The Mailgabber column features submissions by members of the Camp Family. This month, we’re highlighting Jessie Stein Diamond’s Sunday Service that she delivered this summer on July 26th. Jessie leads the Camp Nebagamon Scholarship Fund, and is a writer and editor who specializes in healthcare, engineering, behavioral health, education, and equity topics. You can watch the video of Jessie’s Sunday Service here — Steph Hanson’s introduction begins at 6 minutes, 45 seconds. Service begins at 10 minutes, 15 seconds. Interested in submitting for Mailgabber? Send submissions to Louis.
Camp Nebagamon Sunday Service
Jessie Stein Diamond
July 26, 2020
Jessie delivering her Sunday Service from her backyard garden
Welcome to my virtual Sunday service!
Land Acknowledgement:
I would like to begin by humbly acknowledging that where I’m speaking today — near Philadelphia — is the ancestral land of the Lenni-Lenape people, whose presence and resilience in Pennsylvania continues to this day.
It’s likewise important to acknowledge the original inhabitants of Camp Nebagamon’s land and lake, and honor the rich heritage and continuing presence of the Anishinaabe, and other First Nations peoples.
This land acknowledgment is not enough. But it’s an important social justice practice to promote Indigenous visibility. Let this be an opening to help our community think about ways to join in and support Indigenous movements for sovereignty and self-determination.
Sunday Service:
I accepted the invitation to do this Sunday service because I wanted to think about and share ideas for how we might draw on Nebagamon experiences and values to get through the COVID-19 quarantine — a time of solitude and loss, disappointment and disorientation for many of us.
We’re navigating a huge chunk of time alone or in a small group of people – perhaps your family – first in the spring, now during summer when we are usually with friends and family. We have never experienced a challenge like this in any of our lifetimes.
If you’re a kid and your parents are working, that could be hard.
If you’re a parent and you need to work while your kids are home when they really would rather be at camp, that’s hard too.
And if you’re living by yourself or just feel alone, this can be a tough time.
So today I’ll focus on:
- What it means to be part of the camp family – for me and for you
- How camp prepared us for this moment, and
- How camp will get us through
What does it mean to be part of the camp family – first for me personally
I’m the youngest of all of the grandchildren of camp’s founders, Muggs and Janet Lorber.
It was just my luck to be a girl who grew up at a family business that happened to be a fantastic boy’s camp.
My sister, Jane, my mother Sally, my aunt Ruthie (may her memory be a blessing), and Josie today had this same luck.
Until I was ten and went away to girl’s camp and then to other wilderness adventure camps, I spent much of my summers alone or with babysitters. My parents, Nardie and Sally, worked long days all summer long running camp.
What it meant for me to be part of the camp family actually is different from most people. I vividly remember those early years.
I made mud pies on the slats of a wooden dock at the lake –listening to the top 40 on my babysitter’s transistor radio and the lapping waves of the lake as crayfish scooted around in the cool shallows.
I picked wild asparagus at the start of each summer by myself in the woods near the rifle range – enough to fill a water pitcher – enough to serve steamed and buttered to everyone at pre-camp
I roamed camp on my own through what felt like a berry-clock of summer – first picking wild strawberries, then raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. I picked peanut butter buckets full of berries that Dirk, our beloved camp cook, would bake just for me into tiny tarts bursting with flavor.
Summers meant reading my way through the Rec Hall Library:
- Robinson Crusoe
- Treasure Island
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
- All 14 books in the Oz series – my favorite was Ozma of Oz with the rollers, a great set of mischievous villains who had wheels instead of feet
In middle school and beyond I began reading through the counselors’ library then at the Big House: making my way through great literature, science fiction, pulp novels and child psychology books: I was always curious about what psychologists said about my particular stage of life.
Being a girl growing up at Nebagamon in the 1960s and 1970s, and then being a young woman at camp meant feeling permanently like I was on the perimeter. After a few years at girl’s camp that made me wish I could attend Nebagamon even more, I got lucky and attended camps out West – hiking, rock climbing, ice climbing, rafting, kayaking and canoeing. When I was 14 I climbed Mt Ranier, an experience that gave me courage I’ve drawn on for the challenges I’ve faced in my life ever since.
During the late 1970s and 1980s I had lots of different jobs at camp. That was like a master class in interpersonal skills, an opportunity to know inspiring and wonderful people who continue to enrich my life today – especially my husband Scott Diamond!
I had the luxury of growing up in a values-grounded community devoted to the happiness of children. And I know from firsthand experience that there are other great camps that do this too.
Here are insights I gained from my experiences in the camp family that I hope will feel relevant to your experiences in quarantine:
- Spend time in nature — that can really help when you feel alone, scared or upset.
- Look for ways to create a bit of ‘Nebagamon’ in your own life. For me, that meant planting asparagus, blueberries and raspberries in my own garden (and so much more), and keeping my hummingbird feeders filled all summer long.
