As our Executive Director, George Comfort is responsible for the successful operation of NorthBay Adventure Camp. George has 20 years of experience in domestic and international sales and marketing, including an assignment as Business Director in Europe/Middle East/Africa. George's greatest passion, however, is the development of children and teens. He has spent over 20 years as a relationally focused youth leader and mentor. He has taught, organized and led teenagers in mission oriented service projects in a variety of settings, including a two-week service project in Zambia. He believes that education and adult encouragement and adult example are foundational to changed lives. George has a BS degree from Vanderbilt University and is a few credit hours away from completing a Masters degree in Counseling.

Joe comes to NorthBay with a long and diverse history in working with young people. After graduating from West Chester University in 1987, Joe served on Young Life staff for Chester County Young Life for two years. He then worked with Chester County Juvenile Probation for nine years, supervising a caseload of 100 juvenile delinquents and teens that were treated as adults for violent offenses. While working as a Probation Officer, Joe continued to serve on the local Young Life committee and organized several adult weekend work crews at Lake Champion. It was while volunteering at Young Life camps, that Joe decided he wanted to work at a camping facility. So in 1997, Joe served as a cook and Food Service Manager at Lake Champion and Saranac Village; both in New York. He and his family then moved to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota to work at Castaway Club, where Joe served as a Waterfront Director, Marketing and Guest Group Coordinator. After five years at Castaway Club, Joe went on to serve as the Guest Services Coordinator at TimberWolf Lake in Lake City, Michigan.

Along with work, Joe has volunteered time with youth in many other ways. Joe was the Committee Chairmen for Lake’s Area Young Life in MN. He has helped coach baseball teams in MN, and boxing clubs in NY and MN. Joe worked with his churches youth group MI, performing skits and speaking. Lastly, he was the head chaperone for the Mackinaw Trail Middle Schools ski program in MI, where he would take 20-40, 6th and 7th graders skiing every Monday afternoon.

Joe is married to his wife of 19 years, Amy. They have two children. Zach, 15, is a sophomore at Rising Sun High school, plays the tenor drums for the drum line and has nearly three years experience in playing drums for youth worship bands. Alyssa, 12, is a 7th grader at Rising Sun, and looks forward to playing basketball, volleyball and has 8 years of dance experience.

In his spare time, Joe enjoys several outdoor activities. He enjoys training for and participating in triathlons. He hopes to continue cross country skiing in the winter. And he loves taking his family skiing and snowboarding.

Lauren Walsh is our sweetest Baltimore, Maryland native. Prior to coming to NorthBay, she spent the last 35 years as a Group Practice Administrator for a number of medical and dental practices in the Baltimore area with a focus on the care of children in Pediatric Dentistry and Pediatric Allergies for the last 15 years.

In 2002, Lauren unleashed her entrepreneurial side and partnered with her husband, opening two locations of their retail store. The Bay Dog offers a variety of apparel, gifts, and collectibles for people who just love dogs. This enterprise has prepared Lauren well to handle her NorthBay duties as Office Manager and Manager of The NorthBay Trading Company, our camp store.

Lauren loves the outdoors and has been an avid sailor for the past 30 years, cruising the Chesapeake Bay and the Virgin Islands. She also enjoys biking up and down the East Coast.

Lauren and her husband Rich are lucky to live only minutes from camp and share the same spectacular view of the Chesapeake Bay. They have two grown daughters and two wonderful grandchildren.

Keith is our Director of Education at NorthBay. He possesses a degree in environmental biology and worked as a Senior Environmental Biologist and Project Manager with the U.S. Army for 10 years.

He has also taught middle school science in Baltimore city, has 15 years of experience in outdoor environmental education, and has worked as a Senior Environmental Education Manager.

As the Dean of the NorthBay faculty, Keith provides oversight on curriculum and manages the NorthBay education staff. He is an environmental writer and writes a bi-weekly column for the Nor'easter Magazine. His articles have also appeared in Chesapeake Bay magazine. His first book, the Homeowners Guide to Saving the Bay, is expected to be published in 2007. Keith is married to Joyce, and has three children, Grace, James and Christopher.

Craig Worley comes to NorthBay after spending 25 years as a chef in Hotels and Restaurants in the Mid Atlantic region. He serves as our Director of Food Service, where he is committed to providing meals to campers that are good for them and taste great. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

Craig has been actively involved in mentoring teenagers for the past 23 years and he enjoys leading others in cross cultural educational experiences.

Craig and his wife Deb, and their three children reside in Elkton, Maryland and are involved with a teen ministry in their local church. When Craig is not whipping up delicious meals for young campers to enjoy, you can find him playing basketball, softball and tennis. Occasionally he can be spotted at various sporting events watching his son and at dance practices and recitals watching his daughter.

