Volume LI, No. 4, December, 2010

Dear Campers, Parents, Alums & Friends,

The Cheyenne are credited for creating the adage, “Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins.”  It seems sensible, and it is particularly germane to a discussion of understanding and working with children.  This topic came up in a recent issue of Parade Magazine, entitled “What’s Really Going On Inside Your Teen’s Brain.”  The article is interesting in that much of the behavior that we see in kids that age is explained in terms of human brain development, and where it is in that process when people enter their teen years.  Modern science is providing us with a window into the physical reasons why teens behave the way they do.  What struck me in reading that article was how adults tend to view teenagers as somehow being aliens…so different and foreign from themselves.  Really, the question I would ask is what has this new science taught us that we didn’t already know from our own experiences? Where’s the revelation?  For instance, one of the headings in the article asks, “Why Can’t She Rise and Shine, Darn It?”  This section addresses the fact that most teenagers need at least 8.5 – 9 hours of sleep each night, and that their bodies don’t tend to produce the hormone to wake them up till fairly late in the morning.  Anyone with kids knows this is fact….our own teenage kids are sluggish every school day morning.  And apparently, it frustrates lots of parents.  The thing is, any adult (who was once a teenager) experienced this in their own teen years, though they may prefer to remember it differently.  C’mon, folks, you can admit you could sleep through lunch on weekends when you were a teen, can’t you?  I sure can, and I remember well being frustrated when my parents would throw my door open and make me wake up because I was “wasting the day away.” 

Is it right for teens to sleep all day on the weekend?  No, probably not, but it is not without some logic, and most – if not all – of us were there once.  So I don’t get why adults can become SO frustrated with their teenage kids.  We have, ourselves, walked many moons in those teenage moccasins.  Whether it is inconvenient sleep rhythms or other typical teenage behavior that gets under the skin, we think it makes sense to pause, try to remember what it was like for you when you were that age, and then respond accordingly.  It’s the same principle we hope to see in our camp counselors.  Those who have a strong recollection of what it was like for them when they were kids tend to make the very best counselors.  Certainly this doesn’t mean they are more lenient or forgiving of transgressions….they just have a more intimate grasp on what kids are thinking and going through, so they’re better equipped to make a connection and provide appropriate and positive guidance.  Wouldn’t it be great if all teacher, coaches, and parents could do the same?  We think they can….they just have to remember those moons they walked in those moccasins. 

Our camp office has been a busy place lately.  We’ve been traveling around for reunions, and all the while we’ve been meeting with new families.  We’ve had some help from lots of our current camp families in reaching out to new kids, and we appreciate that very much.  We also want to thank the Elias family in Chicago, Lovetts in Los Angeles, and the Dawsons in Denver.  We appreciate the hospitality.  Up north, the snow has been flying, and camp is under a beautiful white blanket. The weather has been a little bizarre at the same time up there, with strong rain storms hitting between snow flurries, but it seems the snow has settled in for the foreseeable future, and we’re hoping for a lot of it.  The weather has not slowed down our caretaker, GREG FUS, from continuing his work on several of the cabins this winter.  We’ve got some major projects lined up for the early spring, and we’ll tell you about those in the coming months leading up to camp.

We’re really pleased with how strong our enrollment is thus far, and we appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm.  There is still room in all age groups for either session, so if you have not yet enrolled for the upcoming summer, there’s no reason to fret.  Remember, you can enroll or re-enroll online by clicking here.  Welcome back to the following “old-timers” who re-enrolled this past month: JUSTIN & RYAN GALOWICH of Chicago, IL; DYLAN SALDINGER of Deerfield, IL; NICK PAPPAS of Glencoe, IL; MAX GOLDENBERG, JACK & LIAM O’MALLEY, JACK ROSENTHAL, and MICHAEL & MARSHALL STRAWBRIDGE of St. Louis, MO; BEN & DANIEL FELDMAN and JEREMY SPARKS of Highland Park, IL; JONAH HOFFMAN of Nashville, TN; JAKE MAZOW of Dallas, TX; ANDREW & BRANDON CRAMIN, DAVID PAWLAN, MASON ROSENBERG, JOSH SPAETH, and SAM WETZEL of Northbrook, IL; HARRISON ATLAS & BEN ROBERTS of Houston, TX; MIKE WHITMAN of Rockford, IL; and RICKY ROMERSI of Bayside, WI. 

Welcome aboard to the following new campers who recently enrolled: JACK BARUCH of Buffalo Grove, IL; HARRIS LERNER of Glencoe, IL; CHARLIE SMOLLER of St. Louis, MO; AARON & DYLAN KATZ of Salt Lake City, UT; and ADAM & BEN KRAMER of Highland Park, IL.  We’re so pleased to have you all join us this coming summer.  What a blast we’re going to have!!

