Compiled by Louis Levin
This time of year, I am engrossed with year-end lists. Everyone is recapping their favorite books (mine was Everything for Everyone by Eman Abdelhadi and M. E. O’Brien), TV shows (Taskmaster), movies (probably Theater Camp, but it’s the only one I saw), albums (Mighty Poplar, by Mighty Poplar), and podcasts (If Books Could Kill). So, I thought I’d put together a year-end list for Camp Nebagamon in 2023. I’ve left a few categories off, such as best prank (setting up a tetherball pole in the middle of the Rec Hall) or best lost-and-found item (fake tooth), but I’ve got some good ones to share, so without further ado…
BEST THING I ATE: Some Lumberjacks knocked it out of the park at the Chef’s Cap outdoor cooking competition this year, and made a truly spectacular steak salad that I (not a Chef’s Cap judge) got to taste. We talk about Chef’s Cap a lot, and it bears repeating: it’s amazing what these guys can cook with just a box of raw food and a pile of firewood.
BEST SPORTS MOMENT: In 2022, we added a new event to Paul Bunyan Day called the Timberbeast Trek – it’s a spectacular relay involving campers from each age group to haul an enormous log up our sand dunes, split the log (ok, it’s already split and is tied back together with some nasty CNOC knots), and deliver a piece of the log into a roaring fire. This year’s relay was a tight one, and the athleticism of our oldest campers dragging this log up to the Upper Diamond was astounding.
BEST PIZZA NIGHT SONG: For perhaps the 10th year in a row, it’s Let It Go by Idina Menzel from Frozen. This one’s got legs. With all the sincerity they can muster, nearly our whole camp community belts this banger every Sunday night at the conclusion of dinner. Hard to imagine another song taking its place anytime soon.
MOST CHAOTIC MOMENT: It’s a tie between the Scramble (you can read about it here) and the twist from this year’s Grand Pursuit. Our second-session all-camp competition always has a big reveal twist, and this year’s was a sudden reveal of four brand-new challenges for each team to participate and try to score more points for their team. This sent basically all 200 campers running in four directions to try and score points for their team, making for the most memorable, and hectic, 20 minutes of the summer.
MOST UNDERRATED MOMENT: At the end of the last Council Fire of each season, the 9th and 10th grade campers in their last season present a living history of their cabins, sometimes called The Count-Up. Starting with their first years at camp, the campers organize themselves into their first Swamper cabin groups. They then go through the years, adding more and more campers and shuffling around until they ultimately present their current cabins. It’s frankly hard to describe the moment, kind of one of those you-have-to-be-theres. I realized at the end of the summer that we basically never talk about how cool it is, so, here I am, talking about how cool it is. We see the friend groups grow right before our eyes, watch as the boys introduce themselves to camp, and end up with groups standing before us, commemorating the camp careers on their last night of camp. I love this tradition.
That’s what I’ve got for 2023. I’m sure we’ll have some even more superlative memories from 2024, and I can’t wait to make them this summer!
We’ve got a few pieces of news to share this month, and with our reunion tour starting up again in the coming weeks, we’ll start to have much more to report soon. In the meantime, if you’ve got anything to share with the camp family, send me an email at [email protected]!
IT MAY INTEREST YOU TO KNOW… Jonah and Elliot ran into Gabe on winter vacation in Florence, Italy!
IN THE BIBS AND DIAPERS DEPARTMENT… It’s a boy, Theodore “Teddy” Baldwin Cohen for Michael Cohen (Savannah, 2005-’07, ’09-’10) and Emily Cohen.
WEDDING CONGATULATIONS GO TO… Todd Ahlers (Denver, 2016-’18) and Rebekah Ahlers (King).