Alumnae Spotlight-Emily Middlecoff Anderson

My name is Emily Anderson (Middlecoff) and I am a former Skyline camper. I went for 2 years…..a Trooper THROUGH and THROUGH. I BLEED GREEN. Some of the best years…..my mom still sends my girls pictures of me to them at camp. HILARIOUS. A lot of big bangs, horrible outfits, and reebok tennis shoes.

I’ll never forget the day I dropped Elizabeth off to Skyline for the first time. It was nostalgic. After 20 something years, it still felt the same…..and Pickle was still there. I remember dropping her off and kind of tearing up……and so was my youngest, Louise. I thought as we drove off, “How sweet. She’s going to miss her sister!” Not so much……she was mad she wasn’t getting to stay too! We both stalked the Waldo pics the next 2 weeks and when we picked Elizabeth up, she had mascara running down her face from crying at banquet night. She didn’t want to leave! She had become a true Skyline girl.

The following year, we enrolled both Elizabeth and Louise and Louise was so excited she made one of those things that you tear off a circle everyday as a countdown…..and COVID hit. BOTH of them were devastated camp got canceled. So the following year when they opened back up, Josh and I packed the car up and when I say, they both threw their phones at us and sprinted out of the car, it’s not an understatement. For the past 6 years my girls have been a part of Camp Skyline and they LOVE it, I mean it. I cry every year at drop off. Not because I am sad, but because I am so excited of what’s ahead of them. It’s 2 weeks of complete joy….you forget about the chaos of girl drama at home and as my girls tell me, “Mom, it’s just different on the Mountain.” They’ve developed friendships with girls from all over the place that they go and stay with or make sure to keep in touch with. The friendships you make at camp last forever. I’ll never forget the year I was moving Louise into her room and Josh took Elizabeth across the river to Riverside and he said Kirby was waiting for her and was literally running next to car screaming how excited she was! There’s something to be said about camp……it’s a special place!

I can easily cry and watching Elizabeth work her way up as an “older” Trooper, mentor the younger ones (including her sister) well, let’s just say I was a ball of tears this year when she aged out and was lucky enough to have the Troopers win all 3 cups! She wears that age out ring with pride! It’s not about winning trophies though…it’s about being a kid for 12 days, leaving everything behind, having fun, making new friends, and JUST BEING ON THE MOUNTAIN!
Amen, Emily Anderson