Eliot Memories

Elioteers,

Please keep sending your memories to the Communications Committee!

Some ideas for sharing might be: 

• In a couple of sentences, what’s the thing that keeps you coming back to Eliot?

• What's the first Eliot memory from this year that pops into your head and makes you smile? 

• What do you love about Eliot that's hard to find anywhere else?

If there are people outside your family in the photos, we will also get their permission before we use the photos.

Thank you for helping us share the fun of camp!

~ The Eliot Communications and Marketing Committee

Memories and Photos from Creative Arts Eliot 2021

Below are a couple pixs from the Creative Arts Camp, that tell some of the story, about the theme: “Yes, the Circle is Unbroken.”  ~ Jaco ten Hove

I loved being back at Seabeck with Elioteers who took safety requirements seriously. I was new to fabric dyeing and was impressed by the skill of our leader and several of the experienced workshop participants. I was even able to create some gifts for the new grandchild we’re expecting next year. It was great to see old friends and share Eliot traditions such as worship and the last day’s extravaganza. We even had salmon on the beach. ~ Carolyn Hayek

More Memories:

I had not been to Arts Camp so that was a new experience. The format for the camp is brilliant. Being on the grounds of beloved Seabeck and gathering once again, after so long, with my Eliot Family, was life affirming.  Connecting again, seeing the faces, hearing the voice singing,brought tears to my eyes. My heart felt healed, to be back to the familiar, to see, smell and hear the sound of the trees, birds and people chatting. Then being in a creative process completed the whole wonderful experience. ~Judi McGavin

I most enjoyed seeing friends in person in the familiar and comforting setting of Seabeck, and feeling a part of Eliot’s reopening. ~Rick Pope

Drum Circle Performance was a great memory this year. As was seeing old friends. Thanks Eliot! ~Joe Barrett

Active Workshop Highlights ~ Tim Hesterberg

• Hike in Guillemot Cove, including visiting the whimsical Stump House.

• Wildcat Lake, where Nancy Steven's old dog Abby became young again - she loved retrieving a stick from the water, again and again.

• Hike in Newberry Hills Heritage Park - the hike itself was meh, but we hardly noticed because we were eating five different kinds of berries - salal berries, blackberries, red and blue huckleberries, and thimbleberries. Yum!

I can close my eyes and see each of us sitting at our table painting spots concentrating on the art in front of us. We learned how to mix our own acrylic colors from red, blue, and yellow paint.  We could use white sparingly.  My paintings were from our Mt. Rainier camping trips. Rick and I returned to Mt. Rainier in July and August after a twenty year absence. One painting is the scene outside our tent. The other scene is the Tatoosh mountain range with Pinnacle Peak (our family's favorite hike) and wildflowers galore.  While painting, the masked artists bonded quickly with stories from our interrupted lives together. We laughed and supported each other all morning-grateful for this art Eliot. ~ Deb Gorenstein

Memories & Photos from Virtual Winter Eliot 2020….

 Wow, I hadn't been to Winter Eliot in over a decade before going this past year. It was so uplifting!! The Improv exercises that we did in small groups and in the main session were brilliant and really opened me up to some long-ago trauma that I was able to heal a little bit more, since I could share the story with others in a safe way. 
BUT I think my favorite part was the New Years' Eve dance party! Seeing everyone getting groovy and silly in our living rooms was hysterical, joyful, energizing, and so much fun! I felt really connected in a way that I felt would be impossible without being together in person, but it really worked for me! ~  Jacqui Emanuel 

Comfort and Inspiration

My favorite experiences beyond seeing the faces and talking to old friends and making new ones, were the worship services. I needed and received comfort and spiritual inspiration from words, music, and beautiful visuals. This particular time of year is not the easiest for me. It's one of the reasons I love Winter Eliot. It gets me away from an environment that doesn't give me much joy. The program is secondary, except for small groups. Even virtually they are always special and that was true this time. ~  Judith Hance

