Camp Woodstock alumni John Healy (70’s – 80’s) and Bill Parkman (60’s – 90’s) both started at Woodstock as campers and worked their way up to support staff. Bill also became the full-time caretaker of camp in the early 80’s. We were happy to welcome both John and Bill back to camp at the 95th Celebration in June.
John is currently enjoying his role as the Director of Exercises and Assessments for U.S. European Command. As a Brigadier General in the Air Force, John and his wife Catherine are living in Stuttgart, Germany. After his tour is complete in 2020, John will be rejoining JetBlue as a pilot and his position on the Camp Woodstock Board of Advisors. As a volunteer, John was instrumental in establishing the partnership between UCONN and Camp Woodstock in developing and collecting data for our summer camp through Parent Surveys. This relationship with UCONN continues today as we had over three hundred parents fill out the survey in 2017. This data helps Camp make improvements and changes based on data collected from our surveys. John is still an active volunteer at Woodstock participating in monthly meetings via Skype.
Bill is currently living in Swanzey, NH. He is teaching our next generation of community leaders at Monadnock Regional High School. As the 2017 Senior Class Advisor, Bill with his booming voice and gift for storytelling gave a rousing speech at the graduation ceremony. He remains connected to Camp Woodstock on renovation projects and attends the Memorial Day Family Camp. Bill was an active Committee Member in planning the Woodstock 95th Celebration and took all of us who attended the celebration on a wondrous Lion Hunt at campfire! Bill continues to volunteer for the YMCA and is the current Board Chair at YMCA Camp Takodah in New Hampshire. Parkman recently retired as a Chief Petty Officer after 26 years of service in the Navy. Uncle Sam had him travel all over the world, but now that he is retired he plans on traveling on his own dime visiting Europe this summer.
Camp Woodstock welcomes alumni participation in our many events through the year. Attend our wine tasting event in May, volunteer to help send a kid to camp at anyone one of our phone-athons or note-athons in January and February, help welcome new campers to the Woodstock family in the summer or just visit camp when you have those nostalgic feelings. Contact the camp office for more details or schedule a personal tour with Executive Director, Anthony Gronski at 1-800-782-2344 or tony.gronski@ghymca.org