90s— son of Scatico alumnus Dan and father of alumni Michael and Stephanie) may have set all sorts of RSS records both in terms of distance and single-issue total. While in Israel in March as the General Chair for the Organizing Committee for Team USA for the 20th World Maccabiah Games, he had to return a call to Madison Square Garden. His contact wasn’t in, but when the person taking the message heard Jeff’s name, he asked if he was a “Scatico Bukantz.” Taking the call for MSG? Eli Rousso (a camper, counselor, and division leader from 2004-13). Eli’s Sub Senior division leader also happened to be Michael Bukantz.... Clearly on an RSS roll, Jeff later in March ran into Jeff Abrams (1960s-70s) at Palm Beach airport (one Jeff exiting a flight from Newark, the other ready to board the same flight). Prior to his Israel trip, Jeff also had a n RSS on a conference call with more than 100 coaches and sports chairs. While “coaching” the coaches, Jeff said, “as we used to say at my beloved Camp Scatico, ’The counselors make the summer.’” A little later, he received an email from Jake Sussman (2005-11), who as it turns out is the Maccabiah Team’s Triathlon Chair. (And, if you’re keeping score at home, Jake also had Michael Bukantz as a division leader)....
Another RSS record may have been set in terms of number of people involved in a single sighting. A softball team comprised of recent college grads (and 2000-2010s Scaticonians) working in New York City—Eddie Case, David Case, Quinn Hood, Jon Kochen, Jacob Kochen, Eli Rousso, Jacob Pargament, Dan Rubin, Charlie Kramer, Sam Beck, Rob Perlmutter, and Noah Rosenthal— had an April game on a Lower East Side field. They were just a little perplexed when a delivery man showed up with a bag filled with cold Gatorades and asked for fellow Scatico alumnus, but not a member of the team, Adam Ilowite (1990s-2000s). And then who should come running over infull uniform from a neighboring field?....
Finally, yet another RSS record may have been set in terms of time spent in close proximity before realizing a Scatico connection. Hayley Durward traveled from Scotland to help run the theater program for 5 summers in the 2000s. At work, she recently shared how she was getting together with camp friends at a reunion in London. When her supervisor Susan Bell casually asked where she had worked at camp in the United States because she had had a similar experience in the 1990s, they discovered that they had both worked at Scatico....
And, for more traditional RSSes... Jeff Araten (1970s-80s) with his daughter and current camper Sophie ran into Marc Stiefel (1980s-90s and a current camp doctor) with his sons and current campers Adam and Ben while skiing at Jiminy Peak in MA.... While volunteering at a food pantry on Martin Luther King Day, Mike and Elisa Segal Madorsky (both 1970s-80s) and their son Mack (2000s-10s) discovered that fellow volunteer Barbara Starr Gross attended Scatico from 1955 to 1965.... Chas (1960s-2010s) and Ellen Levine (1990s-2010s) spotted siblings Mike (1980s-90s) and Melissa Samuels (2000-08) in Grand Central Station in April....
Madorskys and Barbara Starr
Aratens and Stiefels
Jack, Matt, Larry and Steve
Other news (and non-news).... When Steve Hanft (1950s-70s) traveled from his home in Germany to the United States in January and February, he made Scatico pitstops in New York (to see Bob Seebacher and Marc Hellman), Virginia (to see Jack Siegel, Matt Weinstein, and Larry Fleder), and Florida (to see Neil Littauer)....
Ian, Bren, and Kyungmin
Mark Ostow’s (1960s-70s) series of photographic portraits of the Obama Cabinet went live on Politico on January 16.... Nina Zipkin (2001-05) is a staff writer for Entrepreneur.com.... Kyungmin Park (a Scatico art instructor from 2008-10), visited retired Scatico caretakers Ian Slater and Bren Karcich in December. Kyungmin is currently an Assistant Professor of 3D Studio Art at Endicott College in Beverly, MA....
NYC Reunion
Girls side alumni from the 1990s to 2010s got together for an NYC dinner in April—from left to right—Jaime Hollander, Ali Levine, Natalie Polen, Rachel Modica, Nicki Fleischner, JoAnna Datz, Joanna Smilgiewicz, and Alyssa Bush....
...Five former bunkmates traveled in February from five different states to run together in the New Orleans Rock ‘n’ Roll Half-Marathon—Marcie Braunstein Roth, Melissa Rosenblum-Pisetzner, Julie Nahoun Hartstein, Stacey Lipton Schumer, and Hillah Wiczyk Mendez (all 1980s-90s)...John Hickey (1981-2017) competed in the race as well, running for a team sponsored by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA). John raised more than $6,000 to help send children to CCFA overnight camps, including one program hosted at Scatico for more than 10 years after our season ends in mid-August....
