Winnebago Alumni Newsletter · Winnebago Alumni Newsletter ... the Alumni Association ... ton area, and Portland, Maine. They have diverse backgrounds, and among them are

Winnebago Alumni Newsletter

In exactly two years, Winnebago will be in the midst of celebrating its 100th anniversa-ry. And for good reason—it’s a huge achieve-ment. The world has changed and grown in ways no one could have fathomed in 1919, but the dream that Frederick Guggenheimer laid out when he bought an old farm on the shores of Crotched Pond is still going strong.

We will have many more announcements in this space over the coming issues about what exactly is planned for camp’s centen-nial, but right now, we’d like to tell you about one hope that we have.

This summer, the Alumni Association is sponsoring six scholarship boys at Win-nebago. They come from New York, the Bos-ton area, and Portland, Maine. They have diverse backgrounds, and among them are boys from Sudanese and Colombian immi-grant families. But what is most important is that, like all of us, they’ve found a second home at Winnebago. And without the gen-erosity of the camp community and the sup-port of camp itself, those boys wouldn’t have been able to reach Winnebago at all.

But helping six campers is not enough. The number of scholarship boys at camp will always fluctuate from summer to summer, but we believe that finding more scholarship boys for the younger divisions gives us the best change of having a full and robust pro-gram. We’re already making that happen.

This summer, five of our six scholarship boys are in the Falcon, Eagle, and Dart divi-sions, and board member Andy Rougeot (SL ’04) has forged relationships between camp and several Boston-area charter schools to recruit more 9-, 10-, and 11-year-old boys to join them. We want to give this opportunity to as many boys as we can, and the WAA and Winnebago are jointly committed to making that future happen.

We hope that you’ll join us too. More scholarship campers will require more do-nations from our community, both to our annual fund and our capital campaign. Let’s go into our 100th year in a way that’s worthy of camp’s history and ideals.

WINNEBAGO FOR EXPORT Five Winnebagans Talk About Living Abroad

Winnebago cultivates a spirit of adventure. It is, after all, the camp for the boy who will. And one kind of adventure that many alumni have embarked on for decades is over-seas travel. There are Winnebagans who study abroad and Winnebagans who go on ex-tended backpacking forays, bringing pep and vim to the hostels of the world. But some alumni, including former Peace Corps volunteers Uncles Phil and Andy Lilienthal, go further: They choose to live outside the United States for longer periods of time.

We caught up with a few of these current and former expat alums to hear about what they’ve been doing, what they thought of their time living outside the States, and how it all connected to their time at camp.

Their experiences have been varied. Dave Franzel (SL ’03) decamped for Egypt just before the Arab Spring and opened a burrito joint in Cairo. Zach Rosenbloom (SL ’04) journeyed to rural Japan, taught English classes, and fell in love. Jacob Addelson (SL ’07) won a fellowship to study history in the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Jonathan Nathan (SL ’08), a Ph.D. candidate in intellectual history, chose a U.K. home base from which to travel to capacious archives across Europe. Sam Schiller (SL ’13) decided to pursue his undergraduate studies in coastal Scotland. Below, they tell their stories. —Samuel Lewis (SL’ 12)

The Push to 100:Big Plans and Bigger Goals

INSIDE: A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT • A WINNEBAGO WEDDING

Summer 2017 “… for the boy who will.”

Continued on next page

WAN: So, let me get this straight, you started a burrito joint in Cairo?

Dave Franzel: Ha ha. Yeah. So I start-ed cooking in college on a hot plate in my

dorm room, and it quickly grew into a pas-sion. I learned the ins and outs of the cu-linary arts working in a gourmet kitchen on campus, and when I moved to Egypt I joked with friends about opening a restau-rant there. One day in a car driving past the pyramids (you’re always driving past the

Left: Zach Rosenbloom (SL ’04) with his students in Japan’s Toyama Prefecture. Top right: Dave Franzel (SL ’03) in Cairo with his business partner, Ahmad Nada. Bottom right: Jacob Addelson (SL’07) in Scotland.

