Happy Holidays! We have been getting lots of Christmas Cards with pictures and letters from Green Cove Girls everywhere (Green Cove Women & Green Cove Families too!) We love opening the mail each day and getting to see how everyone is doing!

We just had our annual Christmas party. Each year the Mondamin & Green Cove year-round office staff head over to Frank & Nancy's house for an amazing Christmas feast. It's always so fun to get to hang out together away from the office. June campers may remember Marie & Liza Danos (they helped lead the singing!) This year, Marie & Liza along with Lindsay & Ian Bell created an awesome gingerbread house (which they also helped eat) Nancy Sr's mint brownies were an added bonus to the party!








This is the time of year when we really start thinking about who the wonderful 2009 counselors will be. We finally sent out contracts to the 2008 staff, please check your mailboxes and let us know if you dont get one. This year the first five staff memebers to return their signed contract win an ALL EXPENSES PAID, ROUND TRIP TO COLD STONE CREAMERY WHERE YOU GET TO PICK OUT YOUR FAVORITE TREAT! (come on, you cant pass that up!) So hurry up and get those things back to us!

The Aids of 2009 will be happy to know that their cabin, Penthouse, is in the middle of a major makeover! The bathrooms in the new Penthouse will be fabulous! I'll post some pictures when they get closer to being done.

We love hearing stories of how Green Cove has impacted someone's life. This message just came in from long time camper and 2008 Mountaineering counselor, Chelsea Rinnig. Chelsea writes...
"I'm going to Nepal this summer! I'm planning on staying in an orphanage with 14 young girls and teaching at their local school. I would never have done this if it weren't for Green Cove though, having learned how important it is for young girls to have a strong female role model. I want to give these girls the same drive and independence that Green Cove gave me, because those qualities are so valuable for girls no matter where you live in the world! So I'm sorry I don't think I'll be able to come back this summer, but that doesn't mean Green Cove is not on my mind."

So even though we will miss Chelsea this summer, we are so proud of her! Good luck Chelsea!! If you have a cool story like Chelsea's, drop me an email, I would love to hear it!

We have heard from several other Green Cove girls from around the country who are doing great things. Counselors Britta Weisner & Shea D'Anna (along with Dixon Stapleton who was last here in '01) got together in Atlanta. Britta just successfully finished her first semester of her Masters in Business at Emory and Shea has her hands full teaching 7th grade English at the Galloway School. Counselor, Flo Page, is headed to the Galapagos Islands with her family for Christmas Break. Pepper Raper is packing up and moving to Colorado where she got an internship with Vail Resorts in product sales and services. Congrats Pepper!! Camper, Jane Plummer and '07 counselor, Shahla Ahmad had a mini reunion at Disney World. They had a great time hanging out and catching up. Nancy and I got to catch up with Administrative Director, Susan Spence this month when she came to visit us for lunch. Susan has been completely re-doing her newly purchased Asheville home. She is almost finished and we cant wait to see it!
Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a New Year filled with adventure! Please keep in touch!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hope everyone is enjoying time with family (and time away from school too!!) As I was writing this, Debbie, Nancy & I started chatting about what we are thankful for. So much of it had to do with the fun, energy, excitement & and of course some drama that we have in our lives because of Green Cove. We are all so thankful to get to be part of such a special place and are thankful for all of YOU who make it so special!

This month has been full of travels for us. Since the last time I posted, we have been to Richmond, Raleigh, Durham, Charleston, Cincinnati, Lexington, Winston-Salem, Louisville, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Mandeville, Baton Rouge, Dallas, Tuscaloosa, Tyler (TX) and Birmingham!! It has been fun showing off the new video to everyone at the showings. We also just sent a copy of the DVD to campers from last year and will be sending a copy to staff shortly. Start checking your mail boxes and let us know if you didn't get one. Thank you to all you Green Cove girls, new and old (and of course your families) who came out to see us! It is so fun getting to see and meet everyone. We aren't finished traveling yet. To see when we are headed to your town, check out our travel schedule at http://www.mondamin.com/travelsched.htm.

We generally only have a couple of hours in each city, but this time we were lucky enough to have almost a full day in New Orleans. Nancy & I spent most of the day hanging out with Katy Danos (main camp program director). You may or may not know that Katy helps run a shop called Hazelnut in New Orleans (check her shop out at www.hazelnutneworleans.com). We got to see the shop (which is already decked out for Christmas!) and we also got to meet Katy's friend and one of the owners of the shop Bryan Batt. Brian's nieces are June campers and Brian is an actor on the show Mad Men which just won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama!!

Registrations for summer 2009 have been coming in like crazy! Please remember, there is a discount for anyone who registers for camp before December 1st ($100 off for June Camp and $200 off for Main Camp). If you are planning on being here, get that registration in soon!

I have been hearing from a lot of the wonderful 2008 staffers; you will be happy to hear that many are hoping to be back this summer! Nancy and I are working on getting 2009 contracts sent out to last years staff. We will be sending them to your home address because they should arrive during winter break. If your address has changed, please let me know!

Many alumnae from the 90's may know Angela Tucker Betancourt who was a camper and counselor for many years. Angela was in a car accident; here is an update from Alden Schell & Amy Jenkins...

I wanted to give everyone a brief update on Angela Tucker Betancourt, Green Cove camper and counselor for many years. On July 31st, Angela and her husband, Rich, were driving home from a Yankees game in New York when a truck went over the concrete divide and hit Rich and Angela head on. Rich died on the scene and Angela was rushed by helicopter to a trauma center. Angela's injuries from the accident were significant, and she remained in the trauma center for a month before being moved to a nearby rehabilitation center. In mid-October Angela announced that she was "blowing this popsicle stand," after doctors at the rehab center told her that she was ready to be discharged. Angela is now continuing her recovery in Hendersonville, NC, not far from camp. For more information, you can go visit her website, https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/angelabetancourt, where she is now giving her own regular updates on her progress. Angela is also welcoming visitors in NC, and you can write her at 2589 Hebron Road, Hendersonville NC 28739.

