The Pony Express
Volume 29
Fall 2013
Fo r e s t a n d I n d i a n A c r e s C a m p s
“Celebrating 90 Years of Camping Excellence”
Alumni News
Congratulations to Sarah Kaufman Kooperman and her husband, Ian, on the birth of their daughter, Sydney, July
14th. Sarah and her family are still in Chicago where Sarah is an Assistant State’s Attorney in Cook County. Danny
“Ollie” Cohen and family recently moved to Gainesville, FL. Ollie is director of a new software development center
for Mobiquity, a Boston-area mobile app developer. Congratulations to Ari Lurie and his wife, Lexy, on the birth of
their first child, daughter Harper, March 19th. Congratulations to Diego Bustillos who was
married June 21st. He and his wife, Mariana, are currently living in Austin, TX where Diego is
getting his LLM degree from the University of Texas. Sam Kurtzman graduated Vanderbilt
University and is now living in NYC and working as an Alternate Investments Analyst at
BlackRock. Sam’s brother, Max Kurtzman, was the
goalkeeper for the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team for the 19th
World Maccabiah Games in Israel. For the first time in
the history of the games, the U.S. brought home the Gold.
Congratulations to Amanda Outerbridge Kellogg and
her husband, Kenyon, on the birth of their second daughter, Thayer Grace, September 30th. David Colman left
his job with BlackRock in NYC and moved back to Bloomfield Hills, MI. He is
now a principal with Roco Real Estate, Inc. Congratulations to Mercedes Perez-Paris and her husband, Gustavo, on
the birth of their daughter, Camila Isabel, October 7th. Congratulations to Corey “Flip” Kronengold on his recent
engagement. The wedding is planned for April 15, 2014. Corey lives in Hoboken, NJ and continues to work doing
public relations and marketing for online advertising technology startups. Doug
Summer of 2014
Ghertner and his family are currently living in Nashville, TN, where Doug works in
Camp Dates:
June 25th - August 13th web-based Health Care Management. Congratulations to Lauren Blatt who was recently engaged and is planning a wedding in late
Parents’ Weekend:
Fall, 2014. Lauren is currently living in Boston and
July 25th - July 26th
teaching Pre-K at a private pre-school. In June, at
Rookie Camp:
Johannah Cornblatt’s wedding, the Green Team ralJuly 21st - 24th
lied around her to help in the celebration. Check out
the picture to the right. We want to make sure we are in touch with as many
alumni as possible. If you know of any alumni who are not receiving the Pony
Express and wish to, please have them contact us. I want to thank everyone for
keeping in touch. I know that everyone enjoys reading about their camp friends. E-mail me any personal news directly
at [email protected].
In Memoriam
Suzie Straus Jacobs, Camper, 1972-1976
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The Pony Express
2014 Alumni Informal Get-Togethers
We are now planning informal alumni get-togethers for 2014. If you live in, or are
planning to be in these areas on the dates of the get-togethers, please make note
of the dates and plan on being there to join in on the fun and memories. Times
and locations will be announced as we get closer to the dates of the events.
NYC - Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Chicago - Monday, February 3, 2014
Los Angeles - Monday, February 10, 2014
Boston - T.B.A.
A SPECIAL SHOUT-OUT TO OUR NEW CAMPERS FOR
THE SUMMER OF 2013!!!
Ryan Addis, Mario Angelini, Teah Arum, Samantha Berner, Elijah Bezanson, Isaiah Bezanson, Marley Boss, Gonzalo
Cantelar, Jaime Cardenas, Maria Jo Castillo, Riley Cohan*, Amber Cowart, Fernanda de la Pena, Sibylle de Laitre, Alejandro Delclaux, Charles Diaz Donato*, Timothy Dowd, Maksud Dzhabrailov, Rustam Dzhabrailov, Matthew Edelstein,
Audrey Epstein*, Sonia Epstein*, Camila Fernandez-Pages, Jacqueline Fogel, Jaime Fuster, Evan Gibson, Arin Goldberg, Ula Goldstein, Mariana Gonzalez, Diego Guijarro, Lucia Guio, Samantha Horvitz, Jacob Indeck, Gerald Ingraham,
Zion Ingraham, Mayil Jalilov, Laura Jaramillo, Justina Kane, Benjamin Kaplan*, Jack Karst, Morgan Karst, Marissa
Lehv, Jaime Lorenzo, Dilen Marra, Alejandra Martinez-Cubells, Jenna Mullen, Gabriella Mullins, Duncan Murdock,
Luis Negron, Alessandro Papadopoulos, Christian Papadopoulos, Croce Parisi, Arya Patel, Rodolfo Perez-Diaz, Constanza Rico-Avello, Sophia Sanchez, Alberto Sarti, Samuel Scott, Sean Scott, Niv Shvartz, Julia Sperling, Nicole Sternberg, Nadav Stettner, Alejandra Taulet, Jake Theall*, Joseph Tilzer, Andres Timon, Samantha Wolf*, Sabrina Wolfson*
and David Yolles.