DAVE FRANZEL

Senior Lodge 2003 Country: Egypt

2 SUMMER 2017 | WINNEBAGO ALUMNI NEWSLETTER

pyramids, I guess), a couple of friends and I were lamenting the lack of burritos in Cairo. On something close to a whim, we decided to take the initiative and bring the burritos there ourselves. The revolution set back our plans to open a Chipotle-style dine-in establishment, but a year later, after much experimenting, planning, fundraising, and building, we had a fully functional delivery-burrito kitchen in the heart of Cairo.

WAN: What did you miss most from the U.S.?

DF: Well, it was burritos. Then after we opened Gringo’s, it was probably toilet paper.

WAN: Has your time outside the States made you think about American life any differently?

DF: Definitely. In many ways, both good and bad. For one, it made clear to me how regularly we take for granted what we have here in America. In general, I’ve seen far more unhappiness among the haves than the have-nots in my life. It’s easy to forget how strong our opportunities are and how protected our rights are relative to most of the world.

WAN: Did anything you learned from your time at camp help you while you were overseas?

DF: I attribute so much of my person-al growth to my days at camp, it’s hard to identify the specifics. One thing that comes to mind: At camp I learned to be comfort-able living without the amenities you find at home in a developed country (electric-ity, AC, and TV, for example). I think this translated to a preparedness for living in a country that lacked a lot of different types of amenities.

WAN: What advice would you give to Winnebagans thinking about moving to a different country?

DF: Do it.

WAN: Can you please share a humor-ous or interesting anecdote from your time abroad?

Jacob Addelson: When I visited Ed-inburgh, I spent a great evening in a local whiskey bar on a wet, January day. A Ger-man film crew happened to be in the bar making a short film that would be shown back in Germany in order to attract Ger-man tourism to Edinburgh. They happened

Expats continued from page 1 So Japan it was!WAN: What was the biggest “culture

shock” you had while abroad?ZR: The biggest shock for me was get-

ting used to not understanding most of what was being said around me. I hadn’t studied Japanese before moving.

Otherwise, I adjusted pretty quickly and didn’t get much in the way of culture shock. Reverse culture shock, on the other hand, was very real. Why is U.S. currency so flimsy? Why are New York City subways so dirty? Why is it normal for public trans-portation to be late? Why is there so much food on my plate?


ZR: One night, I was out with friends after work and we decided to go to a kara-oke studio, which is very different from the stereotypical karaoke scene in the U.S. You get an hour in a private room with a TV and a karaoke system, and you can order food and drinks to the room. We went out im-mediately after work, so I was still wearing my office attire (suit and tie). On our way in, a group of Japanese patrons walked by. One of them saw me, stopped, and then began yelling, “Brad Pitt! Brad Pitt!” If only.


ZR: Diners. Toyama Prefecture has “family restaurants,” which are close to din-ers but miss the mark on the comfort-food aspect. It was really tough finding a good place to go out for breakfast where I lived, although this could have been because I was in a more rural part of the country.

WAN: Did you learn anything about yourself while abroad?

JACOB ADDELSON

Senior Lodge 2007 Country: England

Left: Sam Schiller (SL ’13) at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland. Right: Jon Nathan (SL ’08) at Cambridge.

ZR: When I look back at how much I loved my time in Japan, I have to push my-self to remember that I couldn’t read, write, or speak Japanese at all when I first arrived. But I still found ways to communicate in daily life. I think about how much I was able to learn on my own whenever I feel discour-aged in my day-to-day.

WAN: I heard you met your wife in Ja-pan?

ZR: It’s true. I met her because she was also an English teacher with the same com-pany. She’s Japanese, but she has studied English since she was in junior high school. We got married at City Hall last year.


ZR: Winnebago’s core value of trying (“not for the boy who can, but the boy who will”) is, I think, a big reason that I felt com-fortable enough to venture out and explore a foreign country. Had I not had ten amaz-ing summers at a place that praises effort like Winnebago does, I may not have been so bold.

ZACH ROSENBLOOM

Senior Lodge 2004 Country: Japan

WAN: Why did you choose to live in a different country?

