Silver Lake Reflections

Gary Winick

It was hard enough to learn about the death of Marc Winick in late December 2010 — and then, just three weeks later, hearing about the loss of beloved boys side camp mother Natalie Checkla.

Today, we learned that Gary Winick lost his lengthy battle with brain cancer on Sunday, February  27. As one blogger/reporter on Twitter put it, “Too late to make the Oscars tribute, but way too early. He leaves behind a legacy of supporting indie film and NYC.”

Gary left the world a great film collection.  During the summers of 1974 through 1977, he created many memorable Ma-Ho-Ge scenes with the Alamar “ensemble” that were about friendship, sensitivity and humor.

May he rest in peace with brother Marc.

–Rich Klein

Note: The Internet is filled with stories and tributes. Here’s a nice story from The New York Times.

Gary, in center with jean jacket, in 1976 or '77 - L-R: Bruce Gutenplan, Barry Weintraub, Richie Greenspan, Jeff Roseman, Gary, Robert Nelson, Adam Israel and David Relkin - 1976, Camp Ma-Ho-Ge

Very sad to report that Marc “Wild Man” Winick died of a heart attack on Tuesday, December 21. He will be be missed by all his friends from both Camp Ma-Ho-Ge and Camp Alamar. May he rest in peace and our heartfelt condolences go out to the Winick family. Here’s a small tribute to our friend. You can add your thoughts here, here, and on the two Ma-Ho-Ge groups on Facebook.

Marc Winick at Camp Ma-Ho-Ge, circa 1976

Ed Shumsky, the man with the clipboard and pencil, with an often scratchy but booming voice heard at Twin Lake, Ma-Ho-Ge and Echo Lark, died on May 27, 2010. He was adept at catching and throwing softballs as he was at catching campers on raids and throwing them a curve ball, when they thought they had him fooled. He taught us how to execute a pickle play, to “turn the hips” while rounding first so you gained momentum to get to second base, to go to the opposite field with power, and how to lay down a successful bunt. He could manage a hundred kids on the boys side, know so much about each of them, and still run his Peach and Grapefruit Leagues like clockwork. Oh..and he also turned his numerous softball teams into inter-camp champions time and time again.

He was busy — but never too busy to help a kid in need. He was strict but he was caring. He was a bundle of energy, an amazing athlete, and you knew where you stood if you did something wrong.

Twin Lakers, Mahogeans and Echo Larkers won so many games on the field under Ed’s superior coaching. But those of us who knew him, know that his many life lessons — about attitude, about teamwork, about sportsmanship (except for his mighty elbow he’d throw you on the basketball court), about integrity — made us winners off the field as well. These were lessons that remain with so many of us, who are now the same age as he was in our memories.

Ed’s devotion to camp and his friendships with campers/counselors/staff went beyond the summer. I’ve heard for example that there were steady pickup basketball games in Syosset, NY that were organized and hosted by Ed for years. Mike Kera, a counselor who followed Ed from Twin Lake to Ma-Ho-Ge, said Ed was the single most influential figure in his life after his own father. You’d be hard pressed to find a better compliment.

Ed: Rest in peace..in God’s Country..and know that you built a Field of Dreams that has your name on it.

Just found the Twin Lake camp website. For those who recall, this was Ed Shumsky’s group that joined Ma-Ho-Ge in 1973 and forever changed how so many of us learned to play softball!

Here’s the new video interview with Milt Sirota from August 15, 2009 in Forestburgh, NY (about 15 miles from camp) and also featuring Carol Sirota and former camper Stuart Salenger. Sirota, a longtime assistant principal at Forest Hills High School in Queens, NY, was head counselor at Camp Ma-Ho-Ge in Bethel, NY from 1956 through 1977, when the camp was sold.

Here’s a new photo gallery of Camp Ma-Ho-Ge photos. With SmugMug, you can see photos in various sizes and with great clarity. You can also share them easily and comment on them. Let me know what you think.

Milt Sirota, boys head counselor at Camp Ma-Ho-Ge from the mid 1950′s through 1977 (when the camp was sold) talks about Ma-Ho-Ge’s good relationship — and healthy rivalry — with Kutsher’s Camp Anawana in this video from August 15, 2009.

ANAWANA INVITATIONAL TOURNEY, 1966

Stay tuned for more video from my interview with Milt and Carol Sirota and former camper Stuart Salenger.

Rich Klein (1969 through 1977)
silverlake@mahoge.com
www.mahoge.com
www.catskillcamps.com

Bethel address:

P.O. Box 184
19 West Mitchell Street
Smallwood, NY 12778

Join our Ma-Ho-Ge group and Catskills Intercamp Games group on Facebook
Join the Camp Ma-Ho-Ge networking group on LinkedIn

After the success of our Catskills Intercamp Games group on Facebook, I decided to launch www.catskillcamps.com a few days ago. It’s been fun pulling graphics, photos and videos from around the Internet and expanding our “Ma-Ho-Ge” network with those who shared much of the same “camp” lifestyle for decades. I even met one guy this week who is up for the challenge of an Inter-camp softball game!

