Living in Darien & Running a Maine Camp for Generations

Louise Fritts Johnson isn't the first generation of her family to be living in her house on Goodwives River Road and to be running a summer camp in Maine. She isn't the second, either.

When she became director of Camp Arcadia in Casco, ME, a camp her great-grandfather bought in 1917, she became the fourth generation to be involved with the institution that now plays a big role in the lives of 176 campers and another 80 or so camp employees each summer. (Her own children are fifth-generation "Arcadians.")

And when she comes back home after a summer in southern Maine, her regular home is where her mother grew up, on property first bought by her grandfather.

Dr. George Meylan, a Swiss immigrant and doctor who was director of physical education at Columbia University, had founded a Maine summer camp for boys in 1905 (in World War II, when there were few young men available to be camp counselors, that camp closed its doors). In 1917, he bought Camp Arcadia, a year after it was founded. He had his daughter run it, beginning the family tradition that has lasted 98 years.

Arcadia is a rustic, 365-acre camp where girls go both to have fun and learn new skills, gaining confidence in themselves and a lot of memories in the process.

"My grandmother's belief was that in order to feel confident and competent in the world, you need to feel confident and competent outdoors," Johnson said. The camp teaches canoeing, swimming and camping skills such as how to pitch a tent and cook outdoors. It also offers horseback riding, art, theater and music as part of more than 20 different activities.

For the camp director, there's a similar range of activities to become competent in overseeing: training the 80-person staff, dealing with homesick children and helicopter parents, and even monitoring the maintenance of 45 buildings, which have plumbing, electricity and other problems on occasion.

One result of that experience is that if something goes wrong at the house in Darien, she said, "I would say that things don't phase me so much."

This will be her 14th summer as director of the camp, which has four year-round employees, including the caretaker who stays at the camp year-round. When she isn't up in Maine during the summer, Johnson runs the camp from her Darien home, the same one it was run from in the 1920s.

Johnson grew up in New Jersey (except for childhood summers at Camp Arcadia) and later moved to Norwalk. She had a career in advertising for a while but decided she didn't want to stick with that field. "I realized this was more suited foor where my heart is and where I want my life to be."

With her two daughters and a boy, ages 6, 8 and 9, her life in Darien can sometimes be a bit like camp, she said.

"My family spends a lot of time outside on adventures," she said, "whether it be exploring Waveny (the park in New Canaan), or going fishing or going to a new beach. Her children's friends may come along, or the kids may just play outdoors on the family property and neighborhood.

"People [who have had their children visit the Johnsons] say it's like going to camp—people say that who don't even know I'm a camp director!"

Her husband, Stewart, works in finance in New York, and in the summer splits his time between Camp Arcadia and Darien, racing up to Maine when he can.

With her experience running a youth camp, Johnson has a keen eye for what can go wrong or right in the youth programs her own children participate in. Some of the programs in the area that impress her include the T-ball program her boy recently joined—she found the coach very good at communicating to parents—and the soccer program that her girls have joined.

Other area organizations that have impressed her over the years: JAM (Junior Arts & Music) in Norwalk, Organized Play Groups and Green Moon.

But for someone whose job involves so much organized activity, Johnson surprised me when she said, "I'm a big believer in giving them [her children] time to go out and play outside," doing what they organize themselves.