- Books can take you anywhere in the world even when you’re stuck at home And books can keep you company when you need it most: You can learn safely and efficiently from wise people and fools, kind people and cruel creeps. Search books for ways to cope with the challenges of your life
- Being devoted to the happiness of children, to the happiness of everyone, makes the world a better place. Try an experiment: do a good deed, something kind that’s small or large, for someone every day if you can. See how that makes you feel over a few weeks, months and years – how that changes your own life for the better.
I also want to talk about how camp prepared all of us for this moment
Camp gave me COURAGE. I hope it gave you courage, too. We need a lot of courage in this time.
- Remember your first summer at camp as a camper or counselor, being that new person?
- Remember how it felt doing something you’d never done before, something you never thought you could do like your first BWCA trip, or taking on an epic challenge like the Kekekabic hiking trail back in my era. Or Grand Portage today. Camp is where you learn to be courageous.
- Remember the grit it took to double pack your way through a portage trail, to carry your canoe by that mosquito-filled swamp? Use that grit now.
Camp taught us how to WORK. Life during quarantine takes extra work
Many of us are cooking, cleaning and mowing the lawn ourselves, day after day after day.
- Remember how it felt clean your cabin with your cabin mates, when it was your turn to be KP?
- On your camping trips did you ever volunteer to clean the biggest, dirtiest pot? Be that person in your house.
- Have you ever lived on a boat, how every square inch of space matters? Create order where you live, take care of it like it’s a boat.
It feels good to help
Camp taught us STRENGTH
- Remember learning to paddle a canoe – the difference between lily dipping and full-on strong paddling that leaves whirlpools in your wake? Paddle hard today. It’s worth the effort so we can get to a better place.
- Did you ever carry the food pack on the first day of a trip?
- Or paddle hard against the wind, racing to beat a storm to your campsite?
You can do this!
Camp gave us FRIENDS & a sense of community
- It’s where we learned group living skills – how to solve problems and work together, how to get along with people who are so different from you
- We learned to live in close quarters (sound familiar?) peacefully and playfully with people with whom we had easy relationships and with people with whom we had hard relationships.
- We can each do our part to create peace in the home.
I have a few ideas about how camp might help get us through our time in quarantine
We have a running joke in my household that every day is “Blursday.” Every day can feel the same. Every day if you’re not careful can leave you feeling a bit numbed out and low. That feels so wrong.
Childhood is a time of JOY and wonder. Adulthood should be too. Everyone at every age needs joy, wonder awe and beauty – especially now.
- I want you to think about what you enjoyed most in your youngest years. What were the top 3-5 things that made you happy, that gave you a sense of awe, joy and wonder?
- I have worked for many years to add those things to my life as an adult (even before COVID) through my garden, cooking, reading, and friends.
- Find ways to add back whatever made you happy when you were younger to your life today. Layer that in.
- Think about the experiences you loved at camp that you could bring to your own life even now
- Think too about ways to connect more with your camp friends via Zoom, texts, letters
Camp also gave us the values that we need to get through this time
- Independence, grit, persistence
- Having a ‘growth mindset’ – knowing that you can learning big skills in small steps. Maybe you started by learning to tie a square knot, then you learned to use a hand ax, then a pole ax, then you won chef’s cap.
- We all know how important it is to leave your campsite better than you found it. In our world that’s going to take a lot of small steps.
Camp is the perfect example of the Seventh generation principle – that’s a Haudenosaunee (“hoe-den-es-o-ah-nee,” or Iroquois) philosophy that the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations in the future
My grandparents started Nebagamon in 1929. You know and I know they would have wanted a sustainable world and sustainable, healthy relationships seven generations from their time. That all feels at risk right now.
Camp is where you learn to treat others the way you would want to be treated
Where you learn how to solve problems, navigate conflict and differences
Where you learn to feel safe with your feelings, where a camper can turn to his big brother, his counselor, his village director, the kitchen staff, a specialist, a caretaker, a camp director for help. Camp is where you grow up to become that helper
- Camp is where you learn how to be an about you person — not an about me person. Today that means:
- Being there for your friends when they struggle with this time of isolation
- Being patient with your family and housemates, treating them with kindness
- Helping everyone in your household – volunteering to clean the biggest, dirtiest pot in the sink
- Being an ‘about you’ person – means making this world a better place for all – not just for you
I’d like to return to my opening theme: What does it mean to be part of the camp family NOW for each of you listening today?
If you’ve ever worked at camp, you learn concepts that you carry with you for the rest of your life – I think they of these phrases as guiding principles for our camp family:
- “Proximity control” – take responsibility for the people around you, everyone in your field of vision
- “Single standard” – don’t be a hypocrite – the rules apply the same to everyone
- “Use I statements” – if you’re upset with someone – don’t criticize. Say “I feel ___ when you do __
That gets you to a solution faster
When you work at camp, you often hear kids say – typically at mealtimes – a phrase that feels relevant too:
“How much do we each get” – Fairness matters to children and it matters to adults too.
When you see a government that enriches the few at the cost of the many, that’s wrong.
When you hear people deny the humanity of people who are different from them, that’s wrong. That’s evil.