Zach Rosenbloom: I never traveled abroad while at college. I had never spent a significant amount of time in another coun-try. And I wanted to experience the world from a different perspective. I also wanted to test whether teaching was for me, and there are a multitude of companies and pro-grams recruiting English teachers abroad. I was really interested in Japanese culture when I was younger—I watched and read a lot of anime and manga, studied a lot of Japanese history, and ate a ton of Japanese food. The pieces all seemed to fit together.

SUMMER 2017 | WINNEBAGO ALUMNI NEWSLETTER 3


Sam Schiller: First, some important context: In Britain the word “pants” refers to underwear, while “trousers” refers to what Americans call “pants.”

During my first semester, I told my friend that I re-wore my pants and was surprised to see the horrified expression on her face. She quickly realized that I was referring to “trousers.” But it is an amusing

story nonetheless.WAN: What do you miss most from

the U.S.?SS: The food: New York City bagels, ru-

gelach, etcetera.WAN: Has your time outside the

States made you think about American life any differently?

SS: One of the biggest differences be-tween America and Scotland is the pres-ence of socialist policies such as universal health care and accessible student loans, which are absent in the States.

WAN: Has anything you learned from your time at camp helped you while you’ve been overseas?

SS: One of the most important things I learned at camp was the value of indepen-dence. This was something that was dem-onstrated clearly to me during trips such as the Allagash or the St. Croix. Because of this, I have been able to better tackle the challenges associated with living away from my parents for the first time and liv-ing in another country.

WAN: What advice would you give to Winnebagans thinking about moving to a different country?

SS: I would tell them to go for it! Mov-ing to Scotland has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. Much like camp, it has exposed me to ideas and peo-ple that I had not previously encountered and has definitely been a formative expe-rience for me.

to interview me and the director gave me his card. Later, I viewed the short bit on-line and saw myself featured in a tourist film in which my voice had been dubbed over in German. I can only hope that many people from Stuttgart have made the trip to Scotland because my dubbed endorse-ment for good Scotch was very effective.


JA: Mexican food. One of the few parts of the world that England never brutally conquered was Mexico—or any other part of Latin America for that matter. The en-chiladas and tacos in England are unsur-prisingly terrible.


JA: It’s a little facile, but America is really unique for its level of heteroge-neity. There is a cultural analogue with something like sports. In many parts of the world, there is one sport that matters nationally, and that is football (soccer). In America, there are no fewer than half a dozen major sports that people will follow closely. You can see many more Americas than there are Germanys or Frances or Italys, and so I think more now about how culture and politics work together than I did before.


JA: All the same things that make Win-nebago special—finding fun and beauty in the smallest things and details—apply equally when one is living abroad. The greatest level of immersion into another culture happens when you are willing to find something special in the mundane, everyday parts of life.

JON NATHAN

Senior Lodge 2008 Continent: Europe

WAN: Why did you choose to move to a different country?

Jon Nathan: It’s hard to study Euro-pean history in America unless you want to constantly cross the ocean to visit librar-ies. Cambridge is just a £20 Ryanair ticket away from most of the archives I need.


JN: I once wondered idly what the most precious book I could get my hands on in the Cambridge University library was. So I ordered up the Moore Bede, which con-tains the earliest example of writing in English, period. The librarian handed it to

EVER WONDER HOW WE PRINT THIS NEWSLETTER?

We don’t! Uncle Jim Rosenthal and the ace team at Paradigm Digital Color Graphics do. Uncle Jim has been donating his printing services to us for 19 years and counting.

We owe him a big W-I!

SAM SCHILLER

Senior Lodge 2013 Country: Scotland

me, no questions asked.WAN: What do you miss most from

the U.S.?JN: Wilderness. Europeans cut down

their forests in the late Middle Ages, and it’s rare to find someone on this continent who’s spent nine days cut off completely from human civilization. The wildest you generally find in England or France is a picturesque farm.


JN: I’ve thought a lot about cars. You can get around most cities and regions in Britain on pleasant buses and trains, which drives home how much of American life re-quires rolling down Cyclopean highways in a car. It’s an ugly and dispiriting thing that we’ve learned to consider normal.

