Brian Farley

A native Mainer, Brian grew up in York, earned a Sociology degree at St. Joseph’s College in Standish, and finished his Master’s in School Counseling from the University of Southern Maine in 2015. An outdoor enthusiast, he spent many summers at his family’s camp on Long Lake, and is big into hiking with his dog, Rozzie. After five years of leading trips and MWA, and two years as CIT Director, Brian is now the Program Director. He is responsible for managing our staff, overseeing the program, scheduling, and activity development. His favorite moment from 2015 was a trip around Lake Mooselookmeguntic with legendary counselor Bob Donahue. While the trip had its hiccups, Brian quickly fell in love with Biroca during his time on campus in between trips. During his first two years Brian shared lodging with Chris Cogswell, and the pair became a staple around camp, leading to such famous musical skits as “Chris Cogswell & Brian Farley”, which can be heard hummed along the paths to this day.

In addition to being a normal trip leader (are any trip leaders normal?), Brian had the pleasure of leading several years of MWA with a few different co-leaders: John Moore, Chris Cogswell, Gordon Hargraves, and Becka Holbrook (twice). A true outdoorsman, Brian enjoys a multitude of outdoor sports like backpacking, snowshoeing, swimming, and cycling. When not out in the Maine woods, Brian enjoys kicking back in his hammock, lounging in Onie’s, and checking on his GPS (it’s always broken).

At camp, in his role as Program Director, Brian is up before the bell to meet with Head Counselor “Musc” to run through the day’s activity periods and to plan events for the week. His day is full of radio calls from various activities that need his attention and various "fires" that need his scheduling prowess. The afternoon is his time to prepare the following day’s program and assemble sign-up sheets for after dinner. Brian is also a master of many talents. He is a go to specialist for many things such as setting up printers, storing gear properly, Dewalt chainsaws and driving trucks with canoe trailers. Brian and Musc live in Semanas; Musc says his cabin mate is super clean, always vacuuming, washing dishes and playing amazing music. Campers know Cabin Inspection is going to be extra demanding when Brian steps up for Musc from time to time.

Brian is a huge supporter and pioneer of the trip program. He has brought several new epic trips to camp and is always trying to expand and improve the program. Some new trips he started at camp are the 100 mile wilderness and the mighty Allagash river both for MWA and the epic Pemi loop for the most advanced hikers. Brian has had many safe, fun adventures out in the wilderness. He makes trips fun for the campers by not only ensuring their safety but going the extra mile (pun intended) to make sure they have the best possible time. For example, he will take campers on little extra hikes or paddles to enjoy an amazing sunset or sunrise.

No profile of Brian is complete without highlighting his canine sidekick, the gorgeous golden-doodle Rozzie. Rozzie is a 9 year old who pretends to be a puppy. She enjoys living in the York, ME area during the off-season, but like her fellow camp dogs she lives to romp at Birch Rock. Rozzie’s favorite activities are lunch in the Grove, kayaking and rest period at Semanas with Brian.

Table of Summers

Year	Cabin	session/role	counselor/CIT/co-counselor
2015	The Yurt	MWA	Jon Moore
2016	The Yurt	MWA	Chris Cogswell
2017	The Yurt	MWA	Gordon Hargraves
2018	Onies	MWA	Becka Holbrook
2019	Onies	MWA	Becka Holbrook
2020	Onies	Program Director	Rich Deering
2021	Onies	Program Director	Rich Deering
2022	Onies	Program Director	Rich Deering
2023	Semanas	Program Director	Musc
2024	Semanas	Program Director	Musc