Thanks to the Tech Team

My top memory - among many - was the outstanding help from the tech crew.  All times, no question too big or too small, delighted to help. They made changes to my computer knowledge. I felt empowered to “go where no Ann has gone before” and try some new learnings after the camp. Thank you to everyone who worked so diligently to make this camp run like it was on rails!! ~ Ann Bryce

One thing I really appreciated about the 2020 Winter Eliot was the ready availability and cheerfulness of the Zoom tech helpers. I didn’t have to worry at all about tech issues keeping me or anyone else from participating! ~ Susan St. John

A Great Start to the New Year

My favorite memory is of the dance New Years Eve.  We pushed back the furniture, rolled up the rugs & had a ball.  Surprising how easy it was to follow the speakers suggestions for improv, and how transferable that is to the changes we need to make in our culture now.  Small group felt intimate, & the bedtime story was a Zoom treat.  Great to start the year with Elioteers. ~  Judy Wilder

Memories & Photos from Virtual July Eliot 2020 and Virtual August Eliot 2020 Camps…

“It was a delight beyond my wildest expectation. The Speaker was so good and my group was great and I could eat my breakfast while in group. :) It was a real shot in the arm to be able to connect, see the faces of beloved Eliot families, to catch up, to look forward each day to that day’s activities. In many ways it was a lifeline during this very hard time. Thank you to all the volunteers and the Deans.” ~ Judi McGavin

We gather together in our Zoom rectangles to cook and discuss life. Much laughter and good recipe ideas. Instead of cooking, I brought my computer to my bedroom and changed the sheets. We were eating leftovers that night. What fun being together.” ~ Debbie Gorenstein

There were a lot of good virtual things in August. As usual, my #1 favorite was small group, which worked as well as possible in virtual mode. I really missed the group hugs! The next things were ingathering and worship, both important to my day. Social time was great when small groups were created and then changed so we got to have conversations with a variety of folks. I didn't get to meet and talk to as many campers as I would have liked, but that's always true in person, too! I look forward to a future in person, but virtual keeps me going. Love and virtual hugs to everyone hard at work preparing for Winter Eliot! ~ Judith Hance

Making avatars of ourselves in children’s group while also looking at the work of others was so fun. Interesting the things people used to create their avatars. I also really enjoyed the discussions with Samaya on the book White Fragility. ~ Laura Westbrook

“I liked my small group. It was very effective on Zoom, and just like at other times I got a lot out of it.” ~ Eva Perjes

Some reminiscences of Seabeck from Joan Lawson: 

“Larry, the manager, used to stand on the porch smoking as we would drive up, 250 of us from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, for a week of fun and fellowship. I asked Larry to smoke behind the kitchen as we have impressionable children. I also asked him to remove the ash trays, and announced a no smoking policy, although Seabeck did not have one.

One year I promoted a Unitarian minister from Rochester NY as speaker for one of the two camps. Then the UU Association headquarters in Boston also sent their social action staffer, Bob Alpern. That conference I remember well for Eugene Levin’s sailboat—he sailed in and took groups of us out every day. And one day our whole camp went to Bangor to protest.

I asked my sister, Ann Ross, to be a camp nurse and she gave workshops. My Methodist mother Ruth Lawson came from Spokane to this godless camp and told me Methodists make good Unitarians.

I started going as a Spokane teenager, then as a Willamette student. My dad went there in college. I was dean three times and registrar many years, changing from lined note cards to introducing a computer database that Jim from Canada kept developing as I kept asking for improvements, needed as we kept adding conferences—we had five one year.

Seabeck was like going to Grandma’s—welcoming, caring, unchanging—but glad now to have our own building’s bathrooms, and reading lights, and washcloths, and not having to cross the street to use the payphone at the service station.

I wish my innovation of dancing at the tennis court had stuck, but it was a gaseous evening because chili was for supper. Another was Ted Kaye leading people from Spruce past every house down to the salmon bake—and after a day of doing gimp.

I was also married at Seabeck, in Pines, the winter of 1984-85 that began the first Winter Eliot. Gayle Knoepfler and Jane Simmons took part, and the Rev Dr Leon Hopper officiated. The next Winter Eliot my minister husband and I were the speakers.” ~ Joan