Hey there, I’m Chandler!
This will be my fourth year at Camp Augusta. I’m so excited to spend this summer frolicing in the woodchips with you, and to get to spend time in CIRCLE land!
Some of my favorite things to do at camp
- Blacksmith! I love it out in blacksmithing land! Only those with the mightiest wills can walk all the way there, but if you make it… beautiful metal items are in your future!
- I love eating my food with no hands. Feel free to join me at my table any day for some hands-free food (and dessert!)
- Cabin Activity is one of my favorite parts of the day. Getting to follow your dreams and inspiration and do anything you want as a group? What could be better!?
- Ask questions! There are so many cool people at camp, and they know so many things! I love to sit with folks at meals and ask questions and find out what gets them excited!
- Have I mentioned I love Lyra? And circles of all kinds really. They’re on the brain, and I notice them more and more… hula hoops, dog collars, donuts, mental circles, all the best things really 😛
What else is there to know about me?
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- I went to many different summer camps while growing up, but the two sleepaway camps I went to (Bement and Seacamp) were especially formative for me. I always wanted to be a summer camp counselor!
- For a while I wanted to be a marine biologist and study sharks, though I ended up leaving that path, I still love sharks and have tons of fun shark facts if you want to know any!
- I LOVE escape rooms (and riddles and puzzles of all kinds). My family and I go to them as often as we can. In the past two years I’ve written my first few escape rooms of my own (truly a thrill!) One of my best memories from being a summer camper was figuring out riddles.
- I have a little dog named Raspberry. She’s very short and very swole and somewhat nervous, but she loves to cuddle!
- I’m the oldest of 4 kids, and my 3 siblings are some of the most important people in my life. (Rollin, Wade, and Lane!) This is us when I was around 12? From the left that’s Wade, Dad, Rollin, Mum, Lane, and Me!
- I LOVE national parks and It’s my goal to visit all of them. So far I’ve visited 22, most recently Death Valley where we tasted some of the salt from the salt flats (maybe a bad choice? Who knows!) (For those of you keeping track at home,
- In the past few years I’ve started going to school again to study psychology (and loving it!), taught wilderness homeschool and afterschool, started an organization for queer mentorship called Western Mass Queer Peers, worked at a boarding school for teens with learning disabilities, and learned how to make things out of resin!
- I’ve driven across the country 3 times, and can’t wait to do it again! Road trips to visit national parks are one of my great joys. When it’s been too long I start getting a hankering to get out driving again.
- For the past several months I’ve been living with and supporting my grandmother. She’s used to be a history professor who studied nuns, and she’s a very important person to me. She led “Camp Haydenville” a camp for me and my cousins at her house growing up. Camp Haydenville is part of why I love cabin acts now!
- I love visiting and volunteering at Animal Sanctuaries. While in Nevada City I love going to Animal Place and walking dogs at Sammie’s Friends! (Raspberry is only a little jealous)
- Community is very important to me. In college I lived in a housing and dining co-op and loved it and since then I have sought out intentional living communities. Its one of the things I love about camp!
- I love flying kites. I have a pocket kite I take with me and fly everywhere I go (especially on my road trips!) I got a big, fancy kite last year and I flew it for the first time at Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Some things I’ve done since last summer:
- Spent 2 months backpacking around Europe tasting fun treats, seeing old buildings, and visiting camp friends!
- Finished my degree in psychology!
- Joined a research lab at SUNY Stony Brook where I currently work on a meta-analysis project examining how social support impacts mental health outcomes for queer people.
- Continued my pursuit of visiting all the National Parks! I added Olympic, Mt. Rainier, and Redwoods to my list!
Some of the remaining items on my bucket list:
- Another year has gone by, and sadly, it was another one in which I did not eat a Banana split. Maybe we can make this happen this summer?
- SCUBA dive on the Great Barrier Reef. And hopefully see some sharks!!
- Visit the Amazon rainforest and see a Kapok tree. They hold so much life in their branches and roots – I aspire to be like the Kapok tree!
- Visit the Galapagos and see a galapagos tortoise and a blue footed booby (Blue footed boobies are my favorite bird! If you’ve never seen one before I recommend looking them up – They’re very cool looking!)
- Ride in a hot air balloon!
Bring me your riddles!
Chanananadler