Hi Everyone!

This is my first monthly blog post with all of you and I hope that you enjoy the monthly notes, reflections, check-ins that Tom and I will be doing throughout the year.

I’ve always loved the quote “Home is not a place, it’s a people.” I’ve always felt that camp fits this quote well – the fact that you can sometimes go a whole year without seeing your camp friends and then pick up right where you left off, as if no time has passed. It’s camp magic.

But I also know that part of the magic is physical place of camp as well. Speak to any camp person (not just Netop people) and they will all have similar memories and descriptions of their camps – watching sunsets over the lake, the smell of campfire, the sounds of crickets in the evening, the rustic decor of the dining hall.

We visited Netop a few weeks ago with our sons and our dog. It was our first time being up there in summer and it was also our first time with the whole family. We stayed in our summer cottage, went boating on the lake, explored the Casco and Naples area and enjoyed some relaxing family time. Don’t get me wrong, I missed the sounds of our campers running around on the soccer field and the buzz of the lodge during mealtime. There was a weirdness to being at camp without all of the people there too. But, as we were pulling out of the camp driveway and beginning our journey back home, I immediately looked at our calendar to see if we could make it up one more time before we head back to our winter home in Colorado. I’d only been at Netop for one weekend and already I couldn’t wait to go back – I’m sure this is a familiar feeling for most of you.

I have not experienced a true Netop summer yet, but I have now experienced the place where the magic happens. And I’m excited. I’m excited to be a part of this new camp family and I’m excited to find ways to meet you all this year, and to get you pumped up for next summer. And I’m excited to go back to Netop and play Nukem with you, cheer you on during the Tribal games and see you off on a hike up Rattlesnake.

You may not have physically been at camp this summer, but the spirit of Netop was there at 12 Netop Road – and it will still be there, when we can all be together again on the shores of Birch Pond in 2021.

Be strong, camp on!

Lisa