By Barbara Palmer
As Tammi and Chelsea announced that September would be the last Classic Camp, I got a lot of Campowerment sisters reaching out about what that meant to friendships and the future. I was actually very clear – for me, nothing was changing.
Camp is a place; community is a feeling.
Over the past 16 months, I have been on a nomad adventure that started at camp. In the “Ask and Offer” activity of camp 2022, I had two asks: (1) leads on short term rentals for an idea that was starting to percolate and (2) for anyone that could help me purge 50+ years of ‘stuff’. Once the stuff was cleaned out (thank you Ranger Marissa Berridge), I was ready to hit the road.
Along the way, I picked up the breadcrumbs of these Campowerment community members (in parentheses, where/how we connected in this here community):
- Jennifer Lewis – stayed together in Cloverdale, CA (Fancy Camp)
- Tammi Leader & Jodi Allen – lunch in Beaver Creek, CO (all things Campowerment, digital community)
- Chelsea Leader Gold – a month of being neighbors and creating local magic in Denver, CO (Inner Circle, all things Campowerment, Milestone Circle, digital community)
- Megan Weissman – a month of being neighbors and she watched Archie for me in Denver, CO (Classic Camp and digital community)
- Rebecca Powers – a month of being neighbors and creating local magic in Austin, TX (Fancy Camp)
- Jana Schey – lunch in her hometown of Houston, TX (Classic Camp, Fancy Camp and digital community)
- Jackie Toth – dinner in her hometown of Asheville, NC (digital community – had never met in person before!)
- Beth Troutman – boozy brunch in Charlotte, NC (Classic Camp)
- Deb Cantrell – visit in Summerville, SC which led to my housesitting for two months without her there and set off an additional 10 months of nomading (Inner Circle and Classic Camp)
- Tammi Leader, Chelsea Leader Gold, Meryl Russo, Katie Sleep, Shelly Fisher, Sherry Lemonick, Mercedes Soler – a strategic offsite for Campowerment in Sarasota, FL (all things Campowerment)
- Cathy Mudd – lunch and a historical tour in Summerville, SC (classic camp)
- Juliana Hauser – a month of being neighbors and creating local magic in Lexington, KY (Fancy Camp, Bliss Buddy and Classic Camp)
- Meryl Russo, Liz Gengl, Sasha Wolfe and Susan Anhalt – dinner in Los Angeles on a business trip (Classic Camp, digital community)
- Katie Sleep – stayed together in Leesburg, VA (Classic Camp, Fancy Camp)
- Anne Sussman – lunch in her hometown of Maplewood, NJ (all things Campowerment)
- Robin Sherak Taubman – charity event in NYC (Classic Camp)
- Cathy Raphaelson – ferry to have lunch together in Port Jefferson, NY (Classic Camp, Inner Circle, Milestone Circle)
- Jodi Gaess – a month of being neighbors and creating local magic in Newport, RI (Classic Camp)
If these relationships only existed within the confines of camp, then the community never would have been as successful. Finding your people, your circle of support, has happened in many spaces under the Campowerment umbrella. For me, over the last 10 years, that was 5 Classic Camps on the west and east coast, Inner Circle, Monthly Milestone Circle, 1 Fancy Camp and within the digital community.
Many of the people that I am closest with, I have spent a total of 4 days together at camp (at most) and yet, they remain among my closest friends.
It has always been about the community.
And the community is a living, breathing entity that will continue if you continue feed and nurture it.
Camp is a place (and September’s camp will be a place to gather and learn and grow – and celebrate).