Running in New Orleans
Andi Arnold (1980s-2000s) owns Lifesaving Enterprises, a company that provides first aid, CPR, and lifeguarding training to businesses and schools. She appeared on WPIX 11 News on January 12, demonstrating how to administer first aid to a choking infant....
When five 1979 Soopers—Wendy Nedlin Schindler, Whitney Scott, Ellen Scheiber Segal, Leslie Wayte Heineman, and Eileen Schwartz Lomonaco got together on March 3 in Riverside Park in New York City, one stop was to see a park bench dedicated to Ruth Fleischner on 101st Street....Angela Hotaling spent four summers on staff (2009-2012), including three as a division leader. She lives in Astoria, Queens, and is the Research and Development Coordinator for The Community Service Society, a not-for-profit providing a range of support services to New York City residents. Paintings by Angela where featured by the organization in a recent exhibit and are now displayed on items (like tote bags and postcards) sold to raise money for the charity....
Wendy, Whitney, Ellen,Leslie, and Eileen
Angie and her artwork
Andrew Tannenbaum (1980s-90s and a current camp parent) has joined the board of S.C.O.P.E. (Summer Camp Opportunities Promote Education) a not-for-profit that provides scholarships for underserved children to attend summer camp. At the annual dinner, Andrew and his wife Wendy were joined by Jon Cooper (Andrew’s former bunkmate and also a current Scatico dad) and Nicki and David Fleischner. Also attending the event was Jaime Horowitz Millman (1990s—sister of Kara and daughter of Jerry). Jaime’s husband Dan is an owner/director of Meadowbrook Country Day Camp in New Jersey. In the photo to the right, to the far right, are close friends Remy and Gary Greenstein. Gary has known Andrew and Jon since childhood, and although he attended another sleepaway camp Andrew reports he will be thrilled to get a shout-out in the Scatico Alumni Newsletter....
Nicki, Jon, Andy, Wendy,David, Remy and Gary
Harry Einbinder (1980s-2000s) is the Manager, Amateur and International Scouting for the To-
ronto Blue Jays.... Lucas Held (1980s-90s) had a feature role in a national Bud Lite television commercial that ran regularly during the NFL playoffs (that’s Lucas making the toast). In addition to work as an actor and standup comic, he is the creator of Lucas Held’s International House of Relax with “Cartoons that are none of your business”....
On December 28, Dick Rubin (1942-56) had his sixth lifetime hole-in-one at the Atlantic County Country Club in Lake Worth, FL. With a round of 78 for the day, he shot below his age (something he does regularly)....A December reunion in New York City brought together 2001 Soopers Stephanie Bukantz, Jenni Levine, Robyn Mohr, and Lauren Sherrard Azizian (and Eden Sophia Azizian)....
2001 Soopers with Chas and Ellen
Stephanie, Jenni,Lauren, and Robyn
Congratulations to NYU Langone Medical Center orthopaedic surgeon (and one of our current camp doctors) Eric Strauss (1980s-2010s). Eric was named an ABC Teaching Fellow and will spend the month of May giving a series of 19 lectures throughout the United Kingdom and South Africa....
...Barry Pisetzner (1970s-2010s) recently had a collection of his paintings displayed at the Holtzman Gallery in the JCC Building in Margate, NJ.... Former bunkmates Judi Fleischner Ecochard and Ellen Woloshin Shilowich attended a December taping of “Watch What Happens Live” on Bravo TV and sent in a photo with host Andy Cohen....
Steve Ross (1951-56) volunteers through his synagogue to help drive housebound elderl people to doctor’s appointments. In April, while driving a woman, talk turned toward summer camp—and it turned out that she was the mother of 1960s-70s campers Ken, Roger, and Andrew Lerrick....
Congratulations to Mitch Polay (1980s-2000s), a 6th-grade teacher in Yonkers, NY, for winning a statewide Education Department award that recognizes educators dedicated to teaching about the Holocaust and other human rights violations....
To close, we wanted to share two letters from alumni from more than 50 summers ago. Alice Silverberg Horning wrote: “I visited camp 2 summers ago and was happily astonished to find it just as I remembered from 3 summers in the early 1960s. Songs learned in Color War still played in my head, and the campfire site was the source of a number of happy memories as was the lake. I recently retired from a long career as a college professor, teaching writing and linguistics at a state university in Michigan.”
