Less than two months from now, camp will be filled with roughly 350 incredible individuals. I have been talking to campers, parents, and staff, and they all share one thing in common: enthusiasm for the upcoming summer! Our hiring is 99.9% complete, and between the returning staff and new staff, we have a great lineup! Meet a sampling of our outstanding staff below. We’ll publish a complete list in next month’s Arrowhead.
Jack Falcon (Carbondale, IL) joins Team Nebagamon for his first summer. Jack will be our Climbing Wall Specialist for the 2019 summer and were excited to have him down at the wall! Jack’s climbing resume is extensive both on real rock and down at the local sport gym. Jack is graduating this spring from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale with a degree in Recreation. When not in the classroom Jack can be found down at the climbing gym on campus teaching climbing or out at a local crag bouldering and sport climbing. Currently he’s bouldering at a V7 level and sport climbing 5.11d…impressive for those that are not in the know. Jack’s excited to head north for the summer. He’s planning on pursuing the climbing field professionly and he sees the camp experience very valuable for future work. While the summer camp world is new to him, but the thought of cookouts, campfires, and hundreds of new friends are all very exciting. When not climbing (which isn’t often) Jack enjoys hiking, camping, kayaking, science fiction movies and playing D&D. He has been climbing for 2 years, started as a sport climber but mostly boulders now. Southern Illinois is known for its sandbagged ratings, however — Many climbers from other parts of the country struggle to maintain their grade when climbing in So Ill. When asked why Jack loves climbing he said, “Climbing is such a personal journey! The work, focus, and tenacity cannot come from anyone else…even with the best spotter or belayer, YOU have to make the crux move.”
Noah Stein (Glencoe/Utah ’05-’10,’12,’14-‘18) returns for his 13th summer at Nebagamon. In the past Noah has been a camper, cabin counselor, wilderness trip leader and now for the summer of 2019 he will be Co-Director of the Lumberjack Village. For the past two years Noah has been putting his love for the outdoors to work as a Field Instructor for Evoke Therapy Programs in southern Utah. Noah’s favorite place at camp is defentily our waterfront. Between the awesome beach and all of the projects to try out it can’t be beat in his mind. Looking forward to the summer, Noah is stoked for epic cruiser days, evening basketball games on the LJ courts, signing up campers for wilderness trips, and pizza night singing on the porch. More than anything though, he’s excited to spend quality time hanging out with campers and staff in the LJ village. Lastly, we’re always curious to ask these “old timers” what keeps them coming back summer after summer. Noah responded with, “What keeps me coming back year after year is the opportunity to help create a space where campers can be the best version of themselves. That means
Andy and Noah rendezvousing on Paul Bunyan Day, 2010
supporting campers in taking safe risks and helping to bring every summer to a previously unimaginable level of fun.” I think our Lumberjack village is in good hands this summer!
Andy Cohen (St.Louis/D.C. ’04-’10, ’12-’15, ’17) is returning to camp for his 14th summer on our sweet 77 acres. Andy has been a camper, counselor, Sailing Director and now he will be Co-Lumberjack Push for the summer of 2019. For the past two years Andy has been working in hotel management in D.C., Austin, and New York as he majored in Hospitality Management/Business Management at The College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. In his free time Andy loves to read, travel (he’s been to 49/50 states) and of course sail. I’m sure we’ll find him on our c-scow a couple times this summer. Looking ahead to the summer, Andy is excited to help create a fun, exciting and memorable summer for our LJ’s. We asked Andy what keeps him coming back to camp (we’re lucky he does!) and he immediately responded with, “ the community…I love the community that camp creates and I want to try to bring that togetherness, sense of family into my day job during the camp off season.” Obviously we’re lucky to have Andy back this summer and our LJ village is going to be solid with Andy on our leadership team!
