Camp Nebagamon

I tend to think the popular imagination of summer camp doesn’t always jibe at Camp Nebagamon. We don’t wear uniforms, the pranks are relatively chaste and have to be run by administrators, and we don’t have a “rival” camp. Still, every so often I walk around the place and chuckle when a scene at camp…

Well, beloved Summer Update readers, I need to apologize to you all. Yesterday was one of those days at camp that was just perfect… weather, programming, meals, general vibe… and, well, when I finished writing this update, in my rush to make it to G-Swim, I neglected to press “send.” I’m sorry about that and…

Perhaps the most meaningful connection a new camper can make at camp in the first few days isn’t with his counselor, or the Director or Associate Director who visited his home this winter – it’s with his camp Big Brother. Our Big Brother/Little Brother program is meant to help our new younger boys adjust and…

Engines revving, the opening whistle, the first domino falls… The curtain rises, the book cracks open, Houston, we have liftoff… It’s the start of something, and at camp, it’s the bus bell – our dedicated antique train bell that sits atop the hill and has just one purpose: letting everyone know that THE CAMPERS ARE…

Apologies for being a day late on this update…If I am being completely honest, I really have been procrastinating sitting down to write this one. I think I will procrastinate the hard part of the update as well. Let’s talk about the past couple of days… The truth is that the brilliant people who established…

I realize that much of my focus in these updates is, as it should be, on the kids’ experience here at camp.  I realize that for the most part, the readership of these updates is simply desperate to get some sense of what their child’s experience at camp is like given the typical quality of…

In 2006, I was lucky enough to be in the audience for perhaps the single most famous GTC (camp talent show) act in the nearly 100-year history of Camp Nebagamon. I am speaking, of course, about the incredible diablo yo-yo act of Hayato Okamoto. I wish I could adequately describe the thunderous reaction and ovation…

Usually it’s the bell. But once a year, it’s the drums. The resonating gong of the bell is a staple at Camp Nebagamon. We have an iconic bell, an old locomotive bell from the days when railroads were a modern marvel, that sits outside the Rec Hall, and it is what wakes us up every…

If you have ever met me, you would know of my obsession with the odd and quirky artifacts of camp. My desk is often littered with rusty railroad spikes, broken parts to trip stoves and, of course, unnamed lost and found. (Please label your stuff!) A few years back, a bright green raincoat ended up…