Brewster Day Camp Alumni Remember Adam Pettengill

BREWSTER – For the Brewster Day Camp and The Family Schools community, Adam Pettengill was not only loved, he was cherished. 

For about 20 years, Mr. Pettengill spent his summers as the Brewster Day Camp safety and equipment director and during the off-season as an early childhood teacher at The Family School. 

In early November of last year, Mr. Pettengill unexpectedly passed away due to complications from cardiac arrest. His absence has been felt even more so as the Brewster Day Camp begins its summer season. 

On Saturday, June 28, alumni from up and down the East Coast traveled back to Brewster to honor Mr. Pettengill at a celebration of life hosted on the camp’s property. Attendees donned tie-dye T-shirts, a staple of his wardrobe, as a tribute to the beloved counselor. 

“Adam was a really gentle soul,” said Milisa “Misa” Galazzi, CEO and owner of the Family Schools, Inc., in a phone interview. 

“He was an incredible mentor,” said Jane Douglass, head of school at the Family Schools, who co-taught with Mr. Pettengill when he first started. “He stepped in a lot with how to raise a boy, so he was very close with a lot of our families in the sense of raising boys. And he was a great mentor to young men who wanted to be in early childhood education. He taught a lot of young men that it was OK to have a soft side.” 

Mr. Pettengill had a well-known generous nature that never wavered throughout his time at the camp and school. He was always ready to lend a hand, provide a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen. Douglass said every day after work, they would lock up the classroom and head to the parking lot where they parked next to each other. She said she would always jokingly ask, “How are you always so happy? How do you leave every day with a smile on your face?”

Mr. Pettengill answered, “Jane, I’m just doing my best.” 

In honor of Mr. Pettengill, Galazzi and Douglass have kept that tradition alive. 

While some of the attendees on Saturday were from the area, a few traveled as long as 10 hours to join the celebration. It turned out to be quite the family reunion, bigger than was initially expected. Galazzi estimated around 250 to 300 people stopped in during the two-hour celebration. 

“Camp and school generations aren’t 20 years,” she said. “They are four to six years, so you have these quick little overlaps. So it really did feel like a family reunion of probably eight or 12 generations.” 

While most alumni events garner an average of 50 people, organizers were overjoyed to see the turnout. Douglass and Galazzi both acknowledged that it takes a very special person to make that kind of impact. 

“He would change their diaper in the infant room and mentor them all the way through until they were 16,” said Galazzi. “And then they would say, ‘I’m going to come back and I’m going to work for you.”

Mr. Pettengill had that bond with most of his campers. He helped the camp become a special place for kids to be kids. 

Galazzi shared an anecdote of two alumni who showed up to the celebration of life, engaged to be married. They had met through the camp and gotten engaged the day before Mr. Pettengill’s event at Cliff Pond, where they had participated in camp activities. 

The lyrics from a camp song that staff and campers are taught every year, “Teaching Peace,” has resonated quite clearly with the way Mr. Pettengill carried himself. 

The song goes: “Teaching peace, all the world around, you and me, every city, every town, one by one, in our work and in our play, we are teaching peace by what we do and what we say.” 

Galazzi said he not only exemplified those lyrics, he truly modeled the pillars of the Family Schools. He was quick to apologize and acknowledge a mistake, he always made time for his students and he encouraged the power of play.

“He was such a firm believer in the power of play,” said Galazzi. “We take play very seriously around here. You know, that’s how children learn, is through play, and as young adults, we have to keep our inner child alive and playful to be healthy.” 

Mr. Pettengill was always one of the first to paint his fingernails on Carnival Day, to express his love of playfulness.

Aside from his official role, Mr. Pettengill was a jack of all trades around the camp. He would effortlessly switch from teaching toddlers to helping a teen learn to sail to fixing broken equipment or changing a light bulb. 

“Because he wore so many hats, it's been a challenge this year, trying to replace him,” said Galazzi. “As the teacher, as a mentor, as a fix-it guy. You know how powerful someone's work is when you realize what you have to do to replace them. We couldn't replace him with one person.”

Outside of his role at the Family Schools, Mr. Pettengill loved traveling with his wife, Suzanne, and exploring nature.