Camp Cachalot Alumni Association Announces 2011 Camp Cachalot Wall of Fame Inductees

(NEW BEDFORD, MA / FALL RIVER, MA / WAREHAM, MA)—June 14, 2011— The membership of the Camp Cachalot Alumni Association is pleased to announce our honorees being inducted onto the Camp Cachalot Wall of Fame for 2011. The people and organizations being honored represent the highest levels of service to Camp Cachalot and the Scouts who camp there.

The formal induction ceremony will take place during the Association's annual Homecoming event, a free event taking place at Camp Cachalot on Saturday, July 9th, 2011, from noon until 5:00pm. Homecoming is open to members of the association, friends and family of our honorees, and interested members of the public. More information is available at the Association's web site at www.cachalotalumni.org.

This year's honorees are:

Edmund "Ed" Tavares was among the first Scouts to visit and camp at Cachalot in 1946, before it opened as a summer camp. Hiking in from Wareham, Ed and other early camp staff carved out the first campsites along with the road to camp as we know it today. He served on the first camp staffs of 1946 through 1952, and after serving his country in the Navy from 1953 through 1954, returned to serve as a professional Scouter, first as Program Director, then as Assistant Camp Director, and Camp Director from 1954-1961. As a professional Scouter, he saw the need for Cachalot Council to form an Order of the Arrow lodge and was instrumental in convincing then-Council-Exec Leo Burke to form Agawam Lodge 509, with Ed as its first Adviser. As a district executive he organized and ran week-long High Adventure camps for Explorers in the late 50’s, He organized and ran Ranger courses (outdoor junior leader training) at Abner’s Pond in 1960 and 1961. Along with Jerry Sylvester, he also helped establish and train the first Campmaster Corps at Cachalot in the early 90’s. He served on the steering committee that established the Camp Cachalot Alumni Association, and continues to provide leadership to the young men and women of the council's Venturing program today.

Over his many years of service, both professional and volunteer, Ed had led or assisted in many district and council camporees for both Scouting and Venturing. As a member of the Northeast Regional camp inspection team he has been instrumental in assisting Cachalot in pre-camp inspections, and he continues to aid the Alumni Association with his vast personal knowledge of the people and events that shaped Cachalot’s history.

William "Bill" Joyce, Scoutmaster of Troop 35 in Onset, MA from the early 1950s until his death in the late 1980s, was a significant influence on hundreds of young men at Camp Cachalot over the course of his Scouting career. He was the recipient of many awards during that long career, but is remembered most for his adept instruction in Scout skills, particularly in the natural sciences. Whether he was peeling the bark back off a fallen log to show the animal life that had taken up residence in the dead wood, pointing out the edible plants growing around camp, or leading the dining hall in "The Cuckoo Song" or "Rise and Shine", he seemed to always be teaching a Scout something. He was also instrumental in district program at camp, including serving as the co-chair of the first Klondike Derby at Cachalot, an annual event that continues to this day.

He was also unafraid of a little physical labor: he helped establish the Squaw Corner (now called Scouter's Corner) family camping area; was an officer of the Restoration Committee in the 1970s, which helped reforest Cachalot after the fire of 1964; and performed countless service projects at Cachalot, both during Beaver Weekends and on his own, including trail clearing, tree planting, any number of conservation-related projects, and just popping out to camp to give the ranger a hand when he was needed.

NSTAR Electric and its Employees - Since the opening of Camp Cachalot in 1946, but especially since the early 1970s, NSTAR Electric (formerly Commonwealth Electric) has provided manpower and expertise to meet the electrical needs of Camp Cachalot. Through the United Way's "Day of Caring" program, employees of NSTAR have donated countless hours and personal energy to perform many specialized tasks that Cachalot, Moby Dick, and Narragansett Councils would have been hard pressed to otherwise afford. Though many of the employees have been current or former Scouters, they were joined by NSTAR employees who felt the need to assist with such worthy projects. Many hours have been spent trimming tree limbs that were endangering power lines, digging and setting poles, and running new power lines to replace aging ones. To enhance our program efforts and improve camper safety, volunteers have also performed important utility upgrades around Tom Cullen Field and in the parking areas near the maintenance yard and across from Prescott Hall. NSTAR volunteers also ran new electric wires into the center of Cachalot and, with assistance from the Massachusetts National Guard, replaced poles in very remote areas of the camp.

This long and continuing legacy merits NSTAR Electric and its Employees a spot on our Wall of Fame.

About the Camp Cachalot Wall of Fame

Modeled after other "Hall of Fame"-type institutions, the Camp Cachalot Wall of Fame is intended to be a lasting memorial to the people and organizations that have been instrumental in the success of Cachalot and the experiences of those who have attended Cachalot over the years. Honorees may be nominated by anyone, but are strictly vetted by our Wall of Fame committee and are voted on by our membership for induction.

Nominees will have had a long history of service, program, financial, or professional contributions to the success of Camp Cachalot. More information can be found on the Alumni Association's web page at:

http://www.cachalotalumni.org/walloffame/

About the Camp Cachalot Alumni Association

The Camp Cachalot Alumni Association was founded in 2004 by several current and former attendees of Camp Cachalot, with the express purpose of providing support for Camp Cachalot, helping to preserve the traditions and history of Camp Cachalot, and bringing generations of campers together to share their experiences. It is a not-for-profit organization operating under the auspices of the Narragansett Council. Camp Cachalot, whose name is taken from the French and Portuguese term for "sperm whale," opened in the summer of 1946 and has since served the youth of Southeastern Massachusetts, including New Bedford, Fall River, Wareham, Taunton, and points between.

Membership is open to any and all persons who have been affiliated with Camp Cachalot, the former Moby Dick Council, or any predecessor camps or councils. More information about the Association can be found at its Web site: www.cachalotalumni.org.

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