Hi Folks,
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Two things to share with you. 1) In the next few days you will receive a short card in the mail written by your son’s counseling team. This is just a quick check-in to update you on how things have been going for your son. These are intended to provide you some information in a way that doesn’t require too much time from the counselors. After all, they have your boys to spend time with, so they’re very busy. We hope you enjoy reading them, and also importantly, we hope you’re able to read them 
And 2) we emailed all parents of campers who are with us now with information about the trip home from camp. Yikes! Sadly, it’ll be here before ya know it. If you have any questions about your son’s travel plans, please let us know. Also, we want to remind you that changes to travel plans gets sketchy for us at this point. Please let us know if a change absolutely must be made, but we’re hopeful no one will be in that position. Thanks!
We never take for granted how lucky we are to be part of this amazing community of camp people. We spend our summer with wonderful kids and caring, dedicated, and capable counselors. We are associated with parents who share our values and allow us the chance to provide opportunities for fun, friendship, and growth to their kids. And we have active and very supportive alumni who cherish their memories from camp and make it a point to keep in touch. We talked about all of that tonight at our Legacy Campfire. This is a special campfire when we honor people who are spending “benchmark” summers at camp. First session we honored JEFF MELROSE for his 25th summer at camp, SCOTT WOLF for his 15th summer, and JACOB ELIAS, JAKE FEIGER, TAYLOR FRISHMAN, JACOB ROSENSTEIN, and ADAM WASSERMAN each spending their 10th summer at camp.
Tonight we honored JAKE FLOM, MAX GLICKMAN, JAKE HOFFMAN, JONAH HOFFMAN, JACK ROSENTHAL, and BEN SCHACHTER, each of whom is spending his 10th summer at Timberlane. We sang some songs and listened to some great guitar and ukulele music, and then we spent a few minutes recalling the history of the land that camp is situated on, as well as the formation of camp from the fishing resort that used to be here. And we discussed it in the context of being a part of something larger than one’s self. Perhaps it was a bit much for some of the boys to fully grasp, but when we pointed out that each of our honorees was – just 10 short years ago – a first-year camper at the campfire listening to fun stories about that summer’s 10 year men, it surely registered with many of the campers.
And then we told stories about our 6 honorees for the night. They were fun, funny, and represented well the camaraderie and bond of friendship that envelopes our camp family. And this time around, we think in a concerted effort, each of our honorees took the opportunity when it was their turn to speak, to impart some wisdom they had picked up in their ten years at camp. Mostly they urged the campers to appreciate and take advantage of the opportunities they have at camp and about opening up to new people and new friends. We were so proud of them for that. Some folks might have wanted to just have the spotlight just to themselves. Not these guys. They wanted to take their moment with the camp’s full attention to turn the focus back onto the campers and give them meaningful food for thought. How amazing is that? Actually…they’re camp counselors….they can’t help it.
The campfire capped off a spectacular day. It was in the high 70s, a breeze blowing all day, and sunny skies with big puffy clouds. We had 1st and 2nd periods in the morning, and then this afternoon we had some clinics. And while they were going on, we hosted the Timberlane Climbing Challenge. We invited 3 camps to join us…2 were busy, so we had some ladies from a nearby girls’ camp join us and they did some routes on the wall and routes in the bouldering cave and had a really nice time.
Yesterday was another winner. Sunny and mild, overcast at times, but no “heavy dew” came down. We had a normal day, and in the evening we had Blue & White games.
On Wednesday we had some weather to contend with. We slept in 1/2 hour later after the day before (Cruiser Day) and awoke to gray skies threatening moisture. During breakfast the threat materialized, and a short deluge fell from the sky. The forecast was for continued wetness throughout the morning, so we just shifted gears a bit. We had an hour of indoor/alternative activities, and then we had an hour of practice for our evening program coming up that night…Karaoke Night. And for that last hour or so of the morning the sun peaked out, but it was still pretty wet all over camp. By afternoon the sunshine had dried everything up, and we got a great afternoon of activities and a free period in. Then, after dinner, we all gathered in the Rec Hall and got ready for some Karaoke.
The pace and flavor of the night was set firmly by the Junior Village. Holy moly were they cute, and funny, and actually totally in sync! Even our youngest cabin, Chippewa, put on a fantastic skit! We were amazed!! And it just kept going right until the last skit which was the oldest kids, and they were really clever and funny. It was an excellent night! And then, when it ended, we did one more thing.
Saturday, August 5th, is Pow Wow Day, and we’ll divide camp up into 4 tribes and spend the day in friendly competition. A day like that requires a ton of leadership, and so after Karaoke Night ended we gathered at the flagpole for our Torch Ceremony. We called off the names of the chiefs whom had been elected by the counselors in their village, and each got a torch to hold. It’s a fun, somewhat old-school way of doing that, but it’s just so darn campy! And of course, it is a huge honor for those campers. Based on this group of leaders, we know we’re in for an excellent Pow Wow Day!
Today’s Trips:
-Lake Superior Provincial Park, Canada – 8 days backpacking
-Namekagon/St. Croix Rivers, WI – 3 days river canoeing
Monday’s Trips:
-Lake Superior Trail, MN – 5 days backpacking
-Devil’s Lake State Park, WI – 4 days rock climbing
That’s all the happenings for now. Many fun times are ahead, and we’ll write to you again soon.
Benches up,
Mike & Leslie