Hello to all of my old friends! I think of you and Camp Chanco all of the time!

I first came to Camp Chanco when I was 10 - Kevin Gallagher was my counselor, and my cabin mate was Barry Poe....we were in John, in the cabin with the cross on the roof. We had cold showers and a pit toilet. I was hooked!

The next year, 1971, I came back and this strange bearded man came right up to me, shook my hand and called me by name. Charlie!! He remembered my name! And so did Carol, who asked me to be her helper in the Camp Canteen. I still can't drink a Dr. Pepper without thinking of Camp Chanco. And those  Boston Baked Bean Candies....

 1972, I came back and took a bike trip to Tangier Island, with Mike Cecil as our bike counselor. 1973 saw us bicycling to Chincoteague Island - I will never forget getting bitten by the sand fleas in our campsite and how cold the Atlantic Ocean felt when we went swimming.

1974 I was on the Month-Long Bike trip, from Surry to Shenandoah National Park and back. Mike Cecil led us on the trip of a lifetime, biking and hiking almost 900 miles. And all the dehydrated Gumperts dinners we could eat...

I spent 1976,1977 and 1979 working as a Counselor, because of course if you are older then 15 you can't be a camper anymore. I knew so many Staff members who worked there year after year because they couldn't get enough of Camp Chanco.

In 1980 I interviewed with Dave Davenport and he let me be Program Director. It was probably the best summer I had ever had, working with such enthusiastic and talented and genuinely wonderful people. People like Keith Owen and Beth Nufer and Phil Bond and Mark Arnold and Rick Hall and PK and Linda Ryder amd so many others.

In 1982 I lived another dream, taking on a year as Camp Caretaker with my wife Kelley and living at Chanco for the fall, winter and spring months. I hoped I in some small way gave back to the Camp a little of what it had given me.

At the same time I took a job at Colonial Williamsburg as an apprentice carpenter. 26 years later I am the master carpenter, working with traditional tools and building new structures in the Historic Area. Kelley works with autistic and emotionally disturbed kids from five school districts at New Horizons.

A few years ago my son Tom came to the New Chanco, and returned to take a bike trip himself to Tangier Island. When we first drove into the new camp I saw a strange bearded man, and he came up, called me by name, and shook my hand. Charlie!

I felt like I was 10 years old again...and I really, really liked it.

Chanco is sunshine with magical forests....

Garland