When that government willfully damages our air and water, and makes decisions that would destroy the wilderness we all need —places like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area— that’s wrong. That’s evil.
Too much of what’s happening in our country now feels just wrong, morally unacceptable, antithetical to the values we learned at camp. But that’s not what I want to focus on – because
You and I are more powerful when we focus on what we are for — not on what we are against.
Camp is that place where many of us learned ‘what we are for.’
At camp, we began to feel so much more connected to people from all over the world – the larger camp family – to people who are very like us and to people who are very different from us.
Think about that iconic sign in front of the Big House: “This Shall Be a Place for Welcome for All”
So far, there are 34 signs hanging there representing every nationality of every person who has spent time at camp, 33 languages including English – plus a nonsense-language sign just for fun. Those signs reminds us that we are all alike in many ways – we all deserve welcome:
We all want to be safe
We all want to be loved
We all want and hope for a better future
Anyone who feels connected to Nebagamon knows how lucky we are to have this beautiful, joyous home away from home. Camp is where you can learn to be your best self. And you can take that ‘best self’ back home with you, and be that person for the rest of your life
I think that being part of the camp family should mean not just appreciating how lucky we are.
I think it means we should give this experience to other people too.
I know first-hand that feels great. Nebagamon alumni and friends already bring their a-game to this concept by generously supporting two Nebagamon-affiliated charities.
Camperships for Nebagamon offers scholarships to two private camps, our Nebagamon and WeeHaKee for girls — giving camp experiences to children who wouldn’t otherwise have that opportunity — and enriching each camp for all campers.
I’ve led the Camp Nebagamon Scholarship Fund for the past decade and have witnessed our community’s amazing generosity and the ripple effects of the fund’s 73 years supporting nonprofit camping experiences.
Every summer our donors have helped hundreds of kids attend a select group of nonprofit camps with expertise serving children who experience poverty and disability. Your donations are truly amplifying and spreading the values, skills, friendship and home-away-from-home we all gained at Nebagamon to people who need this most.
On behalf of my grandparents who founded the scholarship fund in 1947, my parents who ran the fund for 50 years, and also on behalf of Camperships for Nebagamon, our sister charity, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Finally, we all get to choose the legacy of this time of isolation and quarantine. Here are some things to try:
- Return to what brought you joy as a child
- Find a way to do something you loved at camp where you live now
- Get outside
- Read a book
- Reach out to a friend
- Clean the big pot
- Cultivate your garden
Camp is really about the future – and that’s where I hope we will direct everything we learned and gained at camp. We can set in motion the world and the values we need for future generations.
We need places like the BWCA
We need to live our values of kindness, respect for each other, inclusivity, fairness,
What a world we would live in if we could amplify our Nebagamon values out in the world. Let’s do that.
I arrived at camp two days prior to the official start of pre-camp this summer, and, in fewer than 24 hours, I broke camp’s new riding lawnmower (by running over a rock). Much to my relief (but likely not to Andy’s, to Joe’s, nor to Jeremy’s), I learned, upon bringing the mower to the Caretakers’ Shop, that I was not the first one to have broken it this summer (Louis had done the same a few days prior). As of earlier this morning, that same lawnmower sits in the shop, out of commission (briefly), as a result of yet another unexpected rock. I recount these woes not to bring attention to mechanical failures, but to highlight a success in spite of them: all of the mowing still got done. Several of our pre-camp crew made up for John Deere’s shortcomings using hand mowers and weed-whackers. Neither was the day I broke the mower wasted—instead I got to spend an afternoon learning to troubleshoot and fix a machine that was, previously, just a loud, intimidating tool to me.
“Yes.” We rushed over to the Logger JOP and I saw the water drizzling out the door.“We opened the door so the water would flow out, and we turned all the showers off. Nothing seems to help the water drain! “First the s’mores, and now this?” shouted Bob in a frenzy. I went over to the drain and saw paper down in it. I opened the drain and saw the paper was from a hotel. The Dragutin Braňka hotel. 
One of my favorite memories of camp is Adam Kaplan’s Sunday Service at the end of each summer in the Northwoods. During his Sunday Service, Kaplan talks about the notion of the metaphorical book that each member of our community writes about their summer. He discusses that some chapters are full of joy and excitement and others full of contemplation and courage. He reviews the things each of us have learned, and the lifelong friends we’ve made along the way. And Adam talks about how each day we write the story together.
When I think of camp, I think of it as a place of joy. Of course, there are quiet moments, sure, but camp is a place you can be loud. During pre-camp, the grounds feel quiet, because they are designed to be occupied by the over 300 people who live here during the summer. In addition to the work of physically setting up camp, the pre-camp team begins to fill each nook and cranny with the laughs of budding friendships. Just like campers at projects, we are learning new things as well – how to build the H-Dock, for instance, but also, how to work together and accomplish things as a team. And we are sharing stories, stories from last summer, or in my case, the last summers I got to spend in this wonderful place. We are warming camp up from a long winter of stillness.
