Greetings from the beautiful shores of Lake Towanda! We have had such a gorgeous month of May up here, with sunny skies, warm days,
and a steadily warming temperature in the lake. In fact, several folks have been in the lake setting up docks and boat lifts, and it has been really pleasant. Camp is shaping up very quickly, which is good ‘cause we’re soon going to be invaded by a full camp of very excited campers! We cant’ wait! We’re not ready yet…but we can’t wait!!We’re keeping this month’s newsletter short and sweet, but allow us to offer you a wonderful article written by Michael Thompson, whom we’ve referred to many times in the past. Michael is a PhD and a psychologist who has written several books, the latest entitled Homesick and Happy: How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grow. His article is short and we think it hits the nail right on the head. Please give it a read. Thanks.
This particular issue of “Timberlife!” is the last one we’re going to write you for a while. But, not to worry…beginning when the campers arrive, we’ll start posting our “Directors’ Journal” online every other day or so. We’ll use that to catch you up on the happenings around camp, and also to fill you in on anything important you should know. But…again….don’t worry. If there’s important stuff like Travel Info or anything else, we’ll send you a notice via email too. Speaking of which:
YO PARENTS: If your son is a first-session or 8-week camper, we have mailed you Travel-to-Camp information via US Mail. You will find specific instructions about your son’s trip to camp, so please read through it carefully. If your son is riding a bus to camp from Chicago or Milwaukee, we’ve also mailed you two baggage tags that you should fill out, and then attach one to each of his duffel bags. If your son is flying en route to camp, we have added two vinyl baggage tags to your packet. Each duffel should get one vinyl tag, and one paper tag, both of which filled out with your home address information. If your son is coming up 2nd session, we will mail a travel packet to you at the beginning of July.
In other news, we have had a few inquiries about E-Readers. Unfortunately, most E-Readers have games built into them, and many have Internet access. So, once again this year, we are NOT allowing E-Readers at camp. We know how convenient they are, and we understand their allure. However, we flex where we can, and this is one of those areas where we cannot flex and still maintain our “unplugged” camp environment. So we suggest you hit the book store and send up some good old-fashioned books with your camper. We also have a pretty large library in our office, and kids can come take out books whenever they wish. Thanks for your cooperation.
And as a memory refresher, please note our new policy regarding iPods this year. Kids can bring any form of iPod that they wish to camp. If it is video or game-capable, we will ask that they be turned in right when they get to camp. We will lock out all functions on the devices except for music with our own super secret code, and return them to the boys. At the end of the session, we’ll unveil the super-secret code, and then do it all over again 2nd session. Oy. THIS APPLIES TO IPODS ONLY!! We still DO NOT ALLOW iPads or iPhones or any similar devices. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS! Any prohibited devices will be confiscated to either be shipped home at owner’s expense, or retained in our office till the end of the session. Again, thanks for your cooperation.
GLUTEN-FREE? Another little reminder. If your son is gluten-free, we’ve got ya covered. (I’m gluten-free too!) We will provide all of our
gluten-avoiding campers (and staff) with gluten-free bread, pastas, pizza crusts, cereals, and any other staples. And we’re not talking about the yucky stuff that’s out there (spoken from years of personal experience!) Our local grocer is carrying the full line of Udi’s products, so that’s primarily what we’ll go with. There will be no extra charge to you for this. What we are asking is that you NOT send any of these things up to camp for your son. We know that each of us may have our favorites in the gluten-free world of foods, but it has just become too big for us to manage so many separate preferences. We WILL make an exception if you have some special treats that your son would like in place of a glutenous slice of pizza during pizza parties. In that event, please send whatever the treat is up to camp and to Leslie’s attention. If you do not send anything, we will make sure the counselors pick up something meaningful and yummy for him to enjoy during pizza parties. Have we thanked you yet for your cooperation?YO OLD GUYS: If we assigned you a camp Little Brother, you should have spoken with him already. If you have not, please put your computer down and pick up the phone! We also want to remind you that we sent you an email indicating which trips you are eligible for this coming summer. We have pre-signed up several guys on the Apostle Islands, BWCA, Quetico, and Isle Royale trips already, but there is still plenty of room! So, if you are qualified for any of these trips and you wanna go, please have your parents email or call us, or you can login to your Camper Keylog page and sign up that way. With this awesome group of trippers we have this year, you’d be crazy to miss out on these fantastic wilderness trips!
Camp is full! We have reached our goal of a full group in both sessions, and we are so pleased and grateful! Welcome back to SPENCER LITOW of Glencoe, IL and DIEGO RODRIGUEZ of Puebla, Mexico who re-enrolled this past month.
