It’s July 1, 1945. Morning. Opening Day. Scatico campers excitedly gather in the main concourse of Grand Central Station, looking for the raised banners that will group them by division. Outside their large circle of energy, laughter and nerves, the bustle of another Grand Central morning passes by…

Each summer at Scatico we look to find moments of magic... and then take a moment to stop, take a breath, and marvel.

I have never had so much of a sense of being brought back to a place and time than [at the final ceremony] before the years were burned. I found myself sitting with my head down, eyes focused on the blades of grass that I was picking up and splitting head down the middle as I listened. I could have picked my head up and been sitting on the steps of the Pixie House as an Upper Senior on a Friday evening…

The movement of time at camp in any summer is like the movement of charged particles in a particle accelerator: never constant and really difficult to understand

It was a summer like no other….

Although it was not a Scatico summer in the traditional, Elizaville, reveille-to-taps sense, the alumni community seemed more than ever to embrace the need to stay connected both with their Scatico friends and their Scatico memories:..

In 1978, Radisa Borisavljevic traveled from Serbia (then part of Yugoslavia) to Elizaville to work for one summer as a camp driver…

As Scatico’s 100th anniversary celebration approaches (see below), the thoughts of many alumni naturally turn to camp and camp memories.

As Scatico’s 100th anniversary draws near it has turned thoughts toward the passage of time—and the essential conundrum of how it can pass so slowly in the moment and yet also in an instant through the years….

The tradition of staging a July 4th Talent Show for the entire Scatico community dates back at least 50 summers, to my days as a camper in the late 1960s…

During staff orientation prior to each summer from the late 1960s into the early 1990s, Flick Fleischner (as camp director) would talk with counselors about the significance of their work with children…

As each Scatico summer unfolds, it reveals its own unique blend of friendships and memories. Much of the magic of any camp experience comes through careful planning pre-season: staff to hire and train, facilities to add, programs and special events to design and implement...

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. 

When people visit Elizaville they often reflect on the role camp played in making them who they are today. Not just in terms of friendships and memories (though there are plenty of these) or even skills learned (at activities or in group living), but how summers at camp helped create who they are in terms of core values and character.