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While not complete as of yet, our staff for the summer of 2019 is solid! With plenty of returners and new staff there is no doubt that projects, cabins and everything magic that our staff do every summer will be awesome! Now I’m still on the hunt for just a couple more senior counselors, trip leaders, food service assistants and another climbing wall specialist. If you know of anyone please feel free to connect them with Fornear at [email protected].
We are pleased to say that our counselor positions are quickly being filled. Our first year junior counselors are Drew Sklar, Nate Susser, Charlie Steinbaum, Jack Auer, Coby Keren, Ben Sklar, Jesse Herzog, Ben Dubinsky, Ben Lindy, Micah Franzel, Ari Krupnick, Ari Weiss, Tommy Bellaire, Elliot Heldman, Dylan Fox, Jacob Greene, Jack Rogen, Henry Lokken, Sebastian Klein, Jamin Eisenberg, Ben Platt, Ben Serwer, Sam Reichert, Ethan Rosenberg, and Camden Blumberg. Returning Junior Counselors are Bryce Endrizzi, Isaac Weiss, Eric Portillo, Matthew Grosman, Joey Rivkin, Alex Buring, Will McCreary, Andrew Guest, Michael Berler, and Mauricio Zambrano. Our senior counselors are Fergal Spencer, Isaac Murray Stark, Matthew Wilhelm, Josh Levitas, Sam Branstad Phillips, Charlie Fromm, Eli Striker, Jake Lescher, Jake Beren, Tony Bogolub, Ben Huston, Zach Pearson, Nachi Santa Cruz, Jake Miller, Eli Fromm, and Joey Apter. New senior counselors for the 2019 summer are Henry Quinn Pasin, Josh Sheridan, Josh Abraham, Max Krupnick, Pierre Chevelrie, Laurie Eastburn, Carlos Beaujean, Arthur Brook Young, Eugenio Caballero, and Luke Herzog.
Our Village Director lineup is now complete! Andy Cohen and Noah Stein will be our LJ Village Directors, Andy Rolfe is the Axeman Village Director with Jason Hirschhorn taking over 2nd Session, Alex Gordon is the Logger Village Director, and David Sachs and Jake Miller will be sharing the Swamper Village. Returning to the office is Elana Scharff and Jaye Hensel. Joining them in the office and new to camp, is Jordan Liebich. There are some awesome additions to our specialist crew as well. Jack Falcon joins camp for his first year as a climbing wall specialist. Heading up M.O.C.A is Sophia Gatzionis while Hugh Broder returns to camp for another summer as our Waterskiing Specialist. Our rad waterfront directors this summer are Henry Pulitzer and Walter Fromm. CNOC once again is directed by Grant Rosskamm and Cynthia Rolfe returns for her second summer as our Nature Specialist. Down at the Art Shop you’ll find Heather Kennedy back for her second summer and joining Heather down there will be Audrey Hurt. Ralph Greil also returns for his 10th year. Our photo specialist this summer will be Lucy Stephenson from the United Kingdom. In the infirmary you’ll find Amber Burvall back for her 9th summer, Melissa Moy for her second and Molly Buring for her first. Our kitchen is once again directed by Anne Rowe. Joining Anne this summer is Cody Keys, Alex Fuller, Katie Lundeen, Ben Hanson Kaplan, Oliver Held and Asher Burvall. Trip staff is shaping up with Jonah Domsky, Kate Bennett, Trenton Flegel, Ethan Strull, Ethan Berman, Max Fleischer, Quincy Hirt, Grayson Nolan, Liam Janson, Liam Casey, Zach Muzik, Atish Batalavia, Holly Geurts, and Diego Santa Cruz. Trip drivers are Ron Gaare, Amy Mack and Bill Hensel, while our Quartermaster is Allen Bennett. Lastly, our assistant trip director is Andrew Meyer. With a steady hand, caretakers are Andy Mack, Joe Crain, Jack Raatz and Cathy Fries.
We’ll have a full publishing of our staff in the next Arrowhead. We have a great looking staff for 2019!