One goal for the Ma-Ho-Ge site –as well as the catskillcamps.com site — is to do videotaped interviews with former campers, counselors and staff and start posting memories on these sites. Technology has made it easy for all of us to turn on the webcam, make short recordings and upload/share/email them out. So if you’d like to do a video for these sites, please keep it under two minutes so we may get a wide variety of submissions in coming years. Thanks to all for your continued support and have a great summer.

Note: Here’s a link to the blog that’s connected to www.catskillcamps.com.

Many of us Mahogeans were about one mile away at camp or at Yasgur’s Farm during August 15-17 in 1969. Some snuck out of camp to attend the Woodstock Nation, some made sandwiches for the hungry kids, some counselors had to guard the camp entrance on Laymon Road, and others stayed in camp and heard the music loud and clear.

Forty years later, all Mahogeans can celebrate our connection to Bethel and Woodstock.

That’s why we are having a a dinner and a movie in Manhattan set for a Saturday night in late August or early September so we can see “Taking Woodstock” which premieres August 14. The movie is about Elliot Tiber who wrote the book of the same title. Tiber’s parents owned the El Monaco Hotel in White Lake
and he was instrumental in bringing the Woodstock Festival to Bethel and changing history. ( I’ve invited Mr. Tiber to join us and, depending on the date, he said he’d try to make it.)

The movie’s official trailer via YouTube can be seen here.

Ma-Ho-Ge is expected to get some ink in an upcoming book on the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. The book is already listed on Amazon.com and should be in stores June 15.

The Camp Ma-Ho-Ge Group on Facebook now has 105 members and is proving to be a great way not only to find old camp friends but to keep up with each other’s lives. It costs nothing to join so those of you on the sidelines, please get in the game and join the party.

Hope everyone had a great holiday and here’s to an early Happy New Year!

Here’s some news:

1–Gary Winick (1974 to 1977) is the director of the movie, Bride Wars, that opens on January 9, 2009.

2–We are re-designing the www.mahoge.com website and will be adding pages each week. 

3–The Camp Ma-Ho-Ge Group on Facebook has become a great “canteen”.  Nearly 60 Mahogeans are in the group so far and it’s become a great place to exchange emails, comments, post photos and share regular information.  There’s also a nice built-in chat program. Who are some of the most active Facebookers so far? Ellen Schwartz (Wolen), Lisa Checkla (Klein), Jon Abeles, Susan Kaplan and Richie Cutler. More recently, the Rubin brothers (Andy and Michael) joined as did Debi Gutenplan and Steve Leventhal. You can ask to join the group by emailing me via Facebook.

Catskills Intercamp Games Group on Facebook

I’ve started a related Facebook group, Catskills Intercamp Games, and have invited alum  from many of our competitors (Anawana, Brookwood, Roosevelt, Ta-Go-La, Olympus, Lakonda, Lakota, Diana-Dalmaqua, etc.) We quickly got to 75 members but Ma-Ho-Ge members are outnumbered by Anawana..come on, let’s even the score!

There will also be a launch of a website called www.catskillcamps.com in 2009 that I hope will function as a portal for all our camps at some point.

4 — We’ve started a Camp Ma-Ho-Ge Network group on www.linkedin.com to enable all of us to share business ideas,  testimonials, references and help with job searches. I’m still working out the glitches about invites but kindly email me at rklein@beckermanpr.com if you want to join.

5–Ma-Ho-Ge is stillllisted on Wikipedia so feel free to add your comments.

6–Their is a Camp Echo Lark reunion in Manhattan on Friday, January 16, 2009 from 6-9pm at Pop Burger- 14 East 58th Street, 3rd Floor, between Fifth & Madison across from FAO Schwartz. “The room will be ours for that time, but of course we can stay,” says Lisa Hirsch Quinn. And here’s a photo of Ma-Ho-Ge girls at Echo Lark.

7–Funny story. A woman named Amy Katz (Weiner) who went to Camp Ma-Ho-Ge found me on Facebook. Her profile said she was married to Craig Weiner. So, obviously I thought it was that average looking (not!) mediocre athlete (not!) we called “Dolly”. However, it turns out she married another Craig Weiner from New Jersey and she didn’t know that the Dr. Craig Wiener in NJ also went to Ma-Ho-Ge.

8– Former Mahogean Mitchell Zuckoff has written a book about the original Ponzi and is getting quoted widely about the Madoff scandal. He made the front page of The New York Times last week and was seen on the one-hour CNBC special on Madoff.

Hey gang and sorry it’s taken me so long to post. I’m working to revamp the Ma-Ho-Ge website, which is expected to re-launch this summer. It will be more user friendly and more pleasing to the eye. I’ll be sending an email blast out in late July, with still more new people who have joined us in recent months.

