Dear Campers, Parents, Staff, Alums & Friends,
We hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving last month. Ours was nice with lots of family and friends in town for a visit. For many of you, it’s
Over the past several years, research about how the brain develops in children, adolescents, and adults has made huge progress, particularly with advances in mapping the brain, seeing what areas activate based on external experiences. Dr. Tina Bryson is at the forefront of this research, and she successfully translates this information into very usable parenting ideas. Knowing how your kids’ brains are working and developing is not only fascinating, but also helpful in guiding us, as parents, in the way we approach raising our kids. So we highly recommend her book, The Whole Brain Child, which she co-authored with Dr. Daniel Siegel. You can learn more about Dr. Bryson’s work on her website. She will be a keynote speaker at this year’s American Camp Association National Conference, and we’re so happy to announce that she will also be at Timberlane this coming summer to spend a day training with our staff before the campers’ arrival.
Last month I had the opportunity to pay a quick visit up to camp. It was sooo beautiful! There was just a little snow on the ground, and it was pretty cold, but it was sunny and gorgeous, and it just felt so great to be there. Take a look at some of the photos on the slide show above. Can’t wait to get back there in May!
November was a crazy month in the camp office, and the end result is that we have filled most of our age groups in 
the first session, with limited space in the remaining open age groups. If your son is not yet enrolled, please call us, and if there is room in his age group, we’d love to have him join us. Space is still available in all age groups for 2nd session, though a few are approaching their capacity as well.
Welcome back to the following “old-timers” who re-enrolled last month: BEN SOLLINGER of Evanston, IL; PARKER DAWSON, DAVID GLAZER, and DAN SHELANSKI of Denver, CO; ADAM RUBIN of Glencoe, IL; MATT MOSSLER of Carmel, IN; SPENCER COPLAN, JACK EICHNER, ADAM KRAMER, and ETHAN TEICH of Highland Park, IL; WILLIAM COOVERT, JACK LYNCH, TYLER NEWMARK, MAX PUGH, DEVIN SHAW, ARI SINGER, MARSHALL STRAWBRIDGE, and OWEN TAYLOR of St. Louis, MO; CASEY & DREW MUTCHNIK and ZACK PIELL of Northbrook, IL; ARI & SETH BERK of New Orleans, LA; BRETT MILLER of Omaha, NE; JULES BLUM of Brooklyn, NY; DAVID WINE of Oak Park, IL; DYLAN & GRANT KAUFMAN of Columbus, OH; ALEXANDER WEITZMAN of Nashville, TN; GARRETT GLOVER and KESHAV KRISHNAN of Houston, TX; and JAKE MAZOW and BEN SCHACHTER of Dallas, TX.
And say hello to the following first-year campers who will join us this summer: HENRY COEN and ZACH NEWMARK of St. Louis, MO; NATE ADLER of Deerfield, IL; MAX KELLER, CONNOR O’NEIL, and OWEN SHAFFER of Nashville, TN; and DUSTY KARMIN of Highland Park, IL. You all (y’all) are in for the greatest summer ever!!
YO PARENTS & CAMPERS: We’re really not foolin’ about our quickly disappearing space at camp. Several age groups are full in the first session, and a few are getting close in the second session. So if you are not yet re-enrolled, and you’re still planning to join us this summer (yay!), we need to hear from you soon. Once we fill up all of the space, there’s really nothing we can do about it. The waiting list is not the happiest place to be, so we hope to avoid that as much as possible.
YO PARENTS: Please make note that our deposit schedule is new this year, and the 2nd deposit will be due on January 15th. That’s more than a month away, but we wanted to give you advanced notice. You can make the $1250 payment online with your credit card, if you wish, by clicking here. If you prefer to send a check, please send it to our winter office in Tucson. Thank you!
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.
| CITY | DATE | TIME |
| Houston | Sat. Dec. 7th | 2:00 PM |
| Dallas | Sat. Dec. 14th | 2:00 PM |
Please come on out and visit with us and your camp buddies for a while when we’re in your home town. We can’t wait to see you guys! More reunions will take place after the winter holidays! Reunion trips are also a great time for us to meet new families, so if you have some friends…or relatives….or friends of relatives….or relatives of friends….please invite them to contact us, or let us know and we’ll reach out to them. Thanks very much!