* Generational Campers
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The Pony Express
The perfect holiday gifts for your family are tough to find, right? Well, check this out...a gift that also gives back, created by an IA alum! Scot Tatelman and his wife, Jacqueline founded STATE Bags - a Brooklyn-based company that
puts a local focus on the 'buy one, give one' model to support American kids in need.
Scot spent 12 summers in Fryeburg. Camp is such a central part of his life that in 2009, he and Jacqueline started a 1week, nonprofit camp program serving hundreds of kids living in underfunded neighborhoods of Brooklyn. After seeing countless campers carrying their most precious possessions in trash bags, they created STATE Bags and the GiveBackPack program.
For each STATE Bag purchased, one is hand-delivered to an American child in need through high-energy, motivational bag drop events.
The search is on for the next drop stop … and we at IA and FA want to help make it happen! STATE's Buy 1 Give
150 campaign works like this: if our IA/FA campaign is able to sell a total of 150 bags across our network of alumni,
families and friends, STATE will match that number and hand-deliver 150 new bags to our deserving charity or public school of choice!
To buy your STATE bag, visit www.statebags.com and enter the code SACO at checkout. You'll save 30% and our
campaign gets credited for every purchase. Best of all, you can forward this code to your entire social network and
any bag that's bought will also count towards our goal!
Thanks so much for your help — let's make this happen! STATE has our back!
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The Pony Express
Happy Birthday Campers!!!
HOW OLD ARE YOU NOW?
* New Campers for 2013
Lisa Zheutlin, 25th Julia Presten, 28th
Olivia Miller, 30th Maggie Loftus.
DECEMBER 2nd Haley Knobler, 4th
G o nz a lo
Cantelar*,
Rustam
Dzhabrailov*, 5th Ashley Ruder, 8th Isabel Selin, 9th Sam Kriser, 10th Anna Formelli, Spencer Perkins, Sadie Soren, 11th
Pauline Lesueur, 12th Anabella Escudero,
13th Charles Diaz Donato*, Paula Ortiz,
Olivia Scheff, 15th Jacob Roman, 18th
Alessandro Papadopoulos*, 19th Spencer
Knutson, 22nd Ana Muchacho, 26th Gabrielle Lamprou, Nicole Newman, 27th
Ethan Wolf, 30th Rachel Yules.
JANUARY 1st Flory Joseph, Julia Sperling*, 2nd Eugenia Axpe, 3rd Clara Beccaro, Diego Guijarro*, 4th Alberto Sarti*,
5th Fernanda De la Pena*, 6th Daniel
Scherzer, Hannah Shapiro, 7th Dylan
Hobbs, 8th Niv Shvartz*, 13th Jordan
Kelly, 15th Jadyn Mazzoni, Leah Nelson,
16th Marissa Lehv*, Gabriella Mullins*,
Pamela Pineda, 17th Benjamin Kaplan*,
Alesia Lopez-Pulido, 21st Ethan Gross,
Alexandria Lamprou, 23rd Emmit Flynn,
Sofia Mondolfi, 24th Hallie Feldman,
FEBRUARY 1st Nadav Stettner*, 2nd
Michael Shaben, Claire Young, 4th
Morgan Karst*, 6th Johanna Lovett,
Constanza Rico-Avello*, Emily Theall,
7th Brandon Bloom, 11th Marcela
Pineda, 12th Dilen Marra*, 13th Alejandra Urbano, 14th Cole Kleiman, 15th
Teah Arum*, Shammai Mading, Sarah
Scherzer, Nicole Sternberg*, 16th
Alexis Knutson, 18th Ryan Welch, 20th
Harry Sukonik, Jolie Sukonik, 21st
Logan Welch, 24th Audrey Epstein*,
29th Ryan Addis*.
