Mohawk Hutchinsons at Camp

The seven of us Hutchinson siblings grew up in Torrington, a short distance from Camp Mohawk. All of us were active in the local YMCA and would have seen a poster for Camp Mohawk but we didn't know any of the local kids who attended camp such as the Prouts. With one exception, those of us who attended summer camp went to the Y day camp and/or nearby scout camps.

Oldest sister Anne was the first to work at Mohawk, which she did during girls’ month in 1967. The other month of that season she was at Camp Woodstock, a YMCA camp in northeast Connecticut. The two camps often shared staff as Woodstock had female campers during the month when Mohawk had males. To avoid confusion with Ann Reasoner and Ann Spear, already long part of the Mohawk family, my red-headed sister was known as Rusty.  She was a cabin counselor and worked on the waterfront.

Anne went on to study and work as an oceanographer and a pediatric nurse practitioner. Anne has children and grandchildren.  She lives in Great Barrington, MA, where, among many volunteer commitments, she has been a fill-in nurse at our former brother camp Hi-Rock, helps run a large food pantry and has served on the board at the school where fellow Mohawk alum [and Ivy Twines’ columnist] Karen Smith Luttenberger teaches.

Brother Jack worked at Mohawk with then-Maintenance Director Oscar Richards for a few weeks in the fall of 1971 on some off-season project, which he can no longer remember.  In 1975 Jack and his wife Rebecca were the lead counselors on the first biking trips offered by Bear Rock Tripping Center – another part of the operation during the years Mohawk was associated with the YMCA of Greater Bridgeport.

I, Hope, joined the staff at Mohawk in 1969. Arlene Foulds recruited me just weeks before the season started when a couple of expected counselors backed out of their contracts.  Cindy Morse was first hired at the same time. I served as a cabin counselor then ran the drama program and camp store for two summers.  In the fall of 1972 Tom Moore hired me as his associate director, a year-round position.  I remained in that job for the next 13 years.  My last summer at Mohawk was 1985.

I then got a college degree in education and spent 25 years teaching early childhood special education in a regional public school system in Vermont.  For two summers in the early 90's I directed a YMCA day camp in southern New Hampshire. I've been retired for more than 10 years and now live in Madison, New Hampshire on a lake where I summered as a child.

I suggested my brother David to TQ for the kitchen crew at Camp Hi-Rock. Along with friends from Torrington David spent three summers there during his high school years. 

Brother Chuck was a Hi-Rock camper for one session.  He didn't like camp.

Betsy, 10 years my junior, was a Mohawk camper for three years and a CIT in 1977. She came back to camp for one summer on the kitchen crew in the early 80s and then worked in the office at Camp Hi-Rock for a summer before moving permanently to western North Carolina where she had gone to college.  Betsy still lives near Asheville where she and her husband have four adult children, an adorable 3-year old granddaughter and a grandson due in May.  Betsy works as a nurse at a Hospice in-patient facility.

Mark/Hutch spent five or six summers at camp starting as a 15-year-old in 1979 - two or three years on the kitchen crew, one as second cook and two on the maintenance crew with then Maintenance Director Jeff LaPlaca. Hutch, the father or four, lives in Lewisburg, PA where he and his wife both work in the theatre department at Bucknell University.

Our dad, the original Hutch, came to Camp as the soccer coach for fourth session one-week sports camps for a year or two in the late 1970s. My dad's older sister was a Mohawk camper in the 1930s.

Our mom volunteered to check heads for lice one summer when we feared we had an outbreak.  She was a school nurse with experience doing so. Ultimately, it turns out we didn't have an outbreak.

Anne's daughter Jenefer was a Jawak camper one summer in the early 1980s.

Those were a lot of good years with valuable lessons learned by most of us.  For me, many good friendships remain.  We are one of many multi-generational families who benefited from the magic of Camp Mohawk – and who gave back in return.

Disclaimer – the above dates are based on the best recall from our aging memories.  Any errors are unintentional.