From Julian Bergman: “It has been a while since I returned to Scatico, but I hope to do so when I attend my 50th reunion at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY, in May/June 2017. My twin brother James and I attended Scatico for 4 summers in the mid-1950s along with our cousins Dick and Tommy Weiss. Our grandfather Sen. Ben Feinberg from Plattsburg, NY, was a close friend of Nat and it was because of him that we attended. We were fortunate to have known Nat and watch him play basketball at the camp and beat any senior who had the guts to play him one-on-one. I’m looking forward to seeing how camp has changed. I miss Color War and the BIG war canoes.”
Thanks to all for staying in touch—please email news and photos for the Fall 2017 issue of the Alumni Newsletter to info@scatico.com.
Scatico Playdate
When seven 1998 Soopers got together last August—Shira Savada, Ashley Green Sheen, Jamie Nowak Noe, Jamie Jacobs Siegel, Lauren Leiner Darmody, Emily Buchbinder Hutton, and Hope Mandel Amsterdam—Shira, a longtime camp photographer, organized a makeshift photo day with the next generation in green/grey and white. From left to right: Declan Sheen, Sam Dermody, Jack Dermody, Grant Amsterdam, Miles Noe, Annabelle Noe, Elyse Hutton, Ryan Hutton, and Drew Siegel. The “division” expanded on January 21, 2017, with the arrival of Mia Faith Dermody.
The Next Generation
Janja
Rebecca
- Quinn Lion to Daniel and Kara Haback Freeman (and big sister Dylan) on November 16. Kara was a camper in the 1980s along with her sister Pam. Dylan was a first-year camper last summer.
- Molly Grace to Megan and Jon Blaufarb on July 21. Jon and his sister Julie were campers in the 1980s when their dad Gene ran the boys waterfront.
- Kiara to Romesch and Janja Markus Due on February 24. Janja, who was born in Slovenia, worked as a counselor from 2008-14, running the girls waterfront during her final summer.
- Emma to Dan Pearson and Melissa Green (1980s-90s) on March 22.
- Mia Faith to James and Lauren Leiner Dermody (1980s-2000s) on January 21.
- Cameron Cecelia to Jeff and Rebecca Fleischner Tatom (1980s-2000s) on April 23.
- Penelope Blake to Leslie and David Sarraf (1990s-2000s) on April 18.
Congratulations
Boys head counselor Cory Schwartz (1987-2017) and Emily Smith on May 12. Photo to the right— ex-changing rings in Central Park with David Fleischner officiating; photo to the far right—Cory and Emily at camp on July 4th last summer. Cory’s sister Randi was a camper, counselor, and division leader from 1987 to 2003.
Sol Hayon (1997-2012) and Ellen Wiesemann on March 25, in Captiva, FL. Sol was joined by former bunkmates Ben Hayon (his twin brother and Best Man), Ray Serina, Brian Helfman, Trevor Dodge, Max Bosch, and Justin Grodman. Big sister Rachel Hayon Trinidad traveled to the celebration from the Boston area, where she is a teacher. Ben is a partner and co-founder at Athos Health and is currently living near the company’s headquarters in Minneapolis. Sol is a resident urologist at UNC Medical Center at Chapel Hill, NC. Under the heading of it’s a very small world indeed, UNC also recently brought on a urologist from Pennsylvania who was also a Scatico alumnus (a former counselor of Sol’s from the 1990s)—Brad Figler.
Sol and Ellen
Allie Fass (1987-94) and Todd Markowitz on October 15. Eight former divisionmates joined Allie—Dale Margolin Cecka, Ali Goodman Ecker, Jen Kornreich Geller, Robyn Polansky, Caryn Ecker Rappaport, Amy Rosenblatt, Amy Paul Tunick, and Dusty Fox Vallario—along with her brother Jarret and his longtime camp friend (and fellow Chappaqua native) Jason Becker. In 2017, Allie’s group celebrates the 25th anniversary of their Sooper summer.
Allie and Todd
Sally Quigley (1996-2004) and Norberto Lopez on August 24. Sally was the oldest of 5 Scatico siblings—Helen, Joe, Rodger, and Doris (in chronological order).
Maggie Cohen (1996-2009) and John Landers on April 22. Maggie and her sister Lizzy were both campers, counselors, and division leaders; their dad Frank was a camper from 1965 to 1972.
Sally and Norberto
Maggie and John
Days of Yore (only about 70 years ago)
Lodge 2 at Rest Hour. The camper, second to the left, in saddle shoes; towels hanging at the ends of beds;and, to the discerning eye, the bunk light on a pull change rather than a wall switch.
The lawn in between the health center (then infirmary) and the Pixie House when it boasted basketball and volleyball courts and a swing set. For today’s camper, yes, that’s the flag pole in the middle of everything, before it was re-located to its present-day spot closer to the entrance of the dining room.
