In the Issue: Pinewoods Camp Centennial Celebrations – Fine Companions open registration, Crew Reunion registration forthcoming; Spring Work Weekend Volunteering; Nature Nook Coming to Pinewoods; Winter Zoom Series: Brining Pinewoods History to Life; and A Sense of Place. Click HERE to read now!
A squirrel’s-eye view of a dance class in Newbiggin I – before it collapsed in a storm the winter of 1968-69. Photo courtesy of The Pinewoods Camp Collection, 1907-2008, MC288, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA. Photographer unknown.
January 2025 Articles & Announcements
January 27, 2025
In this Issue: Pinewoods Camp Centennial Logo and Celebrations; Fine Companions Registration is Open; Winter Zoom Series Reminder; Save the Date: Crew Reunion; Join Crew!; Celebrating Indigenous Voices; Found! Pat Shaw’s Pinewoods; Peace in Community Statement; and A Sense of Place. Click HERE to read more.
Peace Flag at the Pinewoods Camp Office Photo by Chris Jacobs
Winter Zoom Series: Bringing Pinewoods History to Life
December 14, 2024
Join us this winter into spring 2025 to celebrate our Centennial by exploring the rich history of Pinewoods Camp. In February we will go back to the days of Girl Scout Leadership Training Course at Pine Tree Camp under the auspices of Helen Osborne Storrow. In March we will get to know our post World War II stewards of Pinewoods: the Conant Family. In April we will explore our 1975 transition to the non-profit we are today in “Becoming Pinewoods Camp, Inc.” Read on for details and register now for each session!
Helen Storrow, Pinewoods Camp, and the First Girl Scout Training School
Ruth (Walsh) Wright Collection Girl Scout National Leader Training School, 1919, Pinewoods Camp, Long Pond, Plymouth, MA. Compliments of: Girl Scout Museum at Cedar Hill
Tuesday, February 25, 2025 7:00 pm ET With Francine Edwards
View the presentation HERE
Explore the complex connections between Boston philanthropist Helen Storrow, Pinewoods Camp, and the First Girl Scout Training School in the early 20th century. Mrs. Storrow was a progressive-minded woman with a vigorous interest in the benefits of all health-giving activities, especially camping, folk dancing, singing, swimming, gardening, and hiking. With help from the archival treasures of the Girl Scout Museum at Cedar Hill in Waltham, MA, we will journey into the past to learn more about Mrs. Storrow and her amazing legacy to Pinewoods Camp and the Girl Scouts.
Francine Edwards
Bio
Francine Edwards, one of the co-founders of the Girl Scout Museum at Cedar Hill, spent eight glorious summers during the late 1940s and early 1950s at Camp Four Winds on Long Pond. She was a camper, kitchen worker, and eventually waterfront counselor teaching swimming, boating, and canoeing. A current museum volunteer, Francine has special interest in Helen Storrow and the early history of Girl Scouting in Massachusetts.
The Conant Family and Pinewoods
Family photos from the Conant Family Archives. Compliments of: David Conant
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 7:00 pm ET With David Conant ClickHERE to register
David will share stories about his family’s long relationships with Helen Storrow, Pinewoods, and the Long Pond community. See pictures and movies from the family archives spanning from the beginnings of camp and the Girl Scout Leadership era, to the current era.
David Conant
Bio
As a member of the Conant family, David has spent time at or next to Pinewoods his entire life. He is involved in both the Camp and Pond communities. He was a member of the grounds crew in the 1970s, a PCI board member for 15 years, and has attended many sessions of Campers Week. He is an active Morris dancer, following in the footsteps of his father and grandmother.
Becoming Pinewoods Camp, Inc.
PCI’s tree logo, drawn in 1975 by Frank Edwards for the first Pinewoods Post.
Tuesday, April 29, 2025 7:00 pm ET With early board members and Bill Abbott, attorney for the Conants and PCI
Click HERE to register
Jeff Warner and Genny Shimer, members of the first PCI Board, in Ampleforth c. 1972. Photo credit: Suzanne Szasz
In the sale of the century, the Conant family sold Pinewoods Camp to a newly created non-profit: Pinewoods Camp, Inc. (PCI). As Pinewoods celebrates our Centennial, we also celebrate our 50th anniversary as an independent non-profit. We are pulling together a panel of special guests – major players in the forming of PCI. Join us for stories and anecdotes, and maybe the chance to ask your burning questions, with 50 years of perspective.
Participants:
Gillian Stewart, Moderator, and Panelists Bill Abbott, Bob Erenburg, Jeff Warner, Jim Morrison, and Tom Kruskal.