WAN: Have you learned anything about yourself while abroad?

JN: I get lonely quickly but bored slowly. So I’m happy to wander endlessly so long as I have a good friend or two to wander with.

WAN: What’s the most interesting thing, academic or otherwise, that you’ve learned while abroad?

JN: Europeans leave their eggs on the counter.

WAN: Do you ever see other Win-nebagans there?

JN: All the time. Plenty of Win-nebagans, American or otherwise, stop through London once in a while, so I often have the chance to catch up.

WAN: Has anything you learned from your time at camp helped you while you’ve been overseas?

JN: I think all the time about how Winnebago taught me to shrug off fear for the future, smile, and say, “I’ll figure something out.” This is especially valu-able whenever I’m on my own in a strange country.

The Winnebago Alumni Association is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to giving the gift of a Camp Winnebago summer to boys who would otherwise not have the fi-nancial resources to attend. We believe that the 52-day camp program is about much more than enjoying yourself, improving your tennis serve, and learning the butter-fly. We’ve seen how camp changes boys. It fosters self-confidence and instills values that last a lifetime. When camp works—and we think it does almost always—it’s an ex-perience that becomes part of you.

The Winnebago Alumni Association is independent of camp itself, but we share its values. We believe that camp is an invaluable experience in the development of boys into young men, and we want to make it available regardless of income or background. We hope you’ll join us in our mission.

OUR MISSION

The Association Pages / The Gift of Camp

SUMMER 2017 | WINNEBAGO ALUMNI NEWSLETTER 4

A big W-I to our supporters who contributed to the scholarship fund at the end of 2016 and since our last newsletter.

Rob AddelsonDebo Adegbile

1981 Senior Lodge EndowmentNathan Arnell & Heidi HellringJim, Ann, Bennett & Grace Astrove

In honor of Eric Benson & Ella GendelNancy Bard & Don BaerArmand BartosSelim Benbadis

1981 Senior Lodge EndowmentCorey BensonBill BeresAndy Boral & Leah RugenAdele CarterCraig & Elizabeth ChumneyThe Cohen/Haber/Schwartz FamilyJared DavisEric FederEphraim FieldsDeborah Fins

In honor of Ben StraitDave FranzelDavid FriedmanCarol GileSteve & Anne Marie GoldEly Greenfield & Pilar Beccar-VarelaNancy & Carl GropperJohn GrottaLisa & William HaftPeter HahnDebbie HellingerDaniel HemelJacob HirschhornAaron HirschhornStephen HoffmanJohn IntorcioBen KirshnerLeni KlaimitzRob & Penny KlatellAndrew KleinMichael KolberLarry & Ethan LasserThomas LeeFred LevySteve LewentNikos LiakounakosLynn LilienthalBen LilienthalKelly Lukins & Ken ProppHank Maimin & Elizabeth BaerDr. Frank C. Marino FoundationLizzy Marks & Paul TaylorBill Markstein

1981 Senior Lodge EndowmentMichael MetzgerCharlie MeyerDarren MeyersHilary Meyers & Harry WeinermanShelley Meyers

In memory of Uncle Bennett & Aunt Germaine Meyers

Janice Min & Peter Sheehy

Officers:President - Jim AstroveVice President - Peter NewmanSecretary - Eric BensonTreasurer - Ethan Ris

Members:Grace Astrove, Debbie Hellinger, Andy Rougeot, Peter Sheehy, Matt Simon

Web: winnebagoalums.orgEmail: [email protected]: @WAA1919Facebook: Winnebago Alumni Association

David Nathan & Becky ChaplanPeter NewmanPhil NobelLarry Pakula

In memory of Sheila S. PakulaTim & Mary Pohl

1981 Senior Lodge EndowmentMary Jean PotenzoneSimon RichNat RichAdrienne RisDylan Ris

In honor of Ethan “The Reno Kid” RisJack RosenblumPhilip RosenfeldJim Rosenthal

1981 Senior Lodge EndowmentKennon RothchildJean Andre & Victoria RougeotAdam Rubinstein

Arlene & Chester SalomonIn honor of Danny Salomon & Andrew Kambour

Valerie & Gary SchanzerDavid Schanzer & Elizabeth LososDouglas SchwarzSusie SchwarzJake SelverstoneZach SewardDavid Sheehy & Elisabeth Sachs

