Upcoming Events
May 18-19, 2013 - Spring Work Weekend - Save the Date!Click Here for Work Weekend Signup and Information.
For planning purposes please let us know your names and numbers. Thank you!
News & Announcements
April 22, 2013 -
Signs of Spring...
April 18, 2013 -
We are all deeply saddened and affected by the tragedy at the finish area of the Boston Marathon on Monday. To our knowledge, no member of the O-AT-KA family was injured by the blast.
As a two-time runner of the Boston Marathon and a Massachusetts native I am immersed in a mix of emotions: anger, befuddlement, grief, and resolve. The event, which is an expression of the most pure in the celebration of the human experience, was rocked by the blast. The response of the individuals and the community of Boston and the people of Massachusetts and the United States only confirm the strength and most noble in humanity. The loss is tragic beyond description. The losers, as always, are the perpetrators, and the winners are us--in reconfirming the resilience of people. We are not diminished by this event, we are scarred. But in nature scar tissue is stronger than the original.
I hope this finds you well and that we are taking care of our fellow man-- in ways both big and small. Take care.
David Lowenstein - Featured O-AT-KA Counselor
David Lowenstein, born in California but raised in Andover, Massachusetts, has spent 12 summers
at camp. David came as a Junior living in cabin Lincoln and was a camper for 5 more years. David always
insisted on sleeping on the top bunk. He decided early on that if the bunk bed collapsed, he would
remain unharmed. His first year on the bottom bunk was as a counselor!
David has been a counselor for 7 years. Presently he is a Middle Unit counselor in cabin
Harwick. He teaches swimming and racing sailing. David has earned many achievements at camp
including being on the Honor Shield in 2006 and the Flip Wilson and tennis awards. David feels that it is
important to pass the traditions of camp on to his campers. "I like to keep certain traditions, like not
clapping at password or colors, and setting tables with the knife blade pointing inwards. I mostly teach
this for fun and because that is what my counselors always insisted on, and now I understand why.
Above all I just want to make sure people have fun and have the same amazing experience that I had for
six summers as a camper."
David is a student back in his native California at the University of Southern California. He studies
International Relations and Global Business. He is currently spending his Junior year in Berlin, Germany.
He attends Humboldt Universitat and is interning in the Office of Foreign Affairs for German Chancellor
Angela Merkel. Perhaps having had international counselors, Sean Smyth (Australia) and Sam Ford
(Scotland) helped David to become interested in his major.
Camp is important and is many things to David. It is being a member of the Greens. It is randomly
giving his candy line away since he was a CIT. It is playing Griff Ball, his favorite evening activity. ("Best
summed up as organized chaos") But David feels that what is most important at camp are the people.
"Camp is not the lake. It is not the cabins. It is the 150 people that gather each summer." Thank you,
David, for being one of those very important people that makes Camp O-AT-KA so special.
