COPE Staff, 2000

Over the years, one of the most elusive groups has been the COPE staff. In the 1980s and 1990s, they had a staff site all to themselves in the back corner of Stahlman by the Pump House. They were reservation staff and as a result, they did their program (and did it well!) and steered clear of the regular shenanigans of Stahlman, Parnell and Craig. SO elusive was the group that despite years of looking, we have never had a single staff photo of this group.

This has now changed. Thanks to Matt Anderson we now have (the only that we know of) independent COPE Staff photo. We say “independent” because sometimes the COPE staff were in the larger Camp Staff photos (Craig and Parnell in 1980s and 1990s) and sometimes they weren’t. You just never knew! This is truly a rare find!

It is worth noting that 2000 was also the year of the only entire group staff photo we know of. In other words, the entire Boxwell Staff posed for a photo at the Crab in 2000. This COPE photo was clearly taken the same day.

From left to right: Da Norm, Luke Zimmerman, Matt Anderson, Lance Ussery (Director), Jason McGee and Michael Cohen.

The 2000 COPE staff. A rare find indeed!

The First Staff hat

What you see here is the very first staff hat. Not the actual first staff hat produced, but a staff hat from the first year there were staff hats–1972. Ed Human introduced the staff hat and brought it back as a red hat in 1973. According to Russ Parham, Human then dropped the hat because he felt the hats led to inflated egos amongst the staff!

Thus, the staff hat disappeared from 1974 to 1977. The hats returned in 1978 and have continued to the present day. So, while we don’t want to ruin ALL the fun reveals from the Staff Hat Project, this was too good to pass up!

We’re still looking for hat photos from the early 1980s and the late 1990s/early 2000s. If you worked these years, you can still contribute!

The staff hat from the first year they were issues, 1972. Special Thanks to John Cyril Stewart for keeping an intact hat!

What’s Old is New Again

One of the great things about camp staff is that you can work staff and in the future, you can come back and work again! This doesn’t always happen, but almost anyone who has worked on staff has experience with an “old timer” who worked in a period before them. Sometimes this leads to some great reunions of old friends.

Pictured here are three staff members who worked together in days gone by. From left to right are Perry Bruce (2015 Craig Commissioner), Steve Eubank (2015 Stahlman Camp Director), and Ed Mason (2015 Boat Harbor Staff). All three worked at Camp Parnell back in “the day.” Bruce was at Parnell/Craig from 1971-1975, returning in 1980, and then again for his current run in 2012 at Craig. Mason worked at Parnell from 1967 to 1971, returning to the Boat Harbor in 2015.

Eubank has one of the longest careers of any staff member, serving at Parnell in 1970 to 1976. He returned to Stahlman in 2004 and has remained there ever since, making 18 years total.

And here they are all together again…

Perry Bruce, Steve Eubank, and Ed Mason on camp staff in 2015.