YO EVERYONE: If we are going to have a reunion in your home town, we will give you your Reunion DVD there.  That way you have the excitement of seeing it for the first time when everyone else does.  If, sadly, we’re not coming to your home town, we will send you your DVD copy very soon.  If you ordered a Memory Book from last summer, that should have been sent to you also very recently.  If you are certain you ordered a Memory Book, and it has not arrived by now, please let us know and we’ll look into it.  If you’re not sure if you ordered a Memory Book, send us a quick email and we can check that out and get back to you.  Unfortunately, it is not possible to add an order for a Memory Book from last summer at this point.  Thanks.

YO STAFF:  Very soon you will find some mail coming your way.  It’s contract seasons, and your invitations to return as well as a copy of the awesome Reunion DVD are on the way to you.  We know we speak for all of the campers and other staff reading this newsletter when we implore you to send your contract back to us ASAP!  Let’s kick off our 2nd 50 years in typical Timberlane style!  We look forward to printing your names in our next newsletters.

We have just sent out invitations to our staff from last summer this month, but we can already say welcome back to some of our key folks who will return next summer.  Welcome back to RICK & HOLLY JONES for their 26th summers at camp.  Yep, you read that right…not a typo.  Both Rick & Holly live in Mooresville, IN where they are high school teachers.  During his free time, Rick also works through his church to provide meals for homeless people in the Indianapolis area.  Rick will again be one of our Assistant Directors, and Holly will return as our Office Manager.  JOHNNY & RACHEL WASZCZAK are also planning to return to camp in 2011.  Johnny is one of our year ‘round Associate Directors, and this will be his 12th summer at camp.  Rachel is a nurse here in Tucson, and after spending last summer taking care of newborn Emma Waszczak, this summer she will again be one of our camp nurses.  This will be Rachel’s 9th summer at camp.  Johnny and Rachel are actively seeking a camp of their own, so if that opportunity comes up before the summer, it will be a bittersweet moment for them and for us.  But for now, we’re planning on spending another summer with them.  JEFF “MEL” MELROSE is back for his 19th summer at camp.  Again…we mean that for real.  Mel is an elementary school teacher in Celebration, FL, and he also returns as one of our Assistant Directors and head of our CIT program.  It is summer number 16 coming up for MICHAEL BREEN.  Mike has joined our year ‘round staff in Tucson as an Associate Director this year, and has been busy on the recruiting trail.  He will return to camp again as our Activity Advisor.  STEVE “HITCH” HITCHENS and CORRIE HITCHENS are back for their 8th and 6th summers respectively.  They’ve had quite an “off-season” so far, moving into a new house and welcoming a new baby boy into their family.  Hitch teaches high school history in Evergreen, CO., and Corrie is a principal at a school in Denver.  Hitch will once again oversee our enormous wilderness trips program as our Trips Director.  And we will again be ridiculously well-fed this summer with the return of our awesome Kitchen Manager, BILL MILLER who is back for his 19th summer at camp.  Bill is living in Tucson this winter where his two children also live, and enjoying the grandpa business while he’s here.  Wow…in this little paragraph alone we have 142 summers of camp experience represented!  That’s amazing, and we’re so lucky to have such a loyal group of people to work with. 

It is early, but we are already learning about and interviewing candidates to join our staff, and we’re happy to welcome on new staff member already:

JAY HUMPHREYS:  Jay is 21 years old and comes to us from Katandra West in Australia.  He currently works as a water distribution officer for a water company, but he really prefers to ski on water than anything else.  Jay has been on the water for much of his life, is an experienced boat driver, and has competed in skiing and wake boarding tournaments .  Jay has also taught at a waterski school and taught tons of friends to ski.  As you might have guessed, Jay will be a cabin counselor and help out at Waterskiing.  Welcome aboard, Jay!

