Life-Changing Camp Experiences

Alumni Question of the Quarter: Fall 2025

There are no friends like Camp friends.  Every time we are lucky enough to return to Camp for an alumni event or get to visit Mohawk when it is full of campers, the sound of laughter is as abundant as the sound of song.  For the next edition, we want to hear about a camp story that you still laugh about with your friends.  Send an e-mail at alumni@campmohawk.org or leave a comment on the Question of the Quarter thread in the Camp Mohawk Alumni (Litchfield, CT) Facebook group.

Life-Changing Camp Experience

Last quarter, we asked Alumni to tell us about a camp experience that forever changed their lives.  Below are some of the responses we received on the Camp Mohawk Alumni Facebook page—come join the discussion!

Amy Nelson: I was not a camper but started at Mohawk as a counselor where I worked my way to Unit Leader and then Assistant Director. Camp changed my life in so many ways! The friends I made, the leadership/specialty skills and so much more. This past year I accepted a job as a full time Camp Director and it’s because of my experience at Mohawk I was able to do so. I’m  back where I belong - in camping.

Cate Kastriner: I met my very best friend in the world in 1979 at camp. We were Oscadees. We are still BFFs 46 years later

Susan Leigh: The swim test (which I disliked due to the snakes, leeches & the slimy bottom) inspired me to take swim lessons during the winter so that I was a good enough swimmer to test out of having to take lessons at camp! I went on to take all levels of boating, canoeing & sailing!

Karen Luttenberger: Choosing one experience is difficult because there were and continue to be so many experiences that changed my life. The one that first comes to mind is performing in Carousel and Oklahoma. Hope Hutchinson’s direction and enthusiasm truly led me on a path directly from Camp to regional theatre as a teenager and to performing arts (theatre) as a major in college. From there I went to NYC and later Los Angeles, studying with some well-known teachers and coaches. I continued to perform for years including as a singer in NYC. I have acted locally for years. My lifelong love of theatre can be directly attributed to Hope and I will always be grateful to her.

Laura Maturo: It would be the very first time we slept out on the baseball field to watch the Perseid meteor shower. My counselor at the time was going to school for astronomy of some sort and taught us all about what we were seeing. To this day, I have a deep connection with the night sky and every time I see a shooting star, I think of my Ute counselor and how she was describing each constellation and what was a planet, and how meteor showers happen. It was education and passion and fun all wrapped up in a perfect Mohawk bow. My daughter now asks me about the night sky because I never stop looking up!