MARCH 1st Marta Cardenas, 5th Alvaro
Marti, Kernus Travis, 6th Samuel
Scott*, 7th Sofia Marti, 8th Julianna
Beirne, Adam Fishman, 9th Camila Fernandez-Pages*, Reese Lavicka, 12th
Max Fain, 19th Arin Goldberg*, 21st
Sage Kugler, 23rd Jackson Tilzer, Skylar Wolf, 24th Alex Yolles, 27th Jackson Boswell, Sydney Burke, 30th Viviana Garcia, Daniela Phillips.
APRIL 2nd Elijah Bezanson*, 3rd
Camille Taltas*, 4th Nicolas Dominquez Ruilope, 7th Nicolas de Quesada,
Diego Fuenmayor, 8th Marta De La
Vega, Kristopher Kaufman, Irene
Ortiz, Everett Quirk, 11th Aerin
Kalmins, Joseph Tilzer*, 13th Carlos
Soler, 15th Andrea Bruzual, Josh
Theall, 17th Mariana Gonzalez*, Pia
Phillips, 19th Uriah Aroch, 20th Sam
Goldman, 21st Brielle Goldberg, 23rd
Sydney Bloom, 24th Francesca Gnuva,
26th Miranda Selin.
MAY 1st Sarah Sternberg, 2nd Priscilla
Fuenmayor, 4th Jacqueline Fogel*,
Jose Berrizbeitia, Sophia Giagni*, 6th
Tara Shecter, 7th Lily Claire Alpert,
Max Nitke, Asaf Orgad*, 9th Mario
Angelini*, Amber Cowart*, 12th Ana
Del Rio*, 13th Etai Bally, 15th Cody
Mazzoni*, Jacob Payne, Rudy PerezDiaz*, Dani Shecter, 16th Leah
Kugler, 17th Joanna Greenberg*,
Brooke Kohn, 18th Ben Golub, 19th
David Yolles*, 22nd Mayil Jalilov*,
23rd Wallace Hallot, 24th Carol Law,
29th Celeste Levy, 31st Talia Kalmans.
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The Pony Express
Reflections of the Summer of 2013
Forest Acres
What a great summer! How could it not be great when we had the opportunity to celebrate 90 years of summer camping. Reunion summers are always special because they give the current campers the opportunity to get a glimpse into the past and to see
and hear why Forest Acres remains a special “Summer Place.”
The summer of 2013 continued with traditional activities but also allowed us to try out new ideas. Kathy Andrade and Margie
Strader designed a “camp switch day” that allowed the I.A. campers to try F.A. activities and the F.A. campers to try I.A. activities
at the separate camps. It was fun to see the boys enjoying gymnastics and sweating away to Zumba while the girls battled it out at
street hockey and flag football. We also had an all-camp beach day instead of Field Day.
I want to thank all of the alumni who visited and shared their memories with the campers. Your stories of past camp days, Color
War, Trip Days and Coeds helped to tie the past to the present. We have changed and evolved during the 90 years but the traditions
of Friendship Circle and Color War remain as our strong foundation.
My highlight of the reunion was the campfire after Friendship Circle. Just the chance to gather by the campfire with the alumni
and former staff members and to sing with Andrea and Cheryl made the evening special for me. Special thanks to Julie Rudolph
who added her musical talent by playing guitar and singing songs she remembered from camp.
After all is said and done, it is clear to me that the greatest take-away from camp is the gift of friendship. Throughout Alumni
Weekend, I saw women arm in arm with their friends, laughing with each other and bringing up past memories of days at camp.
Adolescence is not an easy time and it is clear that sharing it with a group of friends at a summer camp makes the trials and tribulations of growing up less painful.
I extend special shout outs to Trixie, Jane, Yuisa, Heather & Kirsten for making the journey back to camp. I still miss you!
Thanks to my former campers, Roberta, Sue, Elyse and Susie for all of your kindness and for sending your children back to “our
Summer Place.”
Alumni and former staff, please know that you are always welcome to visit every summer. Here’s hoping we see you in the
Summer of 2014.
Bert Wiig - FA Head Counselor
Indian Acres
I arrived at Camp on June 1st where my only companions were Moe and the Pre-Camp crew… and a solitary moose wandering
across the Upper Soccer Field – a great omen for the coming summer! Over the next few weeks, as people started rolling in for
Orientation, I witnessed a group of individuals bond into a brilliant team of counselors and staff whose sole mantra was to have an
amazing summer and do everything “for the kids.” They truly achieved this with compassion, drive, energy and enthusiasm. Indeed, the summer was filled with so many wonderful events and occasions: Color War, the All-Camp Trip Day to Funtown , 4th of
July Celebration, Coed Chorus and the Play, Alex and Don’s trips, the dances, campfires and the Banquet, to name but a few.