More news from Green Cove Girls from around the world...
Main Campers Hannah Owen & Summer Kiesling met up at a cross country meet last month, apparently they had to sneak away to get a picture together since they were on opposite teams! Main Camper, Karley Walker's picture was in Blue Ridge Living newspaper, she used some of her Green Cove paddling skills on a school trip to Charleston where they spent the day exploring in kayaks!
2008 Juniors may recognize the girl in the blue dress with the feather hat... Junior Line Head, Mary Gilliam was just in a production of Love's Labour's Lost at Cornell University! This month I got to visit one of my oldest friends & former Green Cove counselor, Maggie Klag Eshenour who is 7 months pregnant! Maggie is doing great and we cant wait to meet her baby boy! Last month counselors Maya Appley & Beth Woodthorpe-Evans got together...in IRELAND! We finally have pics, and the girls said they loved Ireland so much that Beth wants to move there! Laura Bridge (who has actually just agreed to be our 2009 June Camp Program Director!) is still traveling the world and just met up with Aussi Kate in Australia!

Let us know what you are doing!! We love to get updates from Green Cove Girls... especially if you are getting together with your camp friends, send me a pic!

Keep in touch and as always... Green Cove misses you!!

Welcome to the NEW Green Cove Blog!!

Check back often for the latest and greatest Green Cove News!

Fall is finally in full swing and it is BEAUTIFUL around here. Every day on my way to Mondamin (our winter office is at Mondamin), as I go over the bridge and look out over the lake I cant believe how lucky I am to actually get to LIVE in such a beautiful place! Here's the fall lake (recognize Rabbit Island?)

The New Green Cove VIDEO is FINALLY finished! We have been working hard to get it finished up in time for our fall travels and I think all of our hard work has really paid off... it looks great!! So far we have shown it to Green Cove Girls (new and old) in Richmond, VA, Raleigh, NC & Durham, NC. We wont have copies of the video for another couple of weeks, so to see it for yourself... come out and see us when we are in your area. To find out when we are coming to your town, check out our travel schedule. http://www.mondamin.com/travelsched.htm

Many of you might be wondering "how the heck do they travel so much"? Well, you may or may not know that Frank Bell is an airplane enthusiast/pilot extraordinaire and actually has his own little plane. This makes trips to meet Green Cove Girls around the country very convenient (and FUN!). This is Nancy & me yesterday, we were traveling to Raleigh. The actual name of the plane is Pandemonium Airlines but we sometimes call it "The Hotdog" because the colors are ketchup, mustard & mayonnaise!



We need a new Green Cove T-Shirt!! And we need help designing it! Campers from '07 or '08 probably remember the pink daisy, green tree and blue moon shirts. We are looking for designs to replace those shirts. If you have any great design ideas, draw us a picture (or you may even be able to do it on the computer) and send it in. We will pick a design in early Spring. If we pick your design, we will send you a free shirt and of course you will earn bragging rights for years to come! Please try to limit your design to less than 5 colors and send your ideas to me at p.o. box 38, Tuxedo, NC 28784 or greencove@greencove.com.






Attention 2008 Green Cove Camper Parents! We would love to get your feedback from your daughters experience last summer. This is the time of year where we are really looking at what went well and what changes need to be made for next summer. If you haven't already done so, please fill out our online "Parent Evaluation Form", it wont take long and it will really help us improve camp for next year! http://www.greencove.com/evaluation.html

News from Green Cove Girls from around the country! We have been hearing from Green Covers all fall. Summer '08 counselors Kristen Sukys, Mary Margaret Burdett, Stephanie Jazinski, Julie Ruppert & Elise Desloge got together at Virginia Tech this month and had a blast getting to catch up. Laura Bridge has been traveling the world this fall. She has sent us updates from Fiji & Australia! She has been working in villages, climbing mountains and even jumping out of planes!! A little insider information... Laura has already signed on the dotted line for the entire Summer of '09!! Campers and staff Angie & Sammy Moorin, Anne & Katherine Sharp, Elizabeth & Carrie Anderson, Katie DeAngelis & Katherine English had a ball when they met up in Louisville, KY last week for some Green Cove reminiscing! Early June Camp Program Director, Liddell Shannon has been busy this fall with grad school but will be ditching the books to do some backpacking in Patagonia, Chile during Christmas break! Julia Goodman and Bette Sumrell (last here in '07 as counselors) stopped by Green Cove last weekend, Nancy had a blast getting to visit with them. Bette just got back from a trip to England and Julia is working for a childrens magazine in Indianapolis. Speaking of England, one of our favorite Brits, counselor Beth Woodthorpe-Evans hung out with Maya Appley in IRELAND last week, Maya is studying in Switzerland and has been spending a lot of time at the UN. Stable skills manager, Emily Caja, just got a new job and is enjoying her new life as an assistant trainer at a polo facility in Northern Virginia. Katie LaRue has been playing her guitar and singing all over the place, last weekend she played at the Grey Eagle in Asheville. Stephanie Cohan showed up to watch! While we have been meeting a ton of new potential campers during our travels, it is always fun to get to hang out with campers who have been here before like Sarah Carr Barnes and Waverly Lewis.

Keep in touch, e-mail me with your news and as always... GREEN COVE MISSES YOU!