YO STAFF: It’s that time of year! Contracts were emailed out a few days ago. There are important dates for you to be aware of, so please be sure to read everything we sent you, and we hope to hear from all of you very, very soon. Thanks!
Even though we just sent contracts out, we do have some great news to share with you. Our administrative staff is all set, and looking marvelous as usual. RICK & HOLLY JONES are back for their 29th summer at camp. Rick will again be an Assistant Director and Holly will again run our camp office. Both of them are teachers in Indianapolis during the “off-season.” 29 summers at camp is just incredible. JEFF “MEL” MELROSE is also returning for his 22nd summer with us. Mel will again be an Assistant Director and continue his long tenure as our CIT Director. His son, ANDY MELROSE will be with us for his 3rd summer, of course. Mel is a 5th grade teacher in Celebration, FL during the winter months. HITCH & CORRIE HITCHENS are also returning from Littleton, CO. This will be Hitch’s 11th summer at camp, and Corrie’s 9th. Hitch will be our Trips Director again, and Corrie will pitch in at Waterskiing and in the office when she’s not busy chasing around their two kids, LIAM & CARTER HITCHENS. Hitch is a high school History teacher, and Corrie is a high school Assistant Principal. Also from Colorado, making his Assistant Director debut this summer is BRIAN STRAIN. Brian is returning for his 13th summer at camp, and first as an Assistant Director. In the “off-season,” Brian is the technology coordinator and teacher at Cimarron Elementary School in Denver, and also drives the Zamboni at a local ice arena…2nd coolest job ever! Just on our admin team alone, you will find nearly 170 summers of Timberlane experience! Whoah!! And there’s plenty more where that came from, so stay tuned!!
In the Chicago area, ZACK CONNELL is a black belt and is playing basketball. LEO SCLAMBERG is a student at the School of Rock. LUKE SCLAMBERG is looking forward to being a PA this summer. DANIEL FRIEDLAND is doing gymnastics and playing a little golf. MATEO D’AGARO is swimming at his high school. MASSIMO D’AGARO is playing soccer. LEVI RASKIN plays the electric bass guitar and is busy with school. ADAM KRAMER has been playing tennis. ETHAN GLASBERG is playing trumpet in his high school’s concert and jazz bands. SAM FRISHMAN is playing travel hockey and played in a tournament in Michigan last month. JOE BERNS made his school’s basketball team. CAMERON HARDEGREE is busy with gymnastics and school. CASEY MUTCHNIK is also busy with gymnastics, and he’s writing a best-selling novel. DREW MUTCHNIK was too busy eating pizza. JOSH SPAETH is on his high school’s debate team, and made it to the final round at a big competition in Iowa. ALEX PECK played guitar at the School of Rock. ETHAN TEICH is participating in a trip to Israel through the Ta’am Israel program. In Milwaukee, JOSH GLAZER is playing on a travel basketball team and looking forward to snow boarding in Vail over the 
holidays. RICKY ROMERSI is on his high school swim team, can successfully juggle 5 balls at a time, and is going to be in his school’s spring play. MICHAEL KAPLAN is playing basketball after finishing soccer season where he led his team in goals. In St. Louis, OWEN TAYLOR is happy at his new school and can’t wait for camp! JAKE FLOM is chillin’ with Jordan Taylor. WILLIAM COOVERT is playing soccer as is DANNY FISCHER. Danny also played baseball. ARI SINGER is busy with school, soccer, and hockey…though not necessarily in that order. CHARLIE SMOLLER played football at his school. RYAN GARLAND also played football and is playing basketball and making cupcakes at a local bakery. JACK ROSENTHAL also played football and is also a cupcake maker. ZACK ZLEPPER played quarterback for his football team, and he collects campaign buttons. WILL COEN is playing soccer and tennis, and will be going to Spain soon. JACK KAHN is playing soccer and basketball and has gotten straight As! JUSTIN GOLDENBERG is playing soccer and lacrosse, and plays some football during recess. MAX GOLDENBERG is swimming on his school’s swim team, and recently competed in the state tournament. GRANT GARLAND is playing soccer and hanging out with friends. MAX PUGH had a part in his school’s play. TYLER NEWMARK is busy with social studies at school. MICHAEL LYNCH played on an undefeated soccer team. BEN SIWAK is a center and left-wing for his hockey team. SAM SIWAK is finished soccer season and is now playing basketball. ETHAN DEUTSCH is playing football as tight end on offense and defensive end. His team made it to the Super Bowl!
