I met my wife at the bottom of a pool at Wildwood Overnight Camp in 1976, back when the camp was located at Cook’s Canyon Wildlife Sanctuary in Barre. It was not an auspicious introduction. As the new director, I decided to drain the pool before camp started and paint food chains on the floor instead of lane lines. My wife, Suzy, had been hired as the water safety instructor and arrived from Ohio around midnight. I looked up and saw my new pool director with a cast on her arm from a cheerleading accident. Suzy looked down and saw a long-haired, 30-year-old camp director painting a turtle at the water line while dancing to folk music.

Suzy and I were married at Rutland Brook Wildlife Sanctuary in 1977 and lived there for three years while starting our public school teaching careers.  My experiences teaching with Mass Audubon  served me well, from summers at Wildwood to providing biweekly science programs to thousands of fifth-graders.

In 1980 we moved to Rhode Island and I started a new ninth-grade environmental science program at the Wheeler School in Providence. Recognizing the power of student research teams, I developed several curriculums, the most successful of which focused on river science in our local watershed. This led me to adopt my nickname, Otter, an animal I fell in love with while whitewater kayaking and doing field research along rivers.

I retired in 2015 and headed to the nearest Mass Audubon wildlife sanctuary, Oak Knoll in Attleboro, to volunteer. After getting my early start with Mass Audubon, it was a natural place to finish…and what a special place Oak Knoll is! Although I miss my former students, I can see the same fire in the eyes of kids that attend programs at the sanctuary.

These days, when I’m not spending time with Suzy and our family, you can often find me working in the gardens, tapping maple trees for vacation-week programs, maintaining the trails, leading programs, or even appearing as the famous Rock Man in our Halloween Spooktacular. One place you won’t find me: at the bottom of a swimming pool!

In Your Words is a regular feature of Mass Audubon’s Explore member newsletter. Each issue, a Mass Audubon member, volunteer, staff member, or supporter shares his or her story—why Mass Audubon and protecting the nature of Massachusetts matters to them. In the Spring 2020 issue, we interviewed three counselors from Mass Audubon’s Wildwood Camp. You can also read Nina and Dustin’s stories. If you have a story to share about your connection to Mass Audubon, email [email protected] to be considered for In Your Words in a future issue! 

When I was 10, my friend Evan was going to Wildwood for the first time and was nervous about not knowing anyone there, so he invited me to go with him. I loved it so much that this will be my ninth summer, first as a camper and then as a Leader-in-Training (LIT), a Leader-in-Action (LIA), a Junior Counselor, and finally as a full-fledged counselor.*

I loved being out of the school environment in a place where I could run around and be a kid, but the biggest thing for me was that there were new people every year who didn’t know me. Each summer that I returned to camp was a chance to create a better me. Having the freedom to remake yourself over and over is a great way to experiment and explore who you are at a time in your life when everyone’s trying to figure it all out. You don’t always get to do that at school where people may have known you for years and already have expectations about who you are.

At first, I didn’t think much about the nature camp aspect. I just thought that all camps were like that. But over the years I’ve come to enjoy Wildwood’s emphasis on teaching kids about nature more and more. Having staff naturalists leading programs every day is so helpful because I don’t always have the answers to kids’ nature questions—plus, I get to learn about nature, too. I want to run for political office someday, and protecting the environment is a big reason why.

One time, when I was a camper in Leopold (boys ages 9–10) and we were sleeping in the cabins, I woke up to a HUGE spider right near my face. I was convinced it was poisonous, but I also thought it was just a cool spider and wanted to know what it was, so I convinced my counselor to go wake up the staff naturalist to come identify it for us—at 2:00 in the morning!

LIT and LIA were the most fun I’ve had in any Wildwood program. I loved the leadership aspect and felt like we grew even closer as a group than we did as regular campers. Toward the end of the program, we climbed Mount Ascutney and sat at the top for over an hour, just looking out at this magical view in silence. There was a real sense of community and camaraderie after spending several weeks learning and growing together. The beauty of the natural setting definitely enhances the Wildwood experience, but for me, it’s really all about the people and the connections I’ve made.

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Jackson Lieb is studying business and political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and will return to Wildwood this summer for his 10th year, and second as a counselor.

*Wildwood’s Leaders-in-Training and Leaders-in-Action programs are now known as the Environmental Leadership Program, Years 1 and 2, respectively. The Junior Counselors program will be replaced with a Counselors-in-Training (CIT) program this summer.