Tamara McKimmey

Tamara McKimmey
Sex	F

Tamara McKimmey was the Camp Director of Mosquito Valley, a Girl Scout camp. She "also watches the place in the winter."^DW59 She was a friend and frequently worked with Nicole Szczerowski, the head counselor. She used the camp name Harmony, which while Nicole used Marlin, as both a camp name and a AT trail name, this name does not imply Tamara hiked the Appalachian Trail.^DW50

As Nicole explained to Myleigh Harris, "Harmony and I had reorganized the whole program of the camp away from cutesy-poo arts and crafts to learning outdoor skills that people really use. That's part of why I originally went to OLTA, and Harmony went there later. We knew at the time that it was going to take several years to really get the program to stick, because there's a bunch of old-time leaders who liked things the way they used to be."^RR45

Randy Clark was very understanding of Nicole's commitment to the camp, "Harmony and Marlin had spent months at the Outdoor Leadership Training Academy in Idaho, learning to lead camp groups on outdoor adventures, rather than just dinking around camp and getting bit by mosquitoes while doing cute but useless arts and crafts. It had taken the camp in a new direction, and the girls were responding well to it, having a lot of fun and learning skills that people really used in the outdoors. But, there were a lot of old-line leaders who liked things the way they'd been."^BB7

When Nicole hiked the Appalachian Trail with Jackpine in 1999, Randy sent copies of her mailed journal entries to several friends, including Harmony.^DW63

Just weeks before camp opened for the summer of 1999, Harmony was badly injured in a car accident. " She barely survived, and wasn't in any shape to work." Nicole changed her plans and ran the camp that year and the next, too. "They're going to have to go back in and put her hips back together again."^BB7 Nicole was very relieved that she wouldn't be needed for a third year.^PE3