Camp Cachalot Alumni Association Announces 10th Annual Homecoming and 2014 Camp Cachalot Wall of Fame Inductees

(NEW BEDFORD, MA / FALL RIVER, MA / WAREHAM, MA)—July 8, 2014—The membership of the Camp Cachalot Alumni Association will be holding its 10th annual Homecoming celebration on Saturday, July 12, 2014, beginning at noon, at Camp Cachalot in Plymouth. Our Homecoming this year marks several anniversaries for the Alumni Association and for Camp Cachalot, including our fifth class of Camp Cachalot Wall of Fame honorees, and the fiftieth anniversary of “The Fire”, the 1964 forest fire that triggered the evacuation of hundreds of Scouts and destroyed a large swath of the camp. Two of our Wall of Fame honorees were instrumental in the restoration process that followed “The Fire”. In addition to our Wall of Fame induction, we’ll also be holding a “blessing of the boats”, dedicating a number of new kayaks in memory of recently deceased Scouter Jeffrey Sylvia, formerly of New Bedford and Dartmouth.

Homecoming is a free event, open to anyone with past or present connections to Camp Cachalot or its predecessors, the families and friends of our honorees, and interested members of the public. More information on Homecoming 2013 and the Wall of Fame induction ceremony is available at the Association’s web site at:

http://www.cachalotalumni.org/homecoming

About our 2014 Camp Cachalot Wall of Fame Honorees

Our fifth class of Wall of Fame inductees consists of a long-time volunteer and patriarch of a local Scouting family, a former Camping and Properties Committee chairman who was very important to the early post-fire restoration effort, and a member of the Council’s Conservation and Restoration committees who had a significant impact on the restoration of Cachalot.

John B. Humphreys served as the Camping and Activities Committee Chairman for the Cachalot Council during one of the most stressful and challenging periods in Cachalot’s history, from 1958 through 1966. John was an extremely dedicated and resilient man, and his name was synonymous with the restoration efforts during the period following the fire of 1964.

An engineer by profession, he directed the planning of Cachalot’s restoration, including assessing the complete infrastructure of the property, determining the needs, and helping create the overall plan. This included not only the facility improvements that most people remember, including the then-new Trading Post, the Duplex, the Chapel, maintenance building, Chef’s Cabin, new roads, new water system, expanded campsites, and the Ranger’s residence; but also envisioned program and service improvements that would be made possible by those improvements. For example, the Ranger’s residence allowed, for the first time, a full-time, on-site Ranger; while the Duplex anticipated being able to have more adult Staff and their families, adding more depth and maturity to the Camp operation. The names of the other members of his committee speak to its, and his, impact, including among them previous Wall of Fame honorees Larry Harney, Armand Guilmette, Dennis Prefontaine, Albert Hall, and Sumner Morse, along with fellow nominees Ed Spencer and Ray Rogers.

He was also instrumental in securing the donations to fund this massive restoration effort. Not only did he help in setting the vision for the restoration, he helped sell that vision to donors in order to ensure it could be paid for.

In addition to this work, Mr. Humphreys also was the committee chairman of Troop 4 in New Bedford and a council commissioner, and received other Scouting honors including the Silver Beaver award and one of the first three Vigil Honors presented by Agawam Lodge. He later went on to serve as the president of the Moby Dick Council from 1973 to 1975.

The second-generation patriarch of a Scouting family whose fifth generation is currently progressing through the ranks and which has spawned four Eagle Scouts, Dura Higgins was a 33 year volunteer at Cachalot, right up to his passing in 1987. Over that time, he made numerous and varied contributions to camp, pitching in wherever and whenever he could be helpful.

He spent many hours in conservation work at camp: cutting and maintaining nature trails, cleaning streams and beaches, clearing campsites and roads, and planting innumerable trees in the restoration effort after the fire of 1964 and long after. He took charge of many pest control issues at Cachalot and in its buildings, whether it be insect or animal pests. During the course of his Scouting career, he helped work on virtually every building in Cachalot.

In addition to countless service hours, he also contributed significantly to many programs at Cachalot, including family camping and “Beaver” work weekends, Klondike Derbies, Cub Scout Cub-o-Rees and day camps, along with many Camporees and seasons of summer camp.

Edwin Spencer was deeply involved with environmental efforts at Cachalot before, and especially after, the 1964 fire, and was an important figure in the restoration of Cachalot.

In 1960, Ed pioneered an award that Scouts could earn by participating in conservation work at Cachalot.

After the fire, Mr. Spencer was the Council’s Conservation Chairman and a member of the Restoration Committee. while most efforts were focused on rebuilding and expanding the facilities at camp, he saw the need for, and pursued a vision of restoring the landscape as well. This included creating more private and diverse campsites that met then-new BSA standards for a “rotation plan” that would reduce campsite impact, seeing the need for a fire break around the central camp proper to protect against future fire tragedies, and planning for the reforestation of Cachalot. His reforestation efforts included establishing a tree nursery at the far end of Tom Cullen Field in order to cultivate seedlings and coordinating the planting of thousands of white pine seedlings and the planting and fertilizing of more mature trees of multiple species, many of which are readily visible today.

When summer camp returned full-time to Cachalot in 1966, the forest was so devastated that you could see from the Dining Hall almost to Little Long Pond. Today, the mature trees that Scouts at Cachalot enjoy are the result of Ed’s tireless efforts and quiet leadership of the Scouts that went out with Ed to replant. With the theory that “many hands make light work”, Ed marshaled summer campers to assist in these efforts: every tent had No. 10 cans of water by the tent flap in case of fire. Ed asked every camper to take one of those cans every day and water a newly-planted tree to help it take root, then refill the can. His work led to the Council receiving a national Conservation Award from the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Mr. Spencer was also involved with the leadership of a troop in New Bedford at Our Lady of Assumption church, and supervised the formation of Agawam Lodge. Now retired, he was an official at the Massachusetts Correctional Facility in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

Dedication of Kayak Fleet

At the beginning of our program year, the camp director approached us with a request to help expand the new, popular kayaking program at Cachalot, which didn’t have nearly enough equipment to keep up with demand. We announced our project fund drive in our fall newsletter, and we’re very pleased to be able to provide seven new kayaks, with paddles and PFDs, that will be used on the waterfront this summer.

These boats were made possible by a generous donation to the project fund by Daryl and Nancy Sylvia, in memory of their son, Jeffrey. Jeff was a long time member of the Cachalot family: he grew up in Troop 46, New Bedford, worked with both Troop 46 and Troop 1 New Bedford as an adult, and attended Cachalot throughout his life, including serving as a member of the summer camp staff on multiple occasions. Jeff was also a member of the alumni association, and many of our members counted him as a friend. He passed away after a long struggle with kidney disease in December of 2013.

To honor Jeff’s memory, we’ll be holding a “blessing of the boats” to formally dedicate them, and giving them a ceremonial launch as part of our Homecoming events. We hope that those who knew Jeff will be able to attend as we launch this new fleet in his memory.

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.

###

Site look odd? Your browser may not be up to date. See the note on the main page.