In the Chicago area, LORENZO WILSON is seeking a job as a basketball coach with the Chicago Park District. We hope they were smart enough to hire him. BEN FELDMAN scored the winning touchdown for his school’s football team at the homecoming game. He then bought a churro for JACOB ROSENSTEIN. DAVID PAWLAN and “old-timer” SAMMY DRAZNER shared the highest grade on a physics exam. In Milwaukee, AARON GLAZER is involved with BBYO, is his school’s broadcast editor for news, and wrote a recent article in his school’s paper featuring a school alumnus who made good in life…none other than JEFF MELROSE. In Phoenix, ROSS KRULISKY is applying to colleges and last we heard was waiting to hear from UW-Madison. Bloomington, IN finds BRIDGET MASUR applying for a position with an outdoor recreation and education program to lead IU students. Congratulations to ALEX DATHAN who will soon be training with the Royal Navy. Obviously they looked favorably on all of his sailing experience on Lake Towanda and Big Arbor Vitae! Congrats to “old-timer” JEREMY SUTTON for a great baseball season with McGill University. His team made it to the conference semi-finals, and Jeremy played well. We appreciate some of our staff members making long treks this winter to be at reunions far from home. AARON GLAZER came in from Milwaukee, JEFF & ANDY MELROSE came in from Celebration, FL, DUSTIN COHEN came in from Madison, WI, SAM KAHN was in from St. Louis, and RICK JONES came up from Mooresville, IN for the Chicago reunion. Mel then made the drive up to Milwaukee for the reunion there. In St. Louis, we were joined by BRITTANY BOLING who made the drive from Kansas City, and COLBY SHARLIN who came in on his way back to Chicago after a trip to visit medical schools. “Old-timer” RYAN COHEN drove in from Chicago for the STL reunion, and he brought ARI LACKNER along. Ari paid a visit to Washington University while he was in town, and got a nice tour with AARON ZEMACH. And the good news is that while they 
were all together hanging out at JORDAN TAYLOR’S house, Ari had help on his physics homework from Colby and Aaron. Later that weekend, Sam Kahn, Colby, Ari, and Aaron threw a late night cookie party for Sam’s brother, Jack. Counselors can’t help themselves….they just keep on giving and giving. When he’s not throwing cookie parties, Aaron Zemach is writing his master’s thesis on video game achievements, building iPhone apps, and is a big honcho with “Suspicious of Whistlers,” Wash U’s very best improv comedy group.
BRAVO TO OUR DECEMBER BIRTHDAY BOYS & GIRLS!! 
Jake Flom - 12/4/1998, Sam Siwak - 12/4/2002, Nate Adler - 12/5/2002, Joseph Fields - 12/7/1998, Ryan Galowich - 12/7/1997, Grant Garland - 12/8/2002, Kyle Gross - 12/9/1999, Jonah Rosenberg - 12/9/1996, Holly Jones - 12/10/1957, Gavin Gordon - 12/11/2002, Alexander Zlotnik - 12/11/2000, Henry Coen - 12/12/2002, Bill Miller - 12/12/1956, Harrison Glasberg - 12/14/2004, Ben Bloom - 12/17/1998, Jared Margolis - 12/17/1998, Willem Behnke - 12/18/2002, Leslie Cohen - 12/18/XXXX, Jason Garland - 12/20/2000, Charlie Weiss - 12/20/2002, Jack Baruch - 12/21/2000, Michael Kaplan - 12/21/1999, Jordy Mazza - 12/21/2000, Lee Snelling - 12/24/1994, Joey Marks - 12/26/1994, Jake Mazow - 12/26/1998, David Pawlan - 12/26/1996, Josh Boling - 12/27/1987, Ethan Gordon - 12/27/2000, Andrew Karmin - 12/28/2000, Jeff Melrose - 12/29/1971, Jacob Rosenstein - 12/29/1997.
We hope you all have a fun month ahead of you. We know finals are a bummer, but then you get a nice long winter break! Have a great time, and please tell us about your vacation adventures! We’ll write you again next year!!
Benches up,
