Because Camp Nebagamon has a nearly 100-year history, its alumni base is a HUGE one comprised of folks with a very wide range of careers. When you combine this fact with the tremendous loyalty that our alums have always shown (and their unbounded desire to get back up to camp to visit!), you wind up with our Trails Forward program. This program, which has been around for more than half a century, invites camp alumni with interesting jobs or areas of expertise up to camp for a few days. Their mission: talk to the campers about that expertise and engage in some activities with the boys surrounding it. Past Trails Forward guests have included government officials, artists, poets, sports broadcasting professionals, television celebrities, and many others.
This week, we have been treated to our first Trails Forward presenter since before the pandemic (we have run a closed campus since 2021, which precluded our inviting any guests up to speak). He is an extraordinarily accomplished chef and an expert in outdoor cooking. So, for the past two days he has demonstrated how to cook amazing pad thai and paella over an open flame in the outdoors. Not only has he demonstrated how to make these dishes, but he also has afforded 60 individual kids the opportunity to cook their own versions of these culinary creations. He arrived at camp with all of the gear and specialty ingredients to make this magic happen, and it turns out he is a wonderful and patient teacher who has a real knack for speaking to the boys in ways that really connects with them.
It has been an amazing couple of days down there, and there is no doubt in my mind that our guest has sparked many passions that will turn into either avocations or perhaps even careers. (And also… it was awesome to be the camp director and sample these culinary masterpieces… I am in a constant state of “full!”) Today, his final day here, will be all about making smoked meat tamales that will be shared with the entire camp at tonight’s dinner. As I write this, I can smell the smoker working its magic on the other side of camp. So… I guess I will find some room later on to redefine that feeling of “full!.”
Tonight is the All-Camp Birthday. This is a chance to celebrate everyone’s birthday, even those of us who do not have birthdays during the summer. The genesis of the event at camp goes back to WWII when sugar rationing was in place, and camp founder Muggs Lorber was forced to have just one birthday celebration rather than individual celebrations for the boys with summer birthdays. While we have always celebrated the All-Camp Birthday, this year we planned a blow-out event. We will start with a giant all-camp barbeque (homemade street tacos from our kitchen staff, most of whom hail mainly from Puebla, Mexico….some MASSIVE birthday cakes….and oh yeah, did I mention smoked meat tamales?!). The seating for the event will be by birth month. Everyone will enjoy the chance to share a meal with some totally different people than they normally do and connect with surprise birthday buddies! There is always a great, giant community picnic feel to the meal.
And then the party will start. A classic outdoor birthday party… the kind of celebration that harkens back to old-time, small-town festivities. We will have a water balloon launch – from a giant slingshot – as brave campers attempt to maneuver themselves under it for the catch… they’ll get wet. There will be contests in which the boys have balloons tied to their ankles and attempt to stomp the balloons of the other boys… they’ll get sweaty. There will be a whipped cream pie eating contest for those who (somehow) haven’t had their fill of sugar through the birthday cakes… they’ll get messy. We will have a “slip and slime” tarp where the boys can hurdle themselves at top speeds down a 30-foot tarp covered in our homemade red slime… they’ll get slimy.
Oh, and there will be a “dunk tank” where the boys will throw bean bags at a target that, when hit, will release VERY COLD water balloons on whichever administrator happens to be the sacrificial authority figure of the moment. The clever administrators will heckle the boys in an attempt to distract them and affect their accuracy. It won’t work. I usually take a different approach when I am in the chair, trying to appeal to their boys’ better angels and begging them to show me some mercy. That won’t work either. They usually respond with complaints about all of the sugar I deny them during the summer and other grievances about my regime… and then they hurl the beanbags with deadly accuracy… I’ll get wet (and freezing!!).
The event is always a great time. A giant celebration of each of our birthdays… and just plain-old wet, sweaty, messy, slimy (and for some, freezing) fun!
All is well in the North Woods!
