Val is Ever Returning

Hey Everyone…… My name is Val Lambert, and I am an Ever Returning Four Week Junior Nakanawa Counselor.

My first experience with Camp Nakanawa was the summer of 1971. I had just graduated from Southeastern LA. University, had a teaching job lined up for the fall but had nothing to do for the summer. A graduate-assistant, who had been to camp, told me about Camp and got me the information.

Needless to say, I was a little on the scared side since it would be the first time for me to drive over 700 miles by myself, I wasn’t sure the best route to take, I had never driven in the mountains either, and I knew no one that was going.

After arriving at the Senior Office, I could tell that this would be right up my alley. I’m an outdoorsy type person and after seeing the cabins and lake, I was on my way to being hooked. Of course, another thing that really won me over was that there were NO Mosquitoes even when you are out on the lake at night. (For a Louisiana gal, that is a BIG PLUS!!)

The friendships, the teaching, the pranks, being a Koochie, the atmosphere and the Grace of God have all been a part of the reason that I keep returning. Nakanawa has been a fabulous experience for this small town girl.

Being a teacher, made returning to camp easy because it fit in my schedule perfectly. I loved being with children, helping them with the sharing of a cabin, learning to work together to make it livable, modeling responsibility, helping them to learn to be the best that they can be, to help one another and to be happy.

I spent 4 wonderful summers at Nakanawa. Then I got married. I continued to keep in touch with my camp friends. Twenty years down the road, I had the itching to go back. I wanted my daughter to see and love camp like I had, so with my husband’s blessing in 1994 I returned with daughter at my side. She was too old to be a camper so she came to help with Jr. campers. I’ll never forget our first phone call home to her Dad. “Dad why did you let me do this!” She was miserable. She didn’t like the food, felt out of place, didn’t like the lake, or Egypt! Three weeks later, “The Spirit of Nakanawa” got her too and I was so happy for her.

I am approaching my 30th summer as a Nakanawa Counselor. I continue to come back because Ann & Pepe let me and because I feel like a special person when I’m here.