Baco Counselor Toast 2024
Dear Baco Family,
On June 26, 2013, I wrote a letter to my parents saying “I love it here. I want to stay forever.” While that may have been primarily based on the feeling of having a box of candy under my bed, that sentiment hasn’t changed over the last 12 years. But at that moment, as an elementary school kid who just a few hours earlier had been hysterical to leave his parents for the first time, my own area and bed with seemingly unlimited snacks was an absolute dream come true. While the dreams change over the years, my belief hasn’t wavered. This place, these bunks, these mountains. This lake. And most importantly, these people. They make dreams come true.
But I want to go back for a second. And talk about the magic that makes this one of the few places on earth where dreams coming true is this common. Think for a second, about what a dream means to you. To me, a dream is a moment that is something I’ve heavily anticipated, and that moment lives up to that anticipation and even exceeds expectations.
Unfortunately, as the ride of life continues as you grow, dreams come, evolve, and eventually go.
When you’re little at camp, you dream of having a nickname. You hear silly names like French Fry & Tater Todd, Splatt, Mousie, Cheech, The Four Horsemen, Mama Bochner, and even Mickey! You never know if you’re hearing the names right, but you know you love them and want to have one yourself.
As you approach the circle, you start to dream about tournaments. You watch 12s and 14s hoops, 13s soccer, different night games. You see the older kids run down the hill or into the dining room to celebrate victories at other camps. All you want is to make that big play, hear the Baco Pride chants, and most importantly storm the field or court when we get the win. You may not be old enough to understand the selflessness these games are teaching you - learning to fight and work as hard as you can for your brother alongside you, but someday soon you will.
Once you’re in the circle you start to dream about and appreciate the Big Show. You see the inside jokes the waiters have, but you don’t understand them. You see all the time they spend with the girls on the terrace and by the social hall, and you want to know just what goes on in there that they love so much, but feel the need to claim to hate. Little do you know, the pure silliness and chaos in those walls is one of the key elements that makes Baco the ideal setting for dreams to come true.
Down the hill, you start to understand the true essence of Baco Pride. It isn’t perfect yet, but you start to find yourself looking out for your friends more, being uniquely yourself, loving everyone else's weirdness, and beginning to appreciate every moment. This is what our brotherhood that spans generations is founded on, and you’re starting to grasp what Baco Pride means.
In the lower K, you dream about having a camp buddy. You dream about having a little kid in the funhouse who you can keep an eye on and spoil with sodas. It’s your first role of responsibility at camp and you’re starting to become conscious of your dreams coming to fruition.
Upstairs, you dream of living up the hill. You want to finally lead Olympics, be in upper senior leagues, and keep creeping towards those landmark moments of waiter summer. Without realizing it, foundational memories have injected the values of Baco Pride into your veins, and you emerge as a leader in camp, ready for the journey up the hill.
In 22, you start thinking about how cool being on counselor staff is. You dream about what bunk you’re going to live in and the kids you’re going to have. You dream about what staff you’re gonna be on and what comes with that, whether that's reffing on the big court, ump’ing on the lower, hiking Mt. Marcy, or driving the ski boat.
In 23, you start to dream about your next summer. Maybe you dream about holding up a paddle, which a very select few come to realize. Maybe you dream about shooting three free throws in a row in front of the whole camp. Maybe you dream about winning leagues, starring in the Big show, or maybe, as some of us did, you just dream about being in camp and living in one bunk with all your best friends.
As a waiter, your dreams change throughout the summer. In June, you’re dreaming about the best summer ever. You get comfortable in the Waiter bunk, even though you kinda can’t believe it's actually your bunk. Your only concerns are having fun and waiting for Big Show to finally end. Suddenly, Big Show turns to the Bazaar and the Bazaar turns to Olympics. You are aware that dreams are coming and going faster than ever. Before you know it, you’re hearing the scoring system, and you finally realize your last dream as a camper:
To enjoy the final few days and nights you have under the same tin roof as your brothers.
All these dreams from the funhouse to the waiter bunk eventually come true.
But as a counselor, you dream of going back. Going back and being a kid in the funhouse. These young men are just getting to start this whole cycle. They have so much to dream about. They don’t even know what dreams they have ahead of them. Unfortunately, these dreams we as counselors have are the only ones that won’t come true in your Baco life. At a certain point, your dream summer months in these hills are going to end.
I have a feeling that my dreams about Baco won’t end at this point. I’ll always dream of being back in the fun village, winning junior leagues and everything that made this place my home between then and getting on the bus home for the very last time just two days from now. But at some point, I believe new dreams will come to me. A dream to see all my old campers as I walk past the office and into camp. A dream to run into someone sitting in the inner ring right now years down the road and hear all about how camp has changed, and what everyone has accomplished. And hopefully, one day a dream of being a Dad, standing at the bus, watching my son begin this cycle. And he will learn about the place of our dreams and enter our Baco family.