The Reunion weekend was a massive success and it was great to see so many familiar faces from the past enjoying camp
again, reliving old memories and making new ones. One of the wonderful aspects of the reunion was how our young campers got
to see how precious and beloved camp is to so many. Campers now are now empowered to continue camp’s legacy and traditions.
The extra scheduled events such as Britstralian Day, the Magical Mystery Tours and Switch Up Saturday were also a lot of fun.
The image of the Juniors and Intermediates grooming the horses at the stables and the Seniors and Beavers doing Zumba and singing One Direction and Taylor Swift will live long in memory!
However, as we all know, some of the greatest moments of camp are often unscheduled and unplanned - moments which seem
to happen out of nowhere and epitomize what makes Indian Acres so very special. From the spontaneous singing of camp songs
in the dining hall, where everybody was on their feet, as one, in unison together to the crazy fun of ping pong and competitive
sandcastle building in Leagues - these are the things that make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck and truly embody the
magic of Indian Acres. We are truly blessed with this incredibly wonderful camp that has been built and nurtured and cherished
for the past 90 years. The sense of strong community, love, boundless joy, unconditional friendships, magic and gratitude are
what makes our camp the best in the land. I, for one, cannot wait for Summer 2014 to start!
Dave Gale - IA Head Counselor
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The Pony Express
A Note From Lisa and Geoff
The summer of 2013 has come and gone. Pardon our exuberance but it was truly one of the best summers
we have ever had at Indian and Forest Acres Camps. There aren’t enough adjectives to describe the feelings and accomplishments of the past camping season.
The main reason this summer was so great was because of you, the alumni. As most of you know we had
our 90th reunion at camp where almost 300 people made the arduous journey to Fryeburg, ME. It was absolutely awesome seeing alumni from almost every decade since the start of Indian and Forest Acres. The
people who couldn’t make it were sorely missed as stories were told and friendships rekindled. We feel especially fortunate that our founders’ son, Richard “Dick” Krasker, attend with both his child and grandchild .
The generational ties that bind us through the decades are clearly what make our camps special. Never did
we think an event like the reunion could stir emotions within us the way it did. We know that our camps
are special, but seeing the devotion of the entire camp community was truly special. Watching Andy
“Ang” Cornblatt take us through the Coed Chorus set list in honor of our beloved Ray was one of the most
powerful moments ever at “our Summer Place.”
In the end it is the memories and friendships we hold dear that are important. It doesn’t matter if you were
at camp for one year or for fifty years, went to camp as a camper or just were passing through for one year
as a staff member. The importance of the continuance of the place that we all cherish is what matters most.
After this past summer we are proud to say that the future of our camps remains as bright as an Indian
Acres bonfire or the Forest Acres Friendship Circle candles!
We reiterate our pledge to all of you, to maintain the traditions of the past while upgrading and enhancing
the camps for the future. We cannot succeed in this without your help, direction and support. Please don’t
keep us the best kept secret in camping. Even if you don’t have children, tell people what wonderful and
magical places IA/FA were for you. The memories and friendships made last a lifetime.
Have a safe and happy holiday season and a wonderful New Year! Remember if you are in the area you
can always stop by and join us for a meal or a walk around camp to rekindle your own memories.
Lisa and Geoff Newman:
Phone: 720.389.4912
[email protected]
Moe Burness
Phone: 860.644.5284
[email protected]
www.indianacres.com
www.forestacres.com
A FINAL THOUGHT
The holiday season is right around the corner. It is my favorite time of year; the time for
“Thanks” and the time for “giving”. I have a lot of things for which to be thankful. I am thankful
that I have family and a large group of friends who support and love me unconditionally. I am
thankful that I love my job and that every day of the year I can give back to a place that has
given me so much. There is not a better feeling than knowing that you and a group of others are
making a difference in the lives of children. The holiday season is when I give of my time to help
others. I volunteer at the House of Bread on Christmas Eve and serve dinner to those in need of
a hot meal. Whether it be at a local soup kitchen, church, synagogue or another organization
that seeks volunteers, we can all help others. The most important part is you will feel great doing
it. I wish for you the happiest of holiday seasons. Make plans next summer to come visit “our
Summer Place.”