Alford Lake Camp

 It’s OK To Say No

As a Kindergarten teacher I come to work each day faced with millions of questions. It has become second nature to me to say both “yes” and a whole lot of “no’s” to them. As the holidays come closer I find that I tend to say yes more often then not. Maybe it’s because the children become more persistent or that I feel too tired at times to tow the line with them by saying no when I should.  As hard as it is to say no, at the end of the day, I know I can send them home to their parents and feel confident that by the next day my class will have forgotten most of my no’s and yet, they never forget when I had said yes and perhaps shouldn’t have.  In fact they remind me every day in words like “but yesterday you said we could take out the glitter. Why not today?…” It becomes hard to take back all the yes’s.

Recently one of my students has been having whirlwind tantrums. When his Mom showed up one day she asked me in a concerned voice, “How do I tell him that his behavior is not ok without him thinking that I am mad at him?” I thought back to what I was told in pre-camp and answered her with an old Sue McMullan saying, “Just tell him you love him but you want him to change his behavior (and how).” It seemed too simple to this Mom, but she tried it with impressive results. She had said no while still extending her love. Sure it’s easier to say yes when you are tired from all the holiday parties and in the winter when the kids are cooped up in the house all day but what I am really trying to say is that children need as many boundaries as they do hugs! They will remember the hugs forever.      

by Whitney McMullan, ALCer ’83 – ’00, ’02-’03, ’05-’08

(If you ever feel ‘inspired’ to be a Guest Writer, please submit your writing to melissa@alfordlakecamp.com).

• If you were in camp and needed to give someone a gift
• If you were in camp and someone needed some cheering up or enthusiasm
• If you were someone’s neighbor and it were holiday time
• If you were wanting to celebrate a holiday with someone who did not have family
• If you just wanted to brighten someone’s day

This might be the time to be thinking about some of this.  Let us know what it is that you have planned to give of yourself to others and to your family that is somewhat “camp like”.    Let’s join hands and hearts and make a difference in someone’s life.  We would LOVE to post some of your ideas for others to ‘borrow’ during this holiday time.

We found ourselves surrounded by so many enthusiastic ALCers and friends as we looked out of the wall of windows at the Gavin's in New York.  With each passing boat in the darkness, we gazed at the lighted masts as each boat cruised up and down the river.  In this gorgeous setting, we hugged one another, met new friends, chatted with one another and celebrated last summer and the coming summer with new and returning friends.  We continue to be so blessed!  (The one exception to this last statement is that we left our camp camera in the taxi on the way to the Gathering and had to quickly borrow Greer's camera which Betsy was trying to learn how to use – soooo, sorry about the quality of the pictures for NYC Gathering – ahhhhh!) To see what photos we did get, click here.

As we drove down the long winding driveway of the Simpson's new home in Morristown, we felt the excitement of the fast approaching, small, cozy, warm, friendly Gathering.  Sure enough we were greeted by Petey (their dog) along with Carolyn, Molly, Teddy and Tim; oh, where was Anna – at school of course.  We sat and drank tea together, talked and welcomed current ALC families and staff (!) to our fun-filled time together (carmalittas and all – just ask Molly's and Teddy's Mom about those!).  By the way, where else in all our travels would we be introduced to the a new birthday gift concept – a composting container; of course, at the Simpson's!

A huge 'Thank You' goes out to Tracy Jenkins Spizzouco, for organizing Portland's Alumni night at the Portland Pirates game!! There were 25 of us who hooted and hollered for the Pirate's, the night before Thanksgiving. The fact that they lost, didn't dampen our spirits! To view some pics, click here!

Getting together with all these ALCer's was so much fun.

We are looking forward to many more ALC alumnae events, both here in Maine as well as, all around the country and hopefully even internationally! We treasure all of you, our ALC Alums. We are all so fortunate to be a part of such a strong institution and are so excited to see this re-connection happening, through this event and through similar events to come!!

If you would like to organize something in your area, please be in touch with us at the ALC office (207) 799-3005 or email us at !