Captain Bob Burkhardt is the Waterfront Director and faculty member at NorthBay. He received his degree in Geosciences from Salisbury State University. After college, with a lifelong love of the water and the Bay, Bob obtained his United States Coast Guard OUPV license and quickly upgraded to a 50 ton Master. He is currently working to upgrade this license as well.

Bob runs and maintains all the vessels at NorthBay. He is a native to Cecil County and has lived his entire life on the banks of the Elk River. Bob spends as much time as possible working on the water. Commercial crabbing as a teenager, he moved on to become dock master of Schaefer's Marina through high school and college. Now he also skippers a charter boat in the offshore waters out of Indian River, Delaware.

When not working on the water Bob can be found spending his leisure time on the Bay, often in pursuit of crabs, fish, and waterfowl throughout the tidewater region.

Justin Britcher grew up in the small town of Clinton, New York and went onto receive his B.S. in Environmental Science from St. Bonaventure University. While there, he contributed to two research projects involving the meticulous habitat study of frogs and salamanders. He went on to intern at the Pfeiffer Nature Center working as Naturalist, then moving onto environmental education, developing a proposal for a trail system for newly acquired land using GPS/GIS. Justin gained his high adventure expertise at the Genesee Valley Outdoor Learning Center working as a facilitator conducting team building programs, where he was ultimately promoted to Challenge Course Manager.

As our new Adventure Coordinator, Justin comes to NorthBay with an earnest desire to assist children of all ages with learning how to evaluate difficult situations and construct strategic game plans to overcome their worst fears by guiding them through not just the adventure courses at NorthBay but the adventure courses of real life.

Justin is excited to be a part of the NorthBay team and is looking forward to making a difference in the lives of all the children that come his way. Justin teaches adventure classes to thousands of students the entire school year and we are fortunate to have him teaching this NorthBay summer, as well.

On his down time, you will find Justin enjoying the outdoors; camping, hiking, and occasionally hanging from a very tall tree.

Kris Raser is our Program Coordinator for the school year and summer camp. He incorporates humor into the meal theatre, night show and general structure of every day at NorthBay.

In 1997, Kris graduated from Millersville University in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania with his BA in Art.

During college, Kris' intensive and rewarding volunteer work with Young Life led him to continue with this ministry after graduation. Kris and his wife, Karen, moved to Kent County, Maryland in the fall of 1997 to join 5 couples in the start-up of Young Life's Bay Area. After eight formative years with Young Life, Kris began his work at NorthBay as the Guest Services Coordinator. Having a presence as the program point person from the start, Kris was soon asked to have dual roles as Evening Manager and Program Coordinator. Kris has since become the NB Program Coordinator in the Media Arts Department where he is able to focus on the areas where he is primarily skilled.

Kris and Karen have two children, Molly (5) and Pierce (3). In his spare time Kris loves music, writing, reading, designing and spending time at the beach with his family. His favorite passion is when he and Karen get to take their kids out kayaking on the Chesapeake Bay!

Rachael Pitney is the Counselor Coordinator at NorthBay. She supervises a staff of 30 Counselors between the school year and summer programs. Since coming to NorthBay, Rachael has been instrumental in the growth of the Counselor position. Counselors must now measure up to a high criterion before being hired. This includes being enrolled in college and pursuing a degree that is directly related to children or have extensive experience in the childcare field. All Counselors must be CPR and First Aid certified and also go thru rigorous ongoing training throughout the year. The criteria Rachael has required of the Counselors at NorthBay has resulted in a very dedicated, kid oriented, enthusiastic group of Counselors. As a mother herself, Rachael demands a lot from her Counselors and works hard to employ people of the utmost integrity at all times. She realizes that the Counselor’s role is essential to a child’s’ happiness at camp.

Rachael was born and raised in a small town outside of Philadelphia, PA. She obtained her Bachelor’s in English from Shippensburg University. Before working at NorthBay, Rachael worked for a nationwide nonprofit group whose mission was the revitalization of small downtown areas throughout the country. She was responsible for assisting in fundraising efforts that would give money directly to small town businesses for facade improvements in addition to other items to keep their building up to code and historically accurate. She also served on the committee for the planning and executing of several large scale downtown events.

Rachael and her husband, Rob, live in Oxford, PA with their two children, Luke (12) and Meghan (9). When she is not at NorthBay you can find her at various sporting events watching her two kids or taking a long hike. As a family, Rachael and Rob enjoy taking their kids camping, swimming and to the beach. If it’s warm out, you can guarantee that Rachael is somewhere near the water, which is why working at NorthBay has been a perfect fit!

William Richardson has also been involved in shaping the lives of young people. Educated at Towson University, William received a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Legal Theory in 2000. While on campus, he held positions as the president of the Black Student Union and Relations of Equality, a group that he re-chartered to improve diversity on campus. He was awarded the Vice President's Leadership Award for Student life for his contributions to the university and nominated for Towson's Man of the Year.