Welcome aboard to the following first-year campers who are joining us this summer: MAX GOOTTER of Tucson, AZ; JULIO BACA TERRAZAS and MIGUEL GONZALEZ BACA of Chihuahua, Mexico, AIDAN YERKES of Chicago, IL; and MARI COTTRELL of Cleveland, OH. Are you guys psyched?! This is going to be the best summer ever!!
Just a few more great folks to round out our incredible staff! Say hello to:
SAM KAHN: Sam is back for his14th summer and will take on the CIT Director role for at least the first half of the summer. He just completed a year working with City Year Chicago tutoring students at an inner-city school. Sam will be starting a teaching position this coming fall, and will have to depart camp around the beginning of August
EMILY RISTER: Emily is 25 years old and she joins us from Fayetteville, NC. She has completed her studies at Central Carolina Community College, studying library sciences. She was an Americorp participant doing trail maintenance work in Arizona. Emily joins our Kitchen Staff.SEAN SLATTERY: Sean is 19 and he comes to us from South Bend, IN. He is a sophomore at Indiana University, studying Outdoor Recreation and Resource Management. Sean has been a trip leader at IU for their Outdoor Adventures program, and has also been a coach and umpire for his local Little League. He joins our staff as a Trip Leader.
We had the pleasure of having Red Wing, MN guys JACK BARLOW and his brother, “old-timer” BRIAN BARLOW up here for a weekend visit. Along with their dad, alumnus DOUG BARLOW, they constructed a beautiful new deck on the front of Cherokee Cabin. Bar Mitzvah congrats to BEN KRAMER from Highland Park, IL, who celebrated last month!
THE JUICE
A Special Section from Michael Breen
No more need to wheeze—a new summer is almost upon us! For camping season 2012 may your cup runneth over with juice chock-full of double-dream hands, pizza parties, wonderful sausage machines, Chippie-plays, getting kicked to seniors, tug-of-wars, Min-Aqua Bats, inspection wins, bed-time stories, walls to climb, counselors to hide, Madison updates, marathon walkthroughs, fireworks, power logs, milk and cookies with Leslie, Hodags, blobs, a lack of heavy-dew, silent lunches, hot wings, dunk tanks, lion hunts, egg drops, rinseless soap, green-grows, Indian legs to wrestle, Bannock, rapids to run, guitar songs, Wausau Woodchucks, benches up, trampball spikes, hands to flip, tushball knickage, mystery omelets, free swims, watermelon parties, dogs to pet, torch ceremonies, Mike (Cohen) in the lake, flags to capture, boom-chick-a-booms, campers to hide, lakes to portage, opening ceremonies, bravo bravissimos, canteen, Timberloops, swingy benches, appetizer nights, boat rides, candle-light ceremonies, awkward social dancing, and timberbucks, until every last drop is savored.
-Michael Breen
BRAVO TO THE JUNE BIRTHDAY BOYS! It’s time to get up and start singin’!! Jordan Fine - 6/2/1995,
Hayden Turk - 6/3/1997, Lauren Gardner - 6/5/1994, Myer Galis - 6/9/1998, Ricky Jacobson - 6/10/1996, Alex Peck - 6/10/2001, Grant Kibel - 6/12/2001, Austen Draper - 6/13/1987, Cameron Hardegree - 6/13/2001, Josh Spaeth - 6/14/1999, Justin Galowich - 6/15/1996, Ryan Hearst - 6/15/2000, Scott Gold - 6/16/1999, Marshall Strawbridge - 6/16/1999, Sasha Salk - 6/18/1998, Chris Sajdak - 6/19/1993, Ari Asarch - 6/20/1998, Zack Schreier - 6/20/1998, Liam Simckes - 6/20/2001, Roy Walker - 6/20/1999, Penn Bakal - 6/23/2002, Mike Cohen - 6/23/1961, Charlie Lovett - 6/23/2003, Eli Selz - 6/23/1999, Parker Dawson - 6/24/1999, Max Kaplan - 6/24/1994, Diego Rodriguez - 6/24/1998, Drew Mitchell - 6/26/1997, Michael Williams - 6/26/1997, Adam Cortes-Ferrie - 6/27/1999, Asa Saperstein - 6/27/2001, Alex Freedman - 6/28/1999, Avi Hiken - 6/28/2001, Tyler Newmark - 6/28/2001, Joey Rosenblum - 6/28/2001, Henry Levy - 6/29/2002, Joe Levy - 6/29/2002, Spence Litow - 6/29/1999, Miles Padzensky - 6/29/1998, David Wine - 6/29/2001.That’s all for now, folks! IT’S JUNE! The “off-season” is almost over. We’ll see many of you in a very short while, and the rest of you in mid-July. Have a great start of summer, stay healthy, and get ready for the best summer ever!
Benches up,
