Fall/ Holiday, 2008 Reveille! 17 Vermont Public Radio commentator and Valley News contributor Willem Lange recently participated as an instructor in an autumn Elderhostel program at Hulbert Outdoor Center. Below is an excerpt from a terrific article he wrote for the Valley News about the value of what goes on here in the quiet time between one summer camp season and the next. A YANKEE NOTEBOOK September 29, 2008 FAIRLEE, VT At seven in the morning the sun has just risen above Cottonstone Mountain to the east, and has begun to stir the thick mist lying around Lake Morey. Here at the Hulbert Outdoor Center at the north end of the pond, there are stir-rings of activity. The kitchen exhaust fan affirms that breakfast is in progress. The aroma of fresh coffee in a bot-tomless pot permeates the large dining room. An elderly couple sits on a big maple stump beside the road, cradling hot cups in their hands. I can tell that the course director has arrived with the morning papers because all the chairs in the library are occupied by more golden agers eagerly scanning The New York Times and the Valley News for the latest on the bailout crisis, the presidential campaigns, the weather, and the stock market. All these folks are on a bit of a vacation from their regular lives, but they're still quite engaged in events beyond the Green Mountains. Elderhostel, it's called. It's been around for only 33 years, a far shorter time than have its participants; you must be at least 55 to sign up though there are exceptions for companions, caregivers, or spouses of those who qualify by age. Elderhostel started right here in New England in 1975, on the campus of the University of New Hampshire. A globe-trotting social activist and former educa-tor had just returned from four years of hiking in Europe, where he noticed that people of relatively advanced ages were still active in outdoor pursuits and educational programs. ( I've noticed the same thing myself, just north of the Ca-nadian border, where men and women in their eighties spend weekend days skimming ten or twenty miles through the woods on cross- country skis.) Why, wondered the returned hiker, were Americans not as involved in robust activities? When he mentioned the phenomenon to a friend of his, who hap-pened to be Director of Residential Life at UNH, their subsequent conversation gave birth to this expanded geriatric version of the youth hostel program. At its core were not- for- credit elec-tive classes on a multitude of subjects, coupled with comfortable, inexpensive accommodations. Since that first year, when 220 elders signed up, the idea has burgeoned to 20,000 participants in 1980 and today offers about 8000 programs in 90 countries. Next year, for example, a Hulbert Elderhostel group will begin at Fort Crown Point, NY, and trace the route of Rogers' Rangers' 1759 raid on Odanak, Quebec, and see how much history depends upon who writes it. The folks here this week have been learning about the Appalachian Trail, and hiking nearby portions of it as it rises from the Connecticut Valley and engages the White Mountains. On 2222- foot Moose Mountain they looked east toward the higher peaks and heard the story of the 1968 crash of a commut-er airliner on its approach to Lebanon. On 2900- foot Mount Cube they gazed at the spine of the Green Mountains; marveled at the effortless soaring flight of a turkey vulture, finding updrafts only a few hundred feet away at eye level; and learned about glacial striae, chatter marks, and glacial polish on the glass- hard rock of the summit. At 4800 feet on Mount Moosilauke they entered the alpine zone for the first time, amid plants stranded there after the last glaciation, and learned about the old hotel that once perched improbably at the very top of the mountain. A longtime hiker displayed and ex-plained the equipment in his day pack: map, compass, water bottle, rain clothes, butane lighter, whistle, and headlamp. Another discussed no- trace camping and sanita-tion; another, how to warm up and hike and climb with minimum muscle stress in order to conserve energy and prevent leg cramps during the ensuing night. A couple of former thru- hikers on the staff talked about the history of the trail's gradual march to nearly complete protection, and about the people who every year set out to walk its entire length: why they do it, how they do it, what they carry with them, and how they get their unique trail names. September being quite late in the season for thru- hikers; they met only one: a retired Navy physi-cian trail- named Slow & Steady, who nevertheless gently overtook one group on its way up Mount Cube and disap-peared into the brush on the long trail to Mount Katahdin. Most of all, though, the week for me, at least, has been about people. Elderhostelers tend to be among the best and brightest of senior citizens. The group at the Hulbert Center this week was almost all retirees ( and all, I think, younger than I). There are retired nurses, teachers, and school principals; a Bulgarian- American engineer whose strength, balance, and conversation are outstanding; a former administrator at the Government Accounting Office; and a couple of social workers. A couple of well- placed questions at any point can evoke a half- hour story. Elderhostel guidelines for instruc-tors caution against discussion of politics or religion and the use of profanity or off- color jokes. But in the middle of the biggest banking crisis in almost eighty years, the early- morning newspaper hounds were vitally interested in the ne-gotiations in Washington, the solutions proposed by various politicians, and the reasons for the crisis. Listening to the conversations around me, I enjoyed a wide spectrum of informed opinions that I wouldn't have heard anywhere else nearby. Mixed in with laments about " hot spots" on heels, arthritic joints, and the safest and most effective pain relievers, were seminars on economics, governance, and education. I almost felt that I ought to be paying tuition, too. Fall/ Holiday, 2008 Reveille! 17

18 Reveille! Fall/ Holiday, 2008 Andy Williams, Director Ohana News Greetings from Lake Fairlee! It is late September and the geese are flocking up. The loons are still here but the bats have already migrated to southern Vermont caves as we anticipate our first frost tonight. In spite of the quiet, the wonderful spirit of our first year of Ohana Family Camp still rings through the halls and grounds of the camp. After four years of hard work with help from so many different people, we finally opened our doors to families at the beginning of July. This summer found us with eight weeks of family camping with a variety of wonderful folks of all ages. We realized that the beautiful camp and its lovely buildings were just that, buildings and land, until the families arrived, bringing a breath of life and spirit into the site. I am sure it is much like the first families who came here 100 years ago – or the first campers of Aloha with Mother Gulick in 1905. Thank you all for making this a memorable inaugural year. We look forward to welcoming you all back next year. We would like to share a perspective from one of Ohana Family Camp's first participating families. Their extended family came together from far flung geographical areas – and brought all ages - from babies to grandparents. We thank them for sharing these thoughts. Ohana Camp Week Two, July 8th – 13th Over the last few years, our family has been seeking a place to come together, where we can all enjoy ourselves, be together as a whole extended family and our many different groupings. Ohana turned out to be the perfect place for us; a place and a way to share experiences, a place to return to each year. For four genera-tions this Ruben family has been involved in the Aloha Camps as campers and counselors. Ohana provided a place for our genera-tions to be together, and to experi-ence a return to this beloved lake and environment and the Aloha spirit which is alive and well. It's the closest thing to being at camp that we could imagine. We shared the aroma of the pine needles, the smell of the earth after an afternoon shower, the feel of the breezes coming off the Green Mountains, the distinct smell of the ferns, the peacefulness, the return to simplicity, the bonding between people and the earth, all the things we loved and remembered about going to camp. The staff was incredibly generous and responsive and caring, creating for and with us, a cozy comfortable and smooth week. Ohana has been a place for all of us, ( we range in age from 1 to 78) and helped us to have the most enjoyable family gathering ever. Lisa and Ernestine Ruben We will think fondly of our Ohana friends, old and new, throughout the winter. Three generations of the Ruben family returned to Fairlee to reconnect with each other at Ohana Camp.