1981 Senior Lodge EndowmentGil ShermanElliott SilvermanMatt SimonBradley SolmsenPeter SosnowJason SperoEric TannerLuis VeraLawrence Wagenberg

OUR BOARDOUR DONORS

5 SUMMER 2017 | WINNEBAGO ALUMNI NEWSLETTER

My Debt to CampThe Association Pages / The Gift of Camp

Yes, I want to help support a Winnebago scholarship camper!

Mail this form and your tax-deductible donation to: Winnebago Alumni Association

401 St. Christopher’s RoadRichmond, VA 23226-2723

Or donate online at winnebagoalums.org

My gift: My address:Suggested donations:Mt. Blue: $19 Saddleback: $100 Tumbledown: $250 Moose: $500 Penobscot: $1000 St. Croix: $3,250 Allagash: $6,500 (Full 2017 scholarship summer)

Another amount ____

Name: ________________Street: ________________City: ___________ State: ______ Zip: _______

Email: ________

Please specify “annual fund” or “capital campaign”: ___________________

Hello Everyone,The 98th summer of camp is in full

swing. There’s been a Big Captain elec-tion, trips have gone out and returned, boys have been to Pemaquid Point and the Allagash and played in the first Patrol Game. Final Campfire is around the cor-ner. It happens that fast, as we know. But we cannot afford to let this summer, or any summer for that matter, slip by without considering its great value to both the boys and our larger community.

We all know and feel how camp has helped make us the people we are today. Most of us reading this newsletter had the opportunity to spend summers on Echo Lake soaking in all of the sights and ex-periences: the docks, the cry of the lonely loon, the friendships that were fostered in the bunks and are flourishing still.

I feel fortunate to have had my sum-mers as a boy at Winnebago. I cannot imagine who I would be if I hadn’t known Uncle Bennett and heard his earnest wis-dom. I find it hard to picture myself today had I not paddled the Allagash or played basketball on a Har-Tru court or watched the embers glow in a fire pit at the Council Ring. Simply put: I owe.

Serving on our WAA board is an honor. The people who work on our board are all dedicated to creating more opportunities for our scholarship boys. It’s not enough to have great memories of camp. We need to give new generations of boys, especially those who couldn’t otherwise attend camp, their own memories: the site of a thunder-storm racing across Echo Lake, the chance to hike and paddle through the Maine wilderness, the gift of becoming a Win-nebagan.

And how do we do this? We raise money for scholarships. We are in the second year of a five-year capital campaign, and we are also just two years away from celebrating our 100th year of camp. We want you to keep your connections with your old bunk-mates current and real and growing. But we also need your help to keep our schol-arship program growing too. Pass it along and carry on…

WWLF,

A Message From Jim Astrove

Several generations of Winnebagans gathered in Austin, Texas, in late May to celebrate the wedding of board secretary Eric Benson (SL ’00) and his wife, Ella Gendel. The most auspi-cious sign? There were 19 Winnebagans present. (Don’t count. Just trust us.)

Winnebagans at a Wedding

Winnebago Alumni Association401 St. Christopher’s RoadRichmond, VA 23226-2723

Return Service Requested

Recognize this picture? Of course you do. Not only was it taken by Uncle Tom Hoegeman, who has been capturing memorable images of camp for a quarter-century, but the scene could be from 1975 or 1981 or 1997 or 2011. (It’s actually from this summer.) Continuity is part of what makes camp special, but so is a desire to keep getting better. That’s why we continue to grow and improve the scholarship program. We hope you’ll join us.

The Endless Summer

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Winnebago Alumni Newsletter · Winnebago Alumni Newsletter ... the Alumni Association ... ton area, and Portland, Maine. They have diverse backgrounds, and among them are