Summer 365 Camper of the Week | Zoe Katz

Shabooya, sha sha, shabooya ROLE CALL! 

Her name is Zoe, YEAH… 

Zoe is the ULTIMATE camper!  She attended her all-girls, 8-week sleep away camp for seven summers as a camper and one year as a counselor and has visited at least once every summer since.  She grew up in Scarsdale, New York, and now lives in Manhattan.  She is currently working in live theatrical productions and corporate affairs at The Weinstein Company, a film production and distribution company.  Maybe she can even get the Weinsteins to make a movie about CAMP… where do we audition?!  She still caries her camp bag that she got at age seven, remembers all her camp cheers, and has even thought about getting her camp logo tattooed on her foot.  Sound crazy to you?  Sounds like a camp soul sister to us!

What are your top three essentials that you pack in your trunk?

Head lamp, Crazy Creek, flip flops.

What are three words to describe your camp experience? 

Family, silliness, cheering.

Who was someone at camp that you looked up to? 

My counselor Lauren.  I thought (think) she was (is) the coolest.  She was a camper and a counselor for a number of years and I wanted to go to camp for as long as she did!

Why do you think it is important to go to camp? 

Going to sleep away camp is not just a way to occupy yourself for the 8 weeks that you are not in school (or to give your parents a break for the summer).  There are so many skills that you can only learn by going away to camp.  As a camper you learn tolerance and independence.  Living with girls whose parents do not have the exact same values and habits that you have, you learn to accept and learn from the things that they bring to the table.  And also learning to take responsibility for yourself (I learned the hard way my first summer when my sister’s counselor had to spend an hour brushing my hair that I hadn’t brushed in three weeks).  You also learn how to be a leader each summer as age groups below you inevitably look up to you as an older sibling, and culminating in leading the camp as the oldest bunk.  And I’m just getting started… I’m pretty sure all of the skills that I learned at camp embody the positive things that I take with me to work (and life) every day.

What is your favorite camp memory?

There are too many to count… I think my answers here cover a few!

How has camp affected your adult life?  Is there something you learned there that you still do today? 

The biggest affect that camp has had on my life is definitely the network that I now have all over the country and the world.  Not only do I keep in touch with friends that I have made who live all over, but I have also been as far as Scotland and Mexico and have run into “camp people” by chance.  You never know where you’re going to be and run into someone with a camp connection.  Likewise, our camp director/owner, Nat, likes to say that camp is not the place but the people, and he’s right.  But the combination of seeing people all over the world and knowing that every summer I can return to Lake Winnepesaukee for a visit and see Ann and Nat and friends who have become like family to me is what makes camp so special and significant in my life.

Words of wisdom for current and future campers? 

Don’t be afraid to try new things, to make new friends.  Listen to your friends and appreciate them for what they have to bring to the group.  STOP for a moment and remember how lucky you are to be in a beautiful place with great people.  Have fun!

On the red carpet… totally nbd.  But always a camp girl at heart!

…And, camp runs in her family!

What is your favorite camp tradition? 

Sunday Night Campfires where we danced to “Summer of ’69” and “Build Me Up Buttercup.”

What was your favorite camp food? 

Steak and french fries and Sunday night “Thanksgiving” dinner… and Gary’s cookies!

What is your favorite camp cheer? 

“Hey Ho Blue and White got soul… yo baby yo baby yo.  Blue and White are number one and don’t you forget it!”

What was your favorite summer reading book? 

Aquamarine by Alice Hoffman.  My mom sent it to me at camp and I still have it on my bookshelf.

What is your favorite movie about camp/that you saw at camp?

The Parent Trap!

What do you prefer – pool or lake? 

Lake all the way!  My camp doesn’t have a pool and I love that about it!

Sport or arts? 

Arts! I lived at Drama and I even wrote/directed a play called CAMP for the youngest bunk when I was in the oldest.

Canteen or ice cream? 

Ice cream! My camp is down the road from a little ice cream shop called Geneva Point Center and for special activities and awards we would walk down as a bunk and get a cone!

What was your favorite camp activity? 

Small Crafts (sailing).  Sailing is something that I really could only do at camp and I loved that even as a junior camper we could work our way up to learning how to sail our own Sunfish sail boat. Oh, and theater, of course!

If you had to have something from camp tattooed on you, what would it be?  

My camp initials.  Those two letters encompass the lasting mark that my camp has made on my life.

Favorite camp memento? 

My camp bag and my silver CR necklace.  Our camp directors give you the duffle bag when you sign up and I’ve seen 40-year-old women walking around New York City with the bags that they got when they were seven!  Campers get a CR charm necklace when they have been campers for 5 years.  Without fail, it comes out of my jewelry box and goes on my neck the day the camp buses leave, and it stays on all summer!

Who was your first summer love? 

His name was Sam and he went to our brother camp.  We danced at arm’s length at our weekly socials.  I remember asking Ann how I could write him a letter.  She replied, “Just send it to Camp Winaukee, Winaukee Road and it will get there.”  (Our camps were just down the street from each other!)