Chapter Family Programs
Ed Fanjoy can apply English’s principles of group dynamics not only to teens but to adults as well. For years, he has led trips through the Worcester Chapter for groups of mixed ages, ranging from short evening bike rides to four-day backpacking excursions in the White Mountains. His favorite is an annual weekend at Tully Lake in Royalston, Mass., for about 30 people, including his own family. “People from all over the world join us,” he says. “I’ve led groups that included natives of Belgium, Australia, Germany, Israel, and India who joined AMC after moving to the U.S. specifically to meet like-minded people.”
Ed and his wife, Patrice, met and courted over a series of AMC trips he led. Their first child was born on a day they normally take an annual bike trip on Martha’s Vineyard with AMC friends, and one of the first phone calls they made announcing the baby’s arrival was to those friends. On baby Pam’s first birthday, Ed and Patrice brought her on that very same Martha’s Vineyard bike trip.
Getting to know the diversity of people on a typical AMC trip has broadened the world considerably for the couple’s two daughters, now ages 7 and 8, Ed Fanjoy says. “By leading these groups, we expose our children to a diversity of cultures and nationalities, while we also get to show people from all over the world the joys of New England’s outdoors. I remember one trip on which we had an American obstetrician, an Israeli pediatrician, and an Indian ER physician all sitting around the same campfire. Then the wife of the Indian doctor started singing a lullaby in Hindi. We all found it so beautiful. On the next day’s hike, we showed them redwing blackbirds, blue herons, beaver dams…all kinds of things that they hadn’t seen where they came from. It makes my daughters realize how big the world is.”
There are additional benefits to gathering children and adults who may not know each other, Fanjoy observes. “I used to lead groups of adult singles, and I would see them getting very competitive with each other as far as athletic abilities. With children along, adults tend to be better behaved in that respect, and also, all the adults work together to keep an eye on all the kids,” he says. “Children have the chance to observe adults behaving wholesomely and collaboratively, in roles other than that of teachers and parents.” Once a man who brought his guitar taught some chords to all the children in the group; frequently Patrice, who loves to fish, impresses the kids with an impromptu demonstration of how to catch, clean, and cook a fish. “Every experience is new when you add kids to the mix,” Fanjoy says with a laugh.
Regional Camps
Including their kids was exactly what Kathy and Jeff Parsonnet looked forward to doing when their daughter Myra turned 4. To them, it signified an important milestone: It meant that the youngest member of their family was finally old enough to go to AMC’s Three Mile Island Camp in Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H.
That was 10 years ago. The Parsonnets, who live in Norwich, Vt., have gone back every summer since. The first time they went, it was just the four of them, but the following year, Kathy’s recently widowed mother as well as her mother’s sister joined them. All of them love the annual tradition and the simplicity of the island located 100 miles from home, Parsonnet says. “It’s not just that we don’t have plumbing or electricity in our cabins; it’s the freedom from the constant information that bombards us in our daily lives. These days, I feel tied to everything and everyone electronically,” she says. “Between deadlines, news headlines, phone calls, messages, and emails, it’s so hard to get a sense of quiet. But at Three Mile Island we have that. It’s not only quiet in the auditory sense but there’s also a quieting of the mind, once you get away from everything.”
Another strong draw about the camp, which can accommodate about 90 people at a time, is its intergenerational component. “When my daughter was very young, she made a date with her grandmother to do origami together every afternoon while we were there,” Parsonnet says. “So for several years on end, they would wind down each day doing origami. Down at the dock, you frequently see kids who want to swim asking whatever adult is nearby to watch them. Or you might see a 6-year-old and an 80-year-old who just met that morning playing cards.”
Over the course of a decade, there have been times when Parsonnet’s kids resisted the yearly plan. “But you just tell them they have to, and once they get there they are glad,” she says. “Once they’re on the island, they can do whatever they want. They can swim, or play games, or go kayaking. The teens sometimes just hang out by the water watching members of the opposite sex.”
“I love going to Three Mile Island,” says Myra Parsonnet, who is now 14. “It’s good bonding time and there’s so much outdoorsy stuff to do there. You can go hike a mountain nearby, or you can just talk to new friends.”
Myra says she doesn’t mind the break from the material comforts of home at all, and her mother observes wryly that it is not usually kids who have a problem giving up their keyboards and wireless access. “It’s the adults who have trouble with that,” she admits. “We have to force ourselves to just turn off the cell phone and not sneak a peek at our messages. For the kids, there’s so much to do there that they don’t normally get to do that they really don’t think about anything they’re missing."
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Nancy Shohet West is a freelance journalist living in Carlisle, MA.
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