William has a passion for teaching and has taught middle school in Baltimore City for five years. He has taught math, science and social studies and has developed curriculum in Social Studies while at Federal Hill Preparatory, a Core Knowledge school.

He has also helped to create and implement before and after school basketball programs to increase attendance and academic achievement. His main passion however is for that of his two lovely children Zaire and Lydia. He is also a singer, songwriter and guitarist for his band, Righteous Soul.

Meghan Luttrell is living life to the fullest! She considers NorthBay an exciting and frequently changing environment; always working to get better and to make a greater impact, so working here helps Meghan to strive towards her goal. Meghan's goals were always to work with children in a meaningful and beneficial way, and NorthBay allows for her to do that in a setting she loves!

Meghan graduated from Towson University with BA degrees in Psychology and Sociology. Throughout college Meghan had different jobs, internships, and volunteered with organizations such as Young Life, all allowing her to work with children in different settings. One of the biggest lessons that she learned from these experiences was that kids from all different backgrounds and situations need a lot of support, and to now be able to be a part of that as a career is a dream come true for her.

Working at NorthBay enables Meghan to enjoy many of her hobbies and skills. While an educator during the school year, she is able to do things that she loves, like hiking, fishing, and learning, all alongside of her students. She is also able to be on stage frequently, hosting during the meals and the famed Luttrell's Show, which she views as an honor and an opportunity to utilize her abilities in order to provide children with a great overall experience at NorthBay.

David Watts Jr. was born July 11th 1984 in Elkton MD. He grew up in Elkton and Graduated from Elkton High School in 2002. David attended Lincoln University in PA to pursue a degree in Music Education. David has just as much passion for music as he does for the students here at NorthBay. At the age of twelve he discovered he had a talent for being able to listen to a song and quickly learn to play it on the piano. Along with his ability to play he also enjoys singing, writing songs and poems, and acting as well. He is the vice president of the youth department at his church as well as choir director and musician.

David’s journey at NorthBay started out last year as an overnight counselor. He enjoyed the interaction with the students and the important cabin discussions they had. That same summer he was promoted to a media arts assistant where his duties included filming and editing various projects, as well as hosting meals and the talent show. Even more recently he is now the Co-host of our night time program, NorthBay Live!, opposite Meghan Luttrel.

David is very passionate about his responsibilities here at NorthBay. He loves being able to directly speak into the lives of the students, and enjoys being a filter for them. He believes very much that the few days the students are here supply a lifetime of life lessons for them as well as environmental education.

 

Mandi Fedale is the second oldest of ten children. She grew up not only with a love for my nine siblings, but also a heart for other children. Upon graduating from high school she had the opportunity to move to an orphanage in Mexico and invest in the lives of children daily. She also participated in missions work in Romania, Granada, Honduras, and Costa Rica. It was while in the orphanage that she decided to be a nurse. She returned home and began nursing school in Delaware and graduated with an RN from Delaware Technical Community College in 2003. She is attending the University of Delaware and expects to graduate with a BSN degree in 2009.

Mandi worked at Christiana Hospital in the surgical/trauma ICU and then transferred to the Neonatal ICU where she worked for four years. She then worked with Gift of Life (an organ procurement organization) coordinating organ transplants.

The opportunity presented itself to become the Wellness Center RN at North Bay Adventure Camp. She prayed about this opportunity and felt strongly that it was a place where she could invest in children’s lives. She believes that the Wellness Center is a place where campers and staff can get medical treatment and evaluation. It is a safe haven for all children and open 24 hours a day for our campers.

When she is not working she enjoys spending time with family and friends. She also enjoys cooking, playing the piano, singing, and being involved with her local church.

 

Lacey grew up in the small town of St. Mary’s, West Virginia and went on to receive her B.A. in Sociology and Criminal Justice from West Virginia Wesleyan College. While at Wesleyan, Lacey met a nice young man who shared her passion of wanting to enhance the lives of America’s youth. He went on to become one of NorthBay’s educators and Lacey was not far behind on her way to Maryland and NorthBay where she has come to love the students as well as the Chesapeake Bay.

As the NorthBay Store Manager and Guest Coordinator, she has her hands full with running NorthBay Trading Company, designing and purchasing merchandise along with other store related duties and working in the office as an integral part of the administrative team, recruiting and servicing the thousands of visiting guests as well as handling many of NorthBay’s finances.

Lacey and her husband Joshua love the outdoors especially snowboarding, wakeboarding, and going to the beach! They also enjoy learning how to live a more “green” lifestyle of using less and giving back more to a better environment. Lacey and Josh have tied environmental stewardship in with their faith and are active leaders for a youth group in Annapolis. When the Bennett Team is not trying to change the world one student at a time, you can find them in a very heated scrabble match!