For more than 50 years, Camp Massasoit has been a constant on the Mattapoisett shore, now in its third generation of summer campers.
But the old standby is quite spry for a member of the half-century club, and spending part of a morning there is a whirlwind of activity – singing and sailing, smiling and sweating, swimming and sketching.
In charge of this organic but organized chaos is Joe Marciszyn, who is in his fifth year as executive director of the parent Mattapoisett YMCA, and who is, of course, a Camp Massasoit alumni.
“When I came on here, they asked, ‘What do you like, what do you not like,’ and I loved everything that went on when I was a kid. So for me, it was just, to plus it up, to add more to it. That’s what we’ve been trying to do.”
During the morning announcements, as one of the counselors sings the “Banana Song,” Marciszyn makes sure to act out all the moves (as does his young son, a camper for the first time this year).
Calls of “Hi Joe!” greet him as he tours around the grounds, anchored by the beautiful main house that is iconic around these parts.
In one corner of the main house are the members of the performing arts camp, cramming in some rehearsals in advance of their first show the following day. Outside, down the hill, are the youngest kids working on crafts. In the fields behind, the older kids that make up the “sports group” run around in a large open area.
While there’s a hope that everyone gets to sample a bit of everything off the camp buffet, kids are allowed to choose the activities that they like best.
Towering white totem poles with arrows direct you to different activities and locations, and there is something different going on across every nook and cranny of the property (located behind Reservation Golf Course off of Route 6).
In the early morning portion, swim lessons are going on in the main pool, while budding young scientists look for crabs in the rocks by the ocean.
A bunch of kids are gathered around a pair of long, thin tables filled with pool balls, and although there are several attempts to explain the goal of the game, we’ll leave it as a camp mystery. There are traditional sports to be played, but there also seem to be more games that are unique to the camp itself.
There’s an outdoor reading area in a grassy oasis, and Marciszyn plans to add hammocks to enhance the experience. He’s excited about the bike path that is coming to play a part in the fun, and he speaks of it with great surety even though he notes it’s been on hold almost since he was a camper himself.
Kids gather in small groups and large, some structured, some not. A group of three boys are amassing materials for a fort, but they seem to be satisfied simply putting a thick branch between two trees and using it as a pull-up bar. There are a few loners doing their own things, all under the eyes of the many counselors (and C.I.T.s, counselors in training).
Counselors wear identifying YMCA T-shirts, and many of them – actually, most of them – were campers themselves at one point.
“I’d definitely say it’s over fifty percent,” Marciszyn said. “It’s great that we can grow some of our own staff. I think it really helps keep that tradition strong.”
While the camp isn’t the only thing happening at the Mattapoisett YMCA facility, it is the signature event of the season. And a lot of the work actually happens before and after the camp takes place (traditionally mid-June to the end of August).
With hundreds of campers, of which the overwhelming majority take part in physical activity, Marciszyn is proud of the camp’s status as American Camp Association certified.
“It’s over three hundred plus health and safety regulations to make sure our camp gets an A-plus rating, so that is pretty huge.”
It’s also one of the reasons the camp stays popular, even after five decades.
“Trust is an important thing. If we don’t have that, we don’t have a camp. So I think it’s that, and that the kids have a great experience here. We have a relationship with the parents, and with the kids, and I think everyone works together.”
With the tour complete, Marciszyn shakes hands and gets back to the main building. There’s lunch, and then archery, and then wall climbing, and the sailors will be returning to shore, and getting ready for the drama performance, and so on, and so on.
There’s no rest, not for the King of Camp. And Joe Marciszyn surely wouldn’t have it any other way.
By Jonathan Comey
