Goodbye Miss Tracy

Tracy Taitch somehow managed to turn her childhood love of camping and Camp Fire into a career.

For 15 years she was the director of Camp Dart-Lo, a day camp for boys and girls ages 3 through their high school years.

“I love Dart-Lo,” she said. “It’s one of my favorite things to talk about.”

But after years of coordinating fundraising efforts to build a new pool, coming up with new programs at the camp like the Sandbox group for preschool-aged children, the “Ghoul Ol’-Fashioned Halloween Fun” activity on Halloween and bringing archery to the camp, Taitch, or Miss Tracy as she’s known around Camp Fire, has stepped down from her position to work for the Wishing Star Foundation.

On a cold evening last week, many of her camper family members gathered to say goodbye to Miss Tracy and to thank her for her years of service.

There were campers from the 1980s, 1990s and from as recently as this last summer. They greeted each other with hugs and they greeted Taitch with laughter and tears.

Taitch could be found in what she called the best seat in the house – a table full of kids.

Emma McLaughlin, 10, said that she has been visiting the camp since she was in kindergarten and liked coming to camp for the archery classes and swimming. She said she is definitely going to miss Miss Tracy.

“She likes to laugh a lot and she likes to play around with the kids,” Emma said.

Emma’s mother, Jessie McLaughlin, agreed.

“She inspired fun,” Jessie said. She added that she could tell how much camp meant to Taitch.

“I kind of think she lived and breathed it,” she said.

Taitch started her career as a camper at Camp Sweyolakan when she was 7.

For the next 10 summers, she continued to go to the camp and was a counselor in training for her last year.

She volunteered in various capacities, served on the board of directors and the National Youth Round Table of Camp Fire.

After she graduated from Eastern Washington University with a degree in education, a job became available at the organization, and she interviewed for it just for the experience of doing a job interview.

She ended up getting the job and became the director of Camp Dart-Lo the next year.

Camp Fire threw the party for Taitch because when she turned in her resignation this past summer, she didn’t want to tell the kids she was leaving. Although she felt like she was deceiving the kids, she didn’t want to make the trip to Camp Dart-Lo sad for them.

She joked that no one was going to come to the party but she wanted the chance to say goodbye to the campers.

During her party, the lodge at the camp, which smelled like a campfire thanks to the wood-burning stove, was packed full of well-wishing Camp Fire families. There was a potluck dinner and there were Camp Fire s’mores, which are like regular s’mores, but instead of chocolate bars, they are made with Camp Fire mints.

When Taitch first took over as director of the camp in the summer of 1993, there were 421 kids that attended a weeklong session at the camp. In 2007, there were 1,817 kids for each weeklong session.

She said there were only two summers when enrollment declined, and figures maybe around 17,000 weeklong summer sessions in her 15-year tenure. She is quick to point out that number doesn’t include Spring Break camp or some other programs at Dart-Lo through the years.

“I can’t go anywhere without running into a camper,” she said.

Two of those campers are her own daughters, Riley and Casey Ball. Taitch said that she used to bring the girls into the office during the off-season and during camping season, the girls, who are now 12 and 9, would come to camp.

“They don’t know summer without camp,” Taitch said. In fact, at the party, there were many pictures of Taitch from her time as director. One featured one of her babies strapped to her back.

Next summer, although they will spend a week or two at the camp, will be the first summer the girls haven’t been there all summer long.

“It’s both sad and exciting for them,” Taitch said.

The party included an unveiling of the director’s plaque that hangs at the camp. Through the more than 60-year history of Dart-Lo, Taitch’s time as director exceeded that of every other director.

The Downtown Kiwanis, which have had a longstanding relationship with Dart-Lo, also gave a thank you to Taitch.

The camp is trying to raise funds to build a new lodge at the camp. The old one is small and needs updating.

As a thank you, the Kiwanis group made a $1,500 donation to the “Miss Tracy Fund,” which will benefit the lodge project.

Now that she’s moved on to another opportunity, Taitch knows that she’s going to miss saying good morning to the kids of Camp Dart-Lo.

“I love the idea that kids are growing up at camp,” she said.