Karen Townsend listens patiently to a camper's concerns.
Key run camp organizers have successfully held off an attempt by GladHander Blaine Lam to suspend all run camp activity "until we can bring this thing back under control."
Calling an emergency meeting of the Run Camp Tribal Council, Lam was able to secure a two-week hiatus in the weekly Saturday runs, but his efforts to invoke sanctions and mete out punishment to campers, coaches and team leaders went unheeded.
"Blaine thinks marathoners are whiners. Combine that with his, let's say, edgy personality and his Grinchy approach to some of your more festive holidays and he can be a handful," noted Tessa Emenheiser, who voted in unison with other council members to reject Lam's basic proposal to "shut 'er down."
Lam complained to fellow organizers that:
• There's too much hugging at camp. ("We're a hand-shaking camp.")
• All this spirit is going to come back and bite us. ("Gang signs in the second week? Really?")
• Too many flavors of cream cheese for the bagels. ("Why do we baby these people?")
Compounding Lam's annual complaints about "excessive giddiness" by co-leader Chris Lampen-Crowell was the addition of Karen "Little Miss Sunshine" Townsend to the organizational team. It reportedly bothers Lam that Townsend not only listens to campers concerns -- many of which are about Lam -- but deals with them.
Townsend, who works full time with Lam, says she has learned how to deal with his outbursts. "We just email him photos of his grandkids, and he chills."
A council member who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, "We'd bounce Blaine in a heartbeat, but we don't dare risk losing Bobbie as camp photographer."