To the waiters of 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028: It has been an honor to be able to be your counselor and or group leader. You are all incredible young men, who are the future of this camp, this family, and this dream. Carry that weight with pride, this place is in great hands. I love you guys.
Almost three years ago today, I gave my waiter summer camp memory at the final campfire. In that toast, I stated, “We can’t wait to be your counselors, make you all sponge, count your Baco 3 shots, and hopefully some of us can have the privilege to live in the waiter bunk again.” Those first three boxes I was able to check off the last two summers, but I want to thank the waiters of 2024 for making that final dream of mine come true. You guys are some of my best friends in the world and getting to know and love you guys as a second waiter bunk of my own has been an experience I am forever grateful for.
I want to shout out the incredible administration team here, everyone from Bruno and Aaron, CJ, Koretz, Milton, Serwetz, Rick, Robyn, Jaclyn, Coach, Shari, Pinsky, Shlomit, Jane, Ramon, and of course, Tocht and the Mick, but particularly Greg, Danny, and Allison, for not just their love and support of me, but my entire bunk since 2011. Allison, you and your father have been there for me in my hardest moments in this camp, and you both believed in me when really no one else did. Without your family, I literally would not exist. We are all eternally indebted to you for doing all the behind-the-scenes work that allows us to form indescribable bonds with our best friends here every summer. Greg, you make me laugh like no one I’ve ever met, from the first time I met you at my house in 2012. Your texts are the highlight of my offseason, and growing up from an admirer of yours to working alongside you in the last three years has been nothing short of a dream come true. Danny, for as long as I can remember, you’ve been one of my greatest mentors in not just basketball but also in life. No one has been a better resource to hear me out, calm me down, and truly, truly have my back, even when I didn’t realize it. I love you guys, thank you for everything.
Allison and Greg have allowed me to be a counselor and or group leader for every camper who will be a waiter at this camp from the years 2024 to 2028. I’m not sure there are many people in this camp's history who can say something like that. A dream of mine in recent years has been to leave my mark and leave this camp better than I found it. And I want to thank admin for giving me an incredible opportunity to love, shape, and of course, yell at all these incredible kids who keep making this the best place and brotherhood on the planet.
And that leads me to the people who shaped me into the man I am today and made all of my dreams come true. I remember one of my first council rings ever, Greg strayed from the old system of calling us up for lunch. As seven and eight-year-olds, we were all quite irritated to be last. I remember Greg was standing right at this lectern, Coach was probably putting an elbow into the knot in his upper left shoulder, and he just had that classic Greg smile on his face. Almost like he could see what we would grow up into. And he told us we were gonna be one of the best bunks this camp has ever seen. I don’t know how he knew it then, but I like to think he was right. These guys have been by my side, through the good, the bad, and for sure the ugly. The Waiters of 2020 have endured a different experience than any bunk in Baco’s history. Through the turmoil of the pandemic, we lost our waiter summer. We grew even tighter as together we managed these unprecedented emotions following that loss. I stand by it when I say these are my best friends in the world, I would do absolutely anything for them, and I want to thank them for everything over these last twelve years.
Finally, I want to shout out the 12 of us here still today, but specifically Justin Rubin, Todd Freifeld, and Charlie Stone. They’ve helped me create an incredible culture on counselor staff this summer since October. I also want to give Eli and Jacob Greenberger their flowers for absolutely crushing it as well once they were roped in a bit later on. I believe that their work has helped make this one of the greatest summers of all time.
It has been an absolute honor to be a leader of my bunk and one of the leaders of this camp. I’ve given it everything I had, and it has been nothing short of another dream come true.
Over the Covid summer, I wrote “When it was time to leave (family camp), the same emotions were going through my head that I’ve felt every year on the final morning since 2013: Don’t cry. Keep it together. You will be back.” This year, for the first time, that motto may not hold true. Beginning to accept that this dream could be over is one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever had to process. But, I’ve been trying to keep in perspective how fundamentally important this place and all of you have been to my essence, my being. Even though I may not be here in 2025, that doesn’t mean the dream of the relationships and memories I’ve made here never happened, in fact, I believe that only makes them more real.
Today is August 14, 2024, more than four thousand days after I sent that first letter home to my family. I’m reading this letter to my Baco family, telling you all how much I love it here, and that I want to stay forever.
The last piece of advice I’d like to leave with everyone in this Council Ring: “Appreciate Every Moment.” From the bottom of my heart. Appreciate Every Moment you have here, because you truly only have so many.
This is a place where dreams come true.
Baco Pride. Cheers to 2024.
Love, Josh “Noodle” Nadel
Waiter of 2020.