OA friends and family celebrate at Blairstown.
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OA friends and family celebrate at Blairstown. |
It was really fitting to celebrate 25 years of OA at the place where OA first began, Princeton-Blairstown Center. One hundred alumni, family, students, and friends joined us for a spectacular weekend at Blairstown. Most people camped out in tents on the property to "get back" to their OA roots (or just to sleep on some). Saturdays activities included canoeing and kayaking on the lake, nature hikes, a trail maintenance project, the climbing wall, high ropes course and low ropes course. Little kids were everywhere. The end of the day was the fabulous Eco-challenge. Due to people laughing so hard we only managed two events, a hands-paddling canoe race across the lake and a water balloon toss. Both were wet events for some. The first heat of the canoe race saw a lot of sunken canoes!
That evening was a great barbecue followed by a fireside chat with some of the people who created OA including Steve Boelhke 70, Andy Brown 69, Rusty Frye 75, Cate Huisman 75, Bill Katen-Narvell '76, and Ed Seliga 75. It was wonderful to hear what happened in those early days and for everyone to realize how much the program has grown in the last 25 years. We also honored those folks with a copy of The Backpackers Field Manual for their vision in starting OA.
Afterwards a number of people including board members Keith Ely 79 and Ed Seliga 75 treated us to some historic slides of OAs past. A night hike followed that ended at a campfire on the far side of the lake with, of course, Smores. Sunday there were more activities in camp and some out of camp including a day hike on the Appalachian Trail, canoeing on the Delaware River, and rock climbing at Millbrook Rocks. Everyone raved about the weekend both in terms of fun and how much it helped him or her reconnect with OA.
The feeling was unanimous that we do this more often than every 25 years. So mark you calendars now for OA Reunion 2000 September 22-24, 2000 at the Princeton-Blairstown Center. After that we plan to offer an alumni weekend at Blairstown every other year (this will mean that in the future the OA Reunion will be on even years and the Mt. Princeton climb on odd years).
Cate Huisman '75, former OA Program Director, gets ready to go for it!
Hangin' on the porch at Blairstown - Chris Shepard '98, Mark Borsuk '95, Kristen Fountain '96, and Amy Gladfelter '96
Andrew Reumann-Moore '83 and OA's next generation.
The great "Eco-challenge" at Blairstown.
Jim Garrett 65
Andy Brown 69
Warren Elmer 69
Steve Boehlke 70
Rusty Frye 75
Cate Huisman 75
Ed & Debbie Seliga 75
Bill Katen-Narvell 76
Rick Curtis 79
Keith Ely 79
Walt Hallagan 79
Armistead Webster 79
Donald Chandler 81
Helene & Paul Ferm 81
Jason Gold 81
Ted & Michelle Beatty 83
Peter Ellis 83
Bill & Beth Plonk 83
Andrew & Rebecca Reumann-Moore 83
John McNerney 84
Elizabeth & Andy Meyers 85
Bart Addis 86
Jonathan Taylor 86
Adrianne Nagy 87
Lawrence Friedl 88
Chris Round 88
Peter Bregman 89
Grace Offutt 91
Eleanor Harrison 92
Ted Polubinski 92
Gilbert Rohde 93
Wayne Collier 94
Christina Sebestyen 94
Billy Broaddus 95
Barbara Saatkamp 95
Jud Brewer 96
Mark Borsuk 96
Kristen Fountain 96
Amy Gladfelter 96
Tom Lannamann 96
Lori Pellegrino 96
Pete Schwartz *96
Sean Hartman 97
Steph Jones 97
Laura Scott 98
Katherine Byers 00
Jon Kent-Uritam 00
Ben Altz-Stamm 01
Katie Baum 01
Robin Clarke 01
Mike Errecart 01
Will Fox 01
Ryan Martin 01
Alexandra Melby 01
Jane Roberts 01
Stephen Tadlock 01
Sarah Apgar 02
Meghan Brown 02
Brian James 02
Chinook McLean 02
Diane Nuttall 02
Nicholas Seifert 02
Darcy Williams ST
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