Pinewoods Post Fall 2024
November 23, 2024
In this Issue: Pinewoods Marks its Centennial; Reflection; First Dance Camps come to Pinewoods; Centennial Projects; Experiences in Dancing by Helen Storrow; The Story Behind the New Pinewoods Map. Click HERE to read more
Helen Osborne Storrow in Silhouette 1936 Photo by Perdue Cleave
Experiences in Dancing by Helen O. Storrow
November 18, 2024
Printed with permission from the Girl Scout Museum at Cedar Hill. Originally printed in the 1938 issue of The Trail Maker, the magazine of the Massachusetts Girl Scouts 1933-1942.
Experiences In Dancing
By Helen O. Storrow
Helen Osborne Storrow in Silhouette 1936 Photo by Perdue Cleaver
It seems as if everyone who loves music and has a sense of rhythm, must like to dance, if given a chance. I cannot remember when I did not love to dance; indeed I must have been very young when I first went to dancing school. The opening bars of a quadrille or the lancers always brought me up on my toes, and the music of a waltz made me feel like floating in the air. Ballroom dancing, however, is dependent upon partners, and not being a belle, I never had enough of it. Then for years, after I married, I did not dance at all; it was not then much the fashion for married people to dance and my husband was too busy earning a living to go out often in the evening.
When I was about forty, a Women’s Athletic Club was formed in Boston, in which one of the activities was “Aesthetic Dancing.” I was asked to join a class, and for the first time felt the joy of moving freely to music. Dressed in our accordion pleated skirts, wearing ballet shoes, we swayed, leaped, kicked, pirouetted and “pas de Basqued” over the great expanse of the large gymnasium floor, with an abandon hitherto unknown to my conventionally brought-up generation. Mr. Gilbert, with his black skull cap on his bald head, showed us the simplified ballet steps, and we did our best to imitate him, not always gracefully, but with great earnestness. Filled with enthusiasm, I determined to take the summer course for teachers, and I still have my diploma, tied with white ribbon, in a drawer of my desk.
A young friend, Emma Wright, had come on from Auburn to take the course with me, and the following winter we started teaching classes at the North Bennet Street Industrial School. About this time I discovered that under Luther Gulick’s enlightened regime, the Physical Education Department had introduced Folk Dancing into the New York public schools. Emma and I went to New York to see what it was like. We were shown demonstrations in several of the schools, and while I was talking with the teachers, Emma made notes of the steps, and with all the assurance of ignorance, we began teaching folk dancing from these notes! Longing to share this new-found delight, I started classes for the teachers in several public schools, the Wells and Hancock Schools in Boston, the Bunker Hill School in Charlestown, the Pierce School in Brookline and an open class in Perkins Hall in the W. E. & I. Union. It was the first time dancing had been taught in the Boston schools.
For several years I taught four or five classes a week, and what rubbish I taught! Still, I do not regret it for I am sure it was a good thing to get teachers, tired with the daily routine of the class-room, into the assembly hall, where, with windows open, they frisked about for an hour like children. We rented a hall, where Emma held private classes, and two other young friends joined us.
In the meantime, we were constantly taking lessons of every teacher we could find. Our repertoire of folk dances grew, our technique improved, and always we enjoyed the work immensely. Russian, Polish, Scandinavian, Scotch, English, even Japanese were among our teachers. Miss Lucille Hill, who had done so much to improve the physique of Wellesley students, taught us “Natural Dancing,” to use our bodies in a more natural way, and was the first to show us the absurdity of our ballet training.
Mrs. Storrow with her dog, “Mr. Pepys” at Long Pond, 1920
Then came Mr. Cecil Sharp, the founder of the English Folk Dance Society, who had given years to collecting the old English songs and had incidentally discovered a wealth of old English dances that were fast disappearing. A musician of note and a student, the last thing he ever expected to do was to teach dancing, but the more researches he made, the more apparent it became that if these old dances and customs of England were to be preserved for future generations, he was the man who would have to preserve them, so he did it.
First he tried them out in his own family with his wife and daughters. His wife once told me that she could never engage a cook or a housemaid who was not willing to dance “to make up a set.” Then he introduced it into a club for underprivileged girls, and finally he founded the English Folk Dance Society. The Society grew rapidly; Oxford and Cambridge took up Morris and Sword dancing; mixed groups of young people met for Country Dancing. It became very popular.
Then came the war. All the young men joined the army, while the young women joined the V. A. D. or the Red Cross—so it happened that Mr. Sharp came to this country, primarily to direct the dancing in Granville Barker’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream, but also with the hope of interesting Americans to form a branch of the Society.
Prof. George Baker of Harvard had become interested, having seen the dancing in England, and I had already joined the Society — the first American member. So we met Mr. Sharp and formed the American Branch of the E. F. D. S. with Mr. Baker as president, and me as vice-president. It was Mr. Sharp who finally shook the nonsense out of me, and showed me the beauty of simple natural movements. For three summers he held a summer school for us, bringing over several of his teachers, and also training Emma as an assistant.