In the Chicago area, ETHAN LETWAT has been playing travel baseball.  SAM JAFFE had a great season playing Little Giant’s football.  MICHAEL NATINSKY also played Little Giants and had a great season.  ADAM RUSH has been hanging out with family and playing too much X Box.  ZACHARY COPLAN is doing well in school and he now has braces!  CHRIS TOMPKINS has been playing football at school.  JEREMY SUS is busy with school, family, friends, and his dog.  RICKY JACOBSON is busy with band, improv and school.  DANIEL ECHT’s football team finished the season 5 – 3.  Pretty good! JAKE SCHLOSSBERG is continuing to save Jack Gomberg’s life every day.  JACK GOMBERG is telling Jake Schlossberg to leave him alone every day.  That seems to be working out nicely.  ALEX KARMIN is bummed he missed the Chicago reunion due to a trip, but can’t wait for camp this summer!  NATHAN REIFF has a part in the play “Good News” at the Children’s Theater of Winnetka.  Break a leg, Nathan!  ELI SELZ continues to participate in rock climbing competitions.  In Los Angeles, HENRY LOVETT has been playing tons of tennis, and is going to Belize over the winter break.  We recently had our Denver area reunion, and it was cold!  Of course, most of the kids showed up in shorts.  Those are our boys!!  PARKER DAWSON is playing forward on his hockey team, and enjoying his new school.  DAVID GLAZER was wide receiver on his football team, and is now playing basketball.  JACK KNEUTTEL is playing tennis.  CHARLIE HIGHUM is also playing tennis as well as soccer.  GAVIN FLEISHMAN is busy with school and with lacrosse.  ARI ASARCH has kept busy with karate and hiking 14K foot mountains.  Wow!  DAN SHELANSKI is busy with lacrosse, and is getting ready for a tournament in Dallas.  Speaking of Dallas, BEN SCHACHTER got to spend a weekend with his buddies from camp down in Houston, and then spent Thanksgiving in Chicago. 

AARON ZEMACH is at Washington University in St. Louis doing long-form improv in a Wash U improve group.  In Chicago, DAVID FINE is working hard and applying to colleges.  RICH MCGOWAN has become a certified SCUBA Dive instructor and is working at a dive shop.  COLBY SHARLIN is doing well at the University of Illinois, and enjoying his time with roommates SETH GROSS and “old-timer” CORY LEVY from Houston. DANNY ZAGA  is working hard at school in Los Angeles, and getting ready for soccer team tryouts.  In Denver, CONNOR LEHR has a big part in his school’s musical “Guys and Dolls.”  HITCH and CORRIE are busy with Carter and Liam as well as school.  The Hitchens’ recently played host to HARRIET WALSH for several weeks while she was on a trip from the UK.  She helped them out with their kids, and then made a quick visit to Tucson so we all got to hang out with her a bit too.  DEBBIE PURCELL is currently working 5 different part-time jobs.  Good thing there’s no real need to sleep!  BRIAN STRAIN continues to take classes, teach computer technology at an elementary school, and – of course – drive a Zamboni at an ice rink….every guy’s dream job.  ADAM ELIAS is going to the University of Colorado, where he is reffing hockey games, climbing several times a week, and happy that ski season has arrived. Tripper WES HIEB has moved to Park City, UT where he has a job as a snow maker at Park City Mountain Resort.  Tripper CHAD BYLER is also moving to Utah, rooming with Wes, and looking for employment out there.  Tripper IAN BROWN has concluded some long travels after camp, and is now running hot dog carts around the city of San Francisco with a company called Let’s Be Frank.  And tripper MEGAN HAGER is re-relocating back to Flagstaff to work with the youth study program at Northern Arizona University. 

BRAVO TO OUR DECEMBER BIRTHDAY BOYS & GIRLS: Diana Cardona - 12/2/1985, Jake Flom - 12/4/1998, Seth Brock - 12/6/1993, Joseph Fields - 12/7/1998, Ryan Galowich - 12/7/1997, Charlie Jonas - 12/8/1994, Jeffrey Gold - 12/9/1996, Kyle Gross - 12/9/1999, Jonah Rosenberg - 12/9/1996, Holly Jones - 12/10/1957, Alexander Zlotnik - 12/11/2000, Derek Goldstein - 12/12/1996, Jordan Henry - 12/12/1992, Bill Miller - 12/12/1956, Dalton Roth - 12/12/1996, Grace Mc Gowan - 12/14/1987, Anton Sanders - 12/14/1997, Ben Bloom - 12/17/1998, Jared Margolis - 12/17/1998, Leslie Cohen - 12/18/1961, Scott Stone - 12/19/1995, Mike Whitman - 12/19/1996, Gavin Fleishman - 12/20/1997, Jason Garland - 12/20/2000, Jack Baruch - 12/21/2000, Jay Feldman - 12/22/1994, Nathan Reiff - 12/24/1996, Matt Sloan - 12/24/1990, Joey Marks - 12/26/1994, Jake Mazow - 12/26/1998, David Pawlan - 12/26/1996, Kayla Wandsnider - 12/26/1989, Josh Boling - 12/27/1987, Ethan Gordon - 12/27/2000, Sam Kusin - 12/27/1993, Danny Zaga - 12/27/1993, Andrew Karmin - 12/28/2000, Jeff Melrose - 12/29/1971, Jacob Rosenstein - 12/29/1997, Marcelo Garza - 12/30/1998, Ben Skrill - 12/31/1996.

We hope you all have a very happy and healthy holiday season, a well-deserved break from school or work, and a wonderful New Year.  We’ll write you again next year!!

Benches up,