Only one month until the first campers arrive!! Green Cove is turning the "Green" that she is so famous for! As I walked around camp the other day to snap some springtime photos, the place was really starting to feel alive again. Kathy and Gwen (Gwen spends a lot of time at the GC barn during the off season) were cantering around the Ball Diamond, Boomer (my dog!) was loving the cool lake water and Dan & Danny (part of the fantastic maintenance staff) were working on a new bench. All of this action made me so excited for you all to get here and REALLY bring this place back to life!The Canoe and Kayak Clinic, run by Gordon Grant for the benefit of our Scholarship Foundation, is a GO for this coming weekend! We have space remaining, though; call (828 693-7446) or email if you’d like to join us. Superb instruction on easy to moderate whitewater in canoes or kayaks. A general description is here: http://mondamin.com/canoeclinic.html.

We are down to about 20 remaining spots at Green Cove June Camp this summer. Those spaces may go quickly, or not... but if you'd like to be here, please call (828 692-6355) or email Green Cove , we would love to have you! (Space available in Main Camp also).

You may not know that during the off season (especially Spring and Fall), a lot of stuff goes on around here. Mondamin and Green Cove hosted a 5K and a 10 mile run this past weekend, a benefit for Mainstay in Hendersonville (http://www.mainstayhelp.org). This weekend (May 2), in addition to the Canoe and Kayak Clinic, there’s a benefit for the African Medical Mission (http://ammsa.org), and a Zen Buddhist group gathers here for a week long working retreat. The following weekend there’s a wedding, starring a former Green Cove camper. Several other groups will be at one camp or the other during May, and staff will start arriving May 17 for pre-orientation training: a nine day Wilderness First Responder course, a swim instructor course, a Red Cross Lifeguard course, etc. And of course, after that... CAMPERS ARRIVE!

We have absolutely LOVED getting updates from Green Covers this month... Sara Kate Durkee (June Camp Camper) has been spotted around town sporting her brand new Green Cove Shirt!

We recently got this note from Kendall Siewert (she has been a camper since 2004)...

Hey everyone! This is my sixth year at camp, and I literally cannot wait to go back. My camp girls and I talk every single day and they are my best friends, if not my sisters. Thank you so much for this opportunity of letting girls get to truly be themselves, I have never felt more at home anywhere else. Counting down the days until June 1st!

Adri Tamayo (camper for 4 years and on staff for 2) writes...

This past holy week I went to Peru with my family and could not stop thinking of my Green Cove days. We hiked the Inka trail from Cuzco to Machu Picchu and could not get the incredible camping experiences from my camping in the back 40 and other places. My brother got poison ivy my clothes all smelled like mold and morning pancakes were mandatory. I'm just writing to thank you for all the beautiful things I lived at camp and to let you know that I think of camp constantly (all my friends are bored with stories and know every one by name by now) hope to be back.

Sarah Norman (long time camper & counselor and this years Junior Line Head for main camp) headed west for her spring break. She got to visit with Rebecca Baskin (2008 counselor) in Boulder, CO & Pepper Raper (this year's Head of Mountaineering) in Vail. They had a blast getting caught up and getting excited for Green Cove 2009! Emily Caja (staff since 06) has been working at a barn in Virginia, she wrote to us saying that they have several new baby horses!! Emily won't be back this summer, but will be missing camp like crazy!

Liddell Shannon (Early June Camp Crazy Lady) sent this picture of a mini Green Cove reunion. Liddell writes...
pictured from left to right are: Liddell Shannon, Dixon Stapleton, Randi Williams Green, Katherine Higgason Lentz, Shea D'Anna, and Elysia Versen Clemmons

All of these ladies were counselors together in the late 1990's. All except me were campers together. Katherine Higgason Lentz took a break from her busy schedule in order to be hostess and DTL for the 9th Annual Green Cove Girl's Weekend at her home in Chattanooga, TN. On Friday night the ladies arrived - (Elysia Flying in from Colorado). Suzie Howick and Nancy Wilson McKnight stopped by for a visit and we all decided to forgo our usual Tajar Day Girl's Weekend activities (standing in a creek, asking everyone we see if they have the Tajar etc.) in order to catch up and eat appetizers.

Saturday's three major activities included shopping, walking, and dining. We did observe rest hour and the Moms in the crowd, Elysia and Randi, especially enjoyed it. The included picture was taken by someone outside of the restaurant where we had dinner. Liddell first asked someone else to take the group photo, but he declined because he was legally blind.

Sunday morning we were treated to a delicious breakfast, "Thank you Sister Schubert!" and we headed back to the real world refreshed and feeling like Green Cover Girls again. A huge thank-you goes out to Katherine Higgason Lentz and her husband Jason Lentz for letting us take over their home for the weekend.

If you have a fun Green Cove reunion, story or memory we would LOVE to hear from you! In the meantime, we will just keep counting down the days until SUMMER 2009!!