The war came to us, so for several years our branch dwindled, but later it revived, and is now an active branch, with many centers in cities throughout the country. We hold a school every year, the last two weeks of August, at our old Pine Tree Camp on Long Pond, now called “Pinewoods Camp,” and a national festival takes place every May in New York.
As for Ballroom Dancing, when my four nephews began coming to college, I occasionally went to parties with them, and renewed my old love for this more formal type of dancing, but when the Turkey Trot and Jazz came in with its horrible raucous, blaring music, I thought it too disgusting, and stopped short going where I should hear or see it.
It was not until members of the Arthur Murray School of Ballroom Dancing came to Bermuda five years ago, that I realized the modern dances could be beautiful. I still object to much of the music, but even that I put up with, and have become an addict to the Fox Trot, the modern waltz and the Tango. They seem to my old eyes as charming, when danced well, as our old quadrille, lancers and waltzes did to my young eyes, and with a good partner, I enjoy an evening of dancing now, more than I ever did before.
EEE Awareness and Actions
August 27, 2024
There is currently an increased threat level ofEastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) in the Plymouth area. EEE is a rare but potentially severe mosquito-borne virus. The mosquitoes that can carry this virus are active from dusk to dawn, so during those times, it is essential to reduce exposure to mosquitoes while at Camp.
All campers, staff, and crew have been made aware of this situation, and Pinewoods Camp is taking the following measures to reduce the risk for all.
Providing and encouraging the use of insect repellent.
Encouraging everyone to cover as much exposed skin as possible.
Removing standing water from around Camp, where mosquitoes like to breed.
Utilizing indoor spaces whenever possible.
Inspecting and repairing mosquito screens.
Increasing use of fans in common areas in Camp.
We believe these measures are the most effective that we can take to help everyone avoid infection. We will continue to update these measures as needed, based on the latest information from the Massachusetts Department of Health.
Lost and Found 2024
August 8, 2024
Were you at Pinewoods this summer? Are you missing any items? Take a look at the Lost and Found Photos for the 2024 season. If you see an item that is yours, please email Beth Reagan, Assistant Manager of Operations and Communications.
The pictures below have been ordered as collected at the end of each session. Please keep in mind that the earlier in the summer you visited, the more pictures you should check – just in case it took time for an item to make its way to Lost & Found!
Miscellaneous Items – These items have come in at various times, separate from the initial lost and found documentation.
Queer Tango Camp, La Nuestra Tango/Queer Tango Boston (5/31-6/2) & Spring Camp, LCFD (6/7-9)
Swing into Summer, CDS-BC (6/14-16)
Folk Arts Center Weekend (6/20-24) & Folk Days, FAC (6/24-27)
July 4th Weekend, CDS-BC (6/27-7/1)
ESCape, CDS-BC & RSCDS (7/1-5)
Scottish Sessions I & II, RSCDS (7/5-8 & 7/8-13)
Family Week, CDSS (7/13-20)
American Dance & Music Week, CDSS (7/20-27)
Harmony of Song & Dance, CDSS (7/27-8/3)
English Dance Week, CDSS (8/3-10)
Early Music Week, CDSS (8/10-17)
Campers’ Week, CDSS (8/17-24)
TradMaD, FMSNY (8/24-30)
Labor Day Weekend, FAC & CDS-BC (8/30-9/3)
Post-Season including Pinewoods Fall Work Weekend I & II (9/7-8 & 9/14-15)
Community Feedback Survey
June 23, 2024
Dear Pinewoods Community,
Photo Credit: Sue Flint
The Pinewoods Camp, Inc. (PCI) Board of Directors is working on a strategic plan for the Camp we love.
Last summer, we spoke with many of you during the various camp sessions. We are asking for feedback from our entire community on several important areas for Pinewoods.
Please take 10-15 minutes to fill out the Community Feedback Survey. We appreciate your input and will use the collective feedback to inform our priorities for Camp. The survey will be open until June 24. Thank you, and we hope to see you at Camp this summer!
Fine Companions: Remembering Pinewoods Before 1975
June 15, 2024
SAVE THE DATE FOR SUMMER 2025
“Fine Companions: Remembering Pinewoods Before 1975” Tuesday, June 10 – Friday, June 13, 2025
In 2025, Pinewoods Camp will be celebrating its 100th anniversary. As one of many Pinewoods Camp Centennial projects, a committee of volunteers is putting together a special anniversary session in Summer 2025 that focuses on memories of Pinewoods from 1944-1975 — from the year Lily Conant inherited Pinewoods Camp until the completion of the sale of the camp to Pinewoods Camp, Inc.
