Testimonial

My name is Steve Darby. I’m a former camper from 1976 – 1978 and was a counselor for the summer of 1981. Summer 1976, my parents and I were on a month long camping trip from Michigan and just happened to be near Paul Smiths; so, my Dad (Randal Darby) wanted to see if the camp was still there because…He was a counselor there in the ’50s; not sure of the exact year. We pulled into camp around the 3rd week of an 8-week session. Earl & Pauline were at camp that day and remembered my Dad and promptly invited them into their cabin there. Mike Humes was also there and kindly offered to take me on a tour. A couple of hours later, Mike brought me back to the Humes’ cabin and Earl asked me how I liked the place. Of course, I was in awe of what I was shown. A couple hours later, I was a Camp Regis camper and had one of the best summers of my life. The next summer I came back for the entire summer and then graduated to AJ camp for summer 1978. After I graduated high school, I came back to the cabin I first started at, now as a junior counselor. To this day I have not had an experience that compares to my years at Regis! Learning to water ski was my favorite thing, which I became very competent at too. Bill Vesley was the camp director during my tenure, and I got to know his kids pretty well, Todd and Sharon. I loved to watch Todd water ski…awesome! I learned how to sail those years and enjoyed that too. I often thought after I retired from the Air Force that I would love to be part of the camp in some capacity again, but it always seemed to be more of a dream than a reality for my life. This is why I’m so happy to see stories like mine of how much Camp Regis has filled so many hearts, and I’m thrilled to see this resurgence in getting camp back to its glory days.