kids latched on to him and never let go

kids latched on to him and never let go the entire week. He had maybe the toughest bunch—four little boys, seven and eight years old. And one was hyperactive, not just a high energy child needing a little extra attention but the medically-certified genuine article who can’t sit still for a minute.

“And they were the niftiest kids I ever met! When l saw the kids— Dave Smith was right—they were huggable, just huggable. They looked like.,. well, they looked like my best friends.’’

And his co-counselor was Jeff Derfiinger, a former camper who graduated last year from Duke University and is going on to the University of North Carolina for graduate work in pastoral counseling. “He was a great teen leader. About the best I’ve ever met, and that includes the leaders from when I was a camper and used to look at them as heroes.” Jeff dubbed their crow The Weasels and the two leaders marked the blue camp jackets— theirs and the foursome’s—with big white Ws on the back.

Alex was a teen leader at 4-H camp the week before Fantastic and at Junior High camp the week after, and he says with authority and experience that the campers at Fantastic ■ are different. “They’re always excited about what’s going on; they’re always enthusiastic. They’re so easy to love—love is everywhere at Camp Fantastic!”

“There weren’t any rough times, except when the kids were sick,” Alex continued. “Once, Chip let out a scream in the middle of the night. He’d thrown up over the side of the bed. Jeff and I cleaned it up. It was scary—he hadn’t shown any signs of feeling bad. And he was such a good kid. Whenever the other three were stirring things up, being little fiends, Chip would give us ideas on how to get them all together again.”

Handsome, tanned, and athletic,*, with a dazzling smile—he was dubbed Smiley by the campers— Alex was target of a score of preteen, sub-teen, and teen crushes. He tried hard not to play favorites, being careful to dance with everyone at

See SMITH, p. B-3