The focus will be on community and being at Pinewoods. The programming includes English and American musical traditions offered during most of the sessions in those years.
What Will Happen at the Session?
Because we anticipate hosting a number of older campers (in their 70’s, 80’s and, hopefully, 90’s), we are structuring this session to allow for maximum participation of these participants. Therefore, this session emphasizes lighter programming with more time for socializing.
The session will include:
A social gathering on opening night in the camphouse
Daytime English Country dancing, gatherings with singing and or stories, instrumental sessions, swimming, socializing, and tea
A workshop that explores archival material about Pinewoods Camp and opportunities to capture new material to add to it, specifically your memories and stories
Two short evening dances on Wednesday and Thursday nights, followed by a camphouse gathering officially ending at 10:00 pm
Dances selected from a combination of 1960s and 1970s programs (in Genny Shimer’s notebooks) and requests by the participants at the time of registration (English, classic contras, and singing squares)
A golf cart shuttle will circulate around the roads at camp to assist those who need the use of it.
Staff
English calling and dance facilitator: David Millstone Calling terms at the dances will be as they were during those years, so the callers will refer to men and women for placement as well as positional calling (e.g., first corners).
Musicians: Alchemy – Karen Axelrod, Rachel Bell, and Eric Martin
Song leader: Jeff Warner
Options for Attending the Session
Option 1 – Full participation / Onsite Sleeping: Come to camp and stay onsite.
Option 2 – Full participation / Offsite Sleeping: Campers will have the option of arranging for sleeping accommodations offsite and coming to camp during the day and evening. (Please note: we can provide suggestions for housing, but campers will be responsible for making their own offsite arrangements.)
Option 3 – Day Visit / Thursday only: Former Pinewoods community members who are only able to visit briefly are welcome from mid-morning through late afternoon on Thursday, June 12.
Who should attend?
If this sounds interesting to you, please join us! Registration will be open to any and all campers who wish to attend. Priority will be given to people who attended camp prior to the late-1970’s, and those people who have not returned in recent years because of the strenuousness of programming at regular summer sessions.
Please spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested.
Questions?
Registration will open in January 2025. However, if you have further questions now, please contact Marney Morrison or Susan Creighton.
Program Directors: Marney Morrison and Susan Creighton
Email:
Liaison to the PCI Centennial Committee: Michal Warshow
Additional advisory committee members: David Conant and Brad Foster
2024 COVID Guidelines
March 21, 2024
Pinewoods Camp, Inc COVID Guidelines for Campers Updated 3.1.24
Here are the updated COVID guidelines for attending Pinewoods Camp for the 2024 season. We reserve the right to make changes to this policy in response to potential changes in COVID conditions. Program Providers may choose to apply their own additional guidelines that may be stricter than what we outline here, and, if so, we will support their decisions. But at a minimum, to attend Camp, we require the following:
VACCINATIONS
COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters are not required for the 2024 season. However, we do encourage all eligible campers to get the most recent vaccine/booster.
TESTING
Campers are required to bring a minimum of 4 rapid antigen tests per person for sessions lasting 4+ days, and 3 tests for sessions lasting 3 days or less. Please note that this minimum amount includes extra tests in the event of the need for additional testing.
Campers and staff staying 4 days (3 nights) or longer will take a COVID test (rapid antigen or NAAT: 1) upon arrival at camp, 2) 24 hours after arriving at camp, and 3) 48 hours after arriving at camp.
For sessions 3 days (2 nights) or less, campers will test twice: 1) upon arrival at camp, and 2) 24 hours after arriving at camp.
We strongly encourage testing prior to departing for camp, especially for those traveling long distances.
MASKING:
Masks are optional for the 2024 season however they are strongly encouraged for the first 24 hours of each session. In this community, masks are welcome for as long as an individual wants or needs to wear them.
Please bring a supply of high-filtration masks (N-95, KN-95, etc) in case COVID conditions change and wearing masks is required.
If a camper/campers test positive for COVID, campers, PP staff, and crew may be required to wear high-filtration masks.
Campers may be asked by PCI to wear high-filtration masks whenever engaging in any camper jobs in the kitchen or dining hall at PCI’s discretion.
PRIOR TO COMING TO CAMP
By attending Camp, campers and program providers agree to the points on thePCI Attestation. Anyone not able to say “yes” to each point should have a conversation with their Program Provider.
In the week prior to arriving at Pinewoods, we kindly ask incoming campers and Program Provider staff to wear high-filtration masks in indoor public areas (grocery stores, movie theaters, concerts, public transportation, dances, etc).
We look forward to dancing, singing, and enjoying music with you this season.
