Come Home to Camp for the 2025 Reunion
Recruiting is underway for the 2025 reunion! I’ve already been in touch with camp alums representing six different decades, and I’m encouraged that we will have another great turnout like we did in 2021. I imagine we will attract many who were with us for the Owatonna Centennial, and we’d love to see the faces of those who couldn’t make it last time. We sure hope you’ll join us.
It’s so much fun to reconnect with friends we haven’t seen in a while, and even more fun when it’s been a really long time. A photo from 1980 (almost 45 years ago!) prompted me to track down one of my Owatonna friends. Someone I had not been in touch with since the early 1980s.
As the phone rang, I wondered if I would recognize a voice after approximately 43 years, especially since the last time we spoke was when he was 15 and I was 10. I’m not kidding you when I tell you that his voice, while maybe slightly different, was totally what I remembered! It was amazing! We had a wonderful phone conversation lasting over 45 minutes, during which we shared some wonderful memories of our time at camp together and our mutual appreciation of all the good that was a result of our Owatonna experience.
I was extremely gratified that the conversation was so warm and congenial, and that he sounded very likely to register for the reunion. You can be sure I will follow up with him to ensure he does indeed register!
Our conversation reminded me of the great conversations I had four years ago with the folks who participated in the previous reunion and how joyous those visits were. Whether on the Owatonna Lodge porch, while riding down the Newfound hill on a golf cart, or while sitting and singing around the fire pit outside of the Newfound Lower Lodge, those reconnections were fantastic, heartfelt, and heartwarming. Brief or extended, it didn’t matter… they all were more than worthwhile.
Please join us this coming Labor Day weekend, won’t you?
– Terry Coolidge, Reunion Coordinator