I’d also like to see if we can schedule more mini reunions in 2008 in Manhattan, New Jersey and Long Island and welcome any feedback, suggestions, etc.

Finally, for those of you on Facebook,

please join our group at:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=20664241696

And since I recently became an Apple user and fan, I’d like to know about other Mahogeans using Macs so we can hold online reunions using IChat. For those with .mac accounts, I’m at nyrichard@mac.com.

We will also be using .Mac galleries to share photos more easily than in the past, but you don’t need to be an Apple user or have a .Mac account to view the slideshows. Those who have Apple IPhones can then easily snap photos and instantly upload them to our Ma-Ho-Ge gallery.

Getting hot in Northeast..so “put a little salt in your food” ..and have a great summer.

Rich Klein

1. Joshua Abeles and Jon Abeles have been found (in NYC) and are on Facebook.
2. Sharon Sokol has been found.
3. Linda Schachter Hausberg has been found (Lhausberg@aol.com) and Says:
4. January 22nd, 2008 at 1:14 am edit

   How come there’s no section for CANADA? Glad to have found you! keep me posted when you are having the next reunion. I live in LA and never knew you were having reunions!

   Note from Ma-Ho-Ge Administrator: Linda…we will start one..good idea. And we thought the photo below would help people match the name with the face.

1. Lori Hertzan | lozan248@gmail.com |

   Hi,I went to a holiday party a few nights ago and the topic turned to camps in the Catskills in the 60?s. I came home and looked up my old camp and sure enough it is all here, camp photos, pics and memories. I was Lori Lustig then and I was in the bunk with Brenda Duchin and Ilene Shankman. They look exactly the same.I attended camp from age 7 to Super Hall. Please add me to the mailing list of updates and reunions, I would love to attend.–Lori Hertzan

   Dec 20, 5:00 PM — [ Edit | Delete | Unapprove | Spam ] — Manhattan

Warren Bell in story from The New York Times (July 20, 2008)

(Excerpt below)

Double Edge to Brooklyn’s Success

 Many of the survivors are makers of specialty foods, like Amy’s Cookies in Red Hook, which sells tea cookies to Dean & DeLuca markets, and Bagels by Bell in Canarsie, one of the biggest bakers of bialys in the country. Warren Bell, who employs more than 30 people, said he had given up after a few years of trying to find an affordable building for his growing bakery and had decided to seek a variance that would allow him to add a second floor.

“I could move out to Long Island and send the product here and distribute it out to my customers from here,” said Mr. Bell, who lives in Bergen Beach. But, he added, “I have ties here. I like saying we produce in Brooklyn.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Robert Nelson, Jeffrey Roseman Featured in Real Estate Weekly (June 25, 2008)

The June 25, 2008 issue of Real Estate Weekly (Manhattan) was practically a Ma-Ho-Ge photo spread. Well, actually there were six photos of Robert Nelson (Nelson Management & Global One ASB Fund) and two more of Jeffrey Roseman (Newmark Knight Frank). Both Nelson and Roseman (Ma-Ho-Ge, 1974 to 1977), who came to Silver Lake from Camp Alamar, were recognized for their contributions to the real estate industry.

Congrats to both of them, who were also my bunkmates/teammates in 1977 (Waiters).

Below is some background about Nelson’s recognition by the Brooklyn Philharmonic:

Spring Gala honors Robert Nelson

Brooklyn Philharmonic will hold its annual Spring Gala Benefit Dinner on May 12, 2008 at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan with musical guest Marvin Hamlisch. This year’s gala will honor Robert S. Nelson, president of Nelson Management Group, with the Maestro’s Award for Community Leadership.

Robert S. Nelson is an owner and operator of apartment buildings here in New York City and the President of New York-based Nelson Management Group, Ltd. He is also one of the founding partners of Global One Investments, LLC. In addition, Mr. Nelson recently formed a private equity fund of $100 million dollars by the name ofw Global One/ASB Fund, LLC. The fund primarily seeks to invest in additional apartment buildings to add to its portfolio.

Brooklyn Philharmonic selected Mr. Nelson due to his demonstrated community leadership and his deep roots in the borough of Brooklyn. The event will be held Monday, March 12 at The Rainbow Room, 30 Rockefeller Plaza beginning with a 6 p.m. benefactor only private VIP reception, 6:30 p.m. cocktails and silent auction, with dinner, live auction and awards ceremony at 7:45 p.m. The evening is black tie optional.

We are working to rebuild the website so bear with us. For the moment, this blog will function as the guestbook until we can get better security for the original book. Don’t worry, all your earlier postings have been saved for eternity and will be back up soon. To add comment to any of these subjects below, simply click on the headlines and that will take you to the comments pages.  Also, we started a Ma-Ho-Ge group on Facebook but you must be a Facebook member (it’s free) to join. Ask your kids if social networking isn’t your thing. Thanks.

Rich Klein