Swimming has been at Camp Kawanhee since its inception and with the beautiful Lake Webb as the ideal location for young boys to learn to swim it was an obvious choice to be amongst only three other water-based activities available for the first season! The other two water activities boys could participate in were fishing and lifesaving!
Kawanhee has employed many skilled and knowledgeable activity directors over the years, but the first Kawanhee Swimming Director in the 1920s, Mike Peppe, was especially so. As a famous Swimming and Diving Coach for Ohio State University, Peppe would win 12 Big Ten Swimming Championships and 11 NCAA titles. Peppe also was the 1948 and 1952 US Olympic Diving Coach and coached his divers to bring home 5 gold medals home to the US. And this marvelous career of his started and blossomed in Weld, Maine at Camp Kawanhee. Peppe is pictured in the 1923 catalog, identified with the number 1
Swimming was also amongst the first activities that campers could receive awards for, as was evidenced in the 1922 catalog. In 1930, the Shephard family donated a special award to be given to the camper that had the greatest improvement in swimming. This award is still given to this day!
In 1943, campers arrived at Kawanhee with a never before seen sight: there were no docks in the water! Due to an extraordinarily wet season, the water levels in Lake Webb were too high to put the docks out onto the water. But no worries, some hot weather soon lowered the water levels and the docks were put into their well-known location.
Many young campers arrived at Kawanhee without previous swimming experience, but received careful instruction “with an emphasis on form” from counselors in small groups, and were able to swim within the first two to three weeks of camp. Boys who came to Kawanhee and learned how to swim there were featured in the following year’s catalog! Here’s the 1943 catalog picture of boys who learned to swim in 1942!
The “big aquatic meet” used to be held on Wednesday afternoons in the beginning years of camp where each camper gets to “strut his stuff” as Maroons and Grays competed against one another, in the 1970s this meet (as well as track meets) were held on Saturday afternoons. Boys not only competed in swimming, but also canoeing, Red Cross Life Saving, and more!