August 2024
By Mary Broderick, Trustee
Ten years ago last March, at my second board meeting, Onaway Trustees spent the weekend in Philadelphia working to define Onaway’s values, thanks to some encouragement from Advancement Director Meredith Funston. Through deep reflection, working as individuals, in small groups, and as a whole, the Board dug deep into what it means to be Onaway. Though the lists were long, trustees were able to identify five values that “carried a herd” of other values within them:
- Honor
- Simplicity
- Community
- Self-Discovery
- Spirituality/Love
For the past eight years, we have begun each board meeting with a reflection on our values and I am invariably moved by the power of these values to affect our lives and the human beings we are— or strive to be. I love that Onaway values also anchor our work together and believe it is those shared commitments that have made us an effective and downright joyful Board.
It feels appropriate to offer my own reflections at this, my second-to-last Board meeting.
I remember as a camper feeling that Onaway was different— better than other camps— because it was focused on bigger things… not just on pursuit of excellence in canoeing and tennis and swimming, but also on our growth as good, thoughtful human beings who were determined to embody Onaway values both at camp and in our daily lives away from camp. We knew these values had been a part of camp from its beginning, passed down from Mrs. Hollister through generations of Onaway girls and women. And we found models in our counselors, aides, and fellow campers.
When in our lives, away from camp, were we asked to think about what we value? When were we asked what it means to be a good person or live a good life? Or to be our best selves? Perhaps in our places of worship, but that didn’t feel personal (to me anyway). Summers at Onaway were the first time I remember being asked to consider big questions: Questions that cause us to rise out of self-interest and focus on something larger than ourselves.
This focus has meant Onaway girls grow to learn what they value so they can confidently contribute to creating a healthy community and world. How many Onaway women have gone on to lives of service? Of leadership? Is it a disproportionate number?
Think of our great leaders. Who are the ones who move our hearts and minds? Clearly the ones who are not about themselves, but who unite us toward a collective good.
I recently watched the first episode of Ken Burns’ Benjamin Franklin. (Perhaps he was influencing our work together at that March meeting in 2014.) You all probably realize that he, like a number of our “fore-parents” created for himself lists of ways he could better himself.
Self-reliance, which Franklin loved (and I would liken to self-discovery), and community may seem like they oppose each other, but Franklin repeatedly said, the good that we can do together surpasses the good that we can do alone. Indeed he had a “Junto,” a team of thoughtful friends who worked together to improve civic life in Philadelphia.
So Onaway provides a “junta,” or people who share values and encourage our individual and collective growth and pursuits…
As older campers, aides, and counselors, we also learned that leadership was not about ourselves, but about finding and growing the gifts in others.
I was at Onaway when the world was only just really opening up to the idea that women had as much to contribute as men. Title IX, the landmark federal civil rights law enacted to prohibit sex-based discrimination in any school that receives federal funding, was not a reality until I had finished my Onaway years.
At Onaway, we found an environment where we could be brave to make mistakes, safe to stretch beyond the capacities we thought we had in pursuit of excellence. We had each other’s backs. This passing week, we will hear the crescendo created by the girls cheering on fellow campers’ successes. And each girl knows that a “pass” means achievement of excellence.
I am unabashedly proud of the way Onaway girls and women encourage and celebrate each other and of Onaway’s importance in the thousands of lives it has nurtured. We are better human beings because of the values at her heart.
