A Recap Of PFA's 2006 Falcon Camp

By Chris Puskar

This year’s Polish Falcons of America National Camp took place at St. Vincent De Paul Camp in Angola, N.Y., June 24-July 1. There were 44 campers, consisting of 12 boys and 32 girls. In addition, there were nine Junior Counselors and 21 Adult Helpers including three coaches, four cooks, one nurse and one part-time assistant.
The theme for Camp this year was “Pirates of the Polish Falcons.”

Soccer was just one of the activities at Falcon Camp.

This theme was expressed throughout the week in a variety of ways. Each team was named for a pirate ship, and the Camp’s first activity involved making a team flag for each boat. Campers also decorated their own bandannas with pirate-related themes. As part of Camp’s daily activities, campers were able to earn gold coins for doing good deeds. At the end of each evening, all teams would turn in their coins, and the team with the most points would be awarded various prizes. This was a fun part of the week.

Each day we went through our rotations of basketball, volleyball, archery, swimming, soccer, and arts and crafts. Two of the days we added Polish dancing to the rotation. Below are the highlights of each day at Camp:

Sunday. We had a sand sculpture competition where campers were to make their own pirate ships. Unfortunately, it rained on us for a short time. However, we were able to finish our ships. We also had our first campfire of the week later that evening.

Pictured above is an owl that was showcased by the Hawk Creek Wildlife Center.

Monday. We started our sports rotations and also had a hike to find 10 signs that you are at PFA National Camp. In the evening, we had a wildlife presentation courtesy of the Hawk Creek Wildlife Center.

Tuesday. It was a lot of fun to have a puzzle scavenger hunt called “Pirates of the PFA.” Each team had to travel to a certain area of the Camp, perform a task and retrieve a piece of their puzzle. After all the pieces were collected, each team then proceeded to the final station and put their PFA puzzle together.

Wednesday. The younger campers went to the beach and competed in some beach games while the older campers went to a nearby field and played a game of softball. Everyone had fun, but the softball was an especially big hit.

Despite the wet weather, a bonfire was able to be enjoyed.

Thursday. Our bonfire on the beach was cancelled due to high winds. Instead, there were performances of cabin pirate songs and some skits. A few adults in attendance even got involved in the theatrics.

Friday. Unfortunately on this day we had to deal with a tornado warning, along with thunder, lightning and plenty of wind. We had to formulate a plan of where to take the kids in case the weather got extremely bad. Luckily for us, the weather died down and we were able to go on with our day. We had our skills competition and awards were handed out afterward. The big event of the week was the Friday night dance. During this dance we kept a watchful eye on the winds, and we were eventually able to go out to the beach for our final campfire of the week. It was a great end to seven days of fun.

Saturday. This time was spent packing and getting ready to head for home.

Although the weather was a factor in how we organized activities for the entire week, everything ran smoothly because of the great group of adults and Junior Counselors that were on hand to help out. They made sure everyone was where they were supposed to be and kept everybody safe and sound.

It takes many volunteers to make sure Falcon Camp is a success.

This year’s Falcon Camp was a fun-filled week, and even with some inclement weather, Camp was smoothly run. The reason for this was because of the Adult and Junior counselors who were there to help the kids. Our counselors were calm, caring and more than willing to help out in any way they could. I extend a special “thank you” to each and every one of these helpers. You made my first year as the Camp Director an easy one.

Junior Counselors: Joanna Boron, Katie Byers, Katherine Galezowski, Caroline Kowalczyk, Mallorie Michalak, Alexandra Smith and Ashley Zalewski.

Adult Counselors: Willie Bradley, Karyn Choromanski, Katie Choromanski, Trish Del Busse (thanks for the delicious pierogis), Betsy Hine, Chuck Johns, Renee Kasianowicz, Joe Mardeusz, Ben Mardeusz, Matt Mlynarczyk, Beth Stevwing and Henry Zalewski.
Our Camp’s kitchen crew (Thanks for the great food!): Catherine Mlynarczyk, Barbara Chervenak, Paul Kochan and Dennis Zembrzuski.

Jr. Kitchen Counselors: Kyle Hine and Nick Zembrzuski.

Some counselors take time away from supervising campers to have some fun.

Joe Choromanski: Volleyball coach.

Dan Michalak: Basketball coach.

Jon Harder: Soccer coach.

Catherine Jagodzinski and Matt Bauer: Swim coaches.

Linda Sterling: Thanks for being a great camp nurse. Your ace bandages were very comforting to all who wore them.

Tim Kuzma: Polish dancing was really fun!

Lori and Megan Stoklosa: Thank you for being a great DJ for our dance on Friday night.