Alumni Revive the Order of Chingachgook
by James Poole
The Order of Chingachgook was established in the 1940s with the purpose of serving Camp
and honoring a select group of staff and campers for their leadership. The Order of Chingachgook is comprised of
people who are positive and enthusiastic leaders and exemplify the YMCA core values of caring, honesty, respect,
and responsibility. Members say they go througha kind of metamorphosis and emerge with greater self-understanding
and self-reliance.
Inductees must prove their worthiness by enduring 24 hours without speaking, so as to better
listen to the natural world and appreciate how easy it is to communicate without words. They go without eating
more than bread and water, so as to make a small sacrifice. They perform laborious tasks as a gift to
Chingachgook and to revel in one's own sweat and physical capabilities. They sleep under the stars without
trappings of civilization to find from within the means to endure, and even enjoy, the simplest and most
valuable level of life.
Have you ever tried to explain the Order to someone who has never attended camp or
never heard of the institution? My sister calls it the Order of Bread and Water, and my wife has no understanding
at all.
In the late 1980s the Order was discontinued, and before too many summers had passed, there
was a mere handful of people in camp who had any recollection of what it was all about. July 23 was set as the date
for the first tap-out in 11 years. Following the evening program, the entire camp was assembled in Tall Pines Field
(old Pine Oil Acres), and after a brief description of the Order, the alumni tapped out 12 people. This first group
consisted solely of staff and CITs as we needed a foundation of Order members who would be able to perpetuate the
process after the commitment of the alumni expires. Among this first group of candidates was Alumnus John "Moose"
Cerrito, who had been tapped out in the summer of 1970 but, because of his commitment to his cabin group, had not been
able to fulfill the requirements of his ordeal. So Moose joined a considerably younger crew and was led blindfolded with
the others to the spot in the woods where they would spend the night.
The next day dawned oppressively hot, and after a breakfast of dry cereal, bread and water, the
candidates headed back into the woods to continue clearing the Outpost, a campsite for juniors. No air movement on one of
hotter days in the summer made for a true ordeal, but no one anticipated what lay ahead. Lunch consisted of-what else?-
bread and water. the candidates proceeded to the chapel area where the task was to move massive boulders for two fire pits
and level a larget dirt mound. Other projects during the day included trail maintenance.
After the work day ended, everyone agreed that the lake had never felt so refreshing. The day was
capped off with the induction cermony, one life's sacred moments, followed by the traditional steak and lobster dinner:
The second tap-out occurred on August 6 and included ten campers and staff. Their ordeal consisted
of trail maintenance, felling and stripping several large trees to be raised as flag poles this summer, and everybody's
favorite job of moving rocks on the shoreline.
During their ordeal, each candidate kept a journal; Senior Boys Counselor Andrew Dawson, in his
eighth summer at camp, shared these thoughts:
"(George) then said good night and the guides left us. All I could think about was taps. It had been played when we were
part way up the trail. It seemed far off and distant, yet I dont think I've ever heard taps played more clearly or
beautifully. With the tunes still echoing in my head, I lad out my poncho for a ground cloth, then put my sleeping bag
on top of that. The taps that was played that nights on the mountain was the most spectacular thing I have ever felt at Camp.
All the times I'd heard it before didnt compare to the way it sounded on Buck. I felt the Spirit of Chingachgook stronger than
I have ever ever felt it before and I felt as though my 'quest' through camp had been completed. Camp life will never be the
same. I see it now not differently but as though the Spirit that runs through my veins has found its home. Camp will always
be on my mind."
John Cerrito had this to say
"I got so close as a camper, I guess that I owed it to myself to finish the hard part even though it took thirty years....
I hope some of the new folks appreciate the symbolism as a link with the past and a direction for the future as they
assume the leadership of the group."
Those of us who became Order members were changed by the experience. It infused us with that
spirit which is Chingachgook, but it also transcends its significance to Camp. It manifests itself in everything we do,
in the people we've become. The reciprocity of what Camp has given us and what we've given in return is exemplified in
the Order of Chingachgook.
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