I have been thinking about the reunion a lot these past few days and I am starting feel like I did when I was a young camper.  It has been 18 years since I was a camper/confree and I can already feel the nervousness setting in.  The questions go through my head: Will people like me?  Will I get a long with everyone? Will people even remember me or know who I am?  Even though these questions linger, it is the power and spirit of Chanco that gets me excited about going to the reunion.  I am looking forward to seeing old friends and hopefully making some new ones.  If it wasn’t for the Chanco Once site or my wife’s facebook account, I probably would not have been able to reconnect with many of my old Chanco and EYC friends.  I guess you could say I fell off the face of the earth when it came to keeping in touch with old friends.  With the demands of a 24/7 job and a family it has been difficult to keep in touch with anyone.  I look forward to the reunion weekend when I can forget about work for a few days, enjoy some quality time with my family and friends, and relive the memories of years past.  continue reading »

I have been reading the Chanco Once site a lot lately because of what has been going on with the staff changes. I have especially been reading the questions Helen has been raising, along with Art Spooner’s replies. One of the things that stuck out to me was when Helen mentioned the “Old Guard”. Being the son of one the “Old Guard”,  continue reading »

Last night I was watching TV with my 2 year old (the Baby Channel) and the music the show was playing sounded very familiar. As I started to hum it, the words came to my head and I started singing it out loud "Suffocation, we love suffocation, suffocation a game we love to play...." As I got through the first verse, I caught myself and quickly stopped. I didn't want my 2 year old son to start repeating what I was signing. However, it brought back so many memories of standing outside of the old dinning hall signing for our meals. I could picture Greg, Danny and Chris Iber leading the song. Then I quickly realized that was over 25 years ago and said to myself "Chris you are old".  continue reading »

Here are some pictures from Anthony Cox's wedding weekend in Beaufort, South Carolina.  Stan Sawyer officiated the ceremony and there were a number of Camp Chanco Alumni on hand for the wedding.  Some of those in attendance included myself (Chris Sawyer), Mike Peter, Rob Simmons, Aaron Graser, Stan and Linda Sawyer, and Dana and Cindy Cox.  Everyone had a great time and the weahter in the Low Country was great.

Some of you may have already heard the news, but I wanted to share this with everyone on the board. My mom was recently diagnosed with Cancer. She has Follicular Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Currently she is in the hospital and is preparing for her first round of chemo-therapy as I write this. She was not as active in Chanco as my dad and I were, but she knows how much the place means to us. Even though we have all gone our different ways, the Chanco Spirit has given us all a life long connection. I am writing this, because the Sawyer family is asking for everyone's prayers. This is a very dificult time for our family, but we have been blessed by all of the out pouring of love we have receeived. I just ask that you keep my mom, Linda, in your prayers as she begins her battle to beat this illness. Thanks, Chris

I am not sure what year this happened, but Anthony Cox and I were staff brats for many years at Senior High. We stayed in the old "Hilton" and pretty much did what ever we wanted.

One year we participated in the talent show and we did the skit acting like 4 year olds. We tried to joke Bill and all of the staff as much as we could. We got a lot of laughs and the next year we felt like we needed to do something again in the talent show. However, we were older and thought we would do a sit down type of talk with the confrees.

It was a disaster.

As we sat there bombing someone yelled show me some skin. I thought, that's my cue. So I proceeded to stand up, turn around and moon the entire camp. Next thing I know I was being carried out of the dinning hall with my dad putting his head in his hand.  continue reading »