By Adam Kaplan
Every year we publish nine issues of the Arrowhead. Nine times a year I am faced with the challenge of coming up with something relevant and interesting to write about. (Those of you that know me are well aware of how rare it is that I am able to speak about things that are relevant and interesting, let alone write about them… needless to say, the monthly Arrowhead articles are a challenge!) Compounding this challenge is the fact that I am forced to write eight of those articles in the basement of my house, with little camp gestalt to inspire me. But the June Arrowhead is the exception. Every year I get to write the June article sitting in the Big House dining room. There is something about sitting here that just makes it easier to think on a “campy” level.
Perhaps it has to do with the fact that, as I sit here, there is an enormous photo of Nebagamon’s founder Muggs Lorber standing in front of the Paul Bunyan statue staring at me from its place above the fireplace in the Big House dining room. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that, as I look around this room, I can take in many photos and relics from countless Nebagamon summers over the years. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that, being up here at camp presents my other senses with inputs that are totally unique to being here. Camp has a certain smell to it, certain sounds associated with it, and that water in my glass (particularly from the Big House kitchen) has a certain taste to it that we all know!
More likely, it has to do with the folks that are sitting around the table right now as I write this article. Our pre-camp crew arrived on Monday to transform this place from its state of winter dormancy… dock-free, boat-free, and whirligig-free (those really cool Herb Hollinger creations that are placed around the Hill and do cool things when the wind blows) … to its more natural state (natural in the minds of so many thousands of campers that is!). It’s a space that screams for the infusion of that unbridled energy that can only be provided by hundreds of boys! It is sitting around the table with these folks that allows me to think so single-mindedly about camp.
This year’s pre-camp crew, as ever, is a wonderful mix of old timers, first-timers, and people brand new to camp. Conversation is free and easy… about goofy, camp-specific topics, sports allegiances, politics, zombie apocalypses (many of our pre-camp work crew are college students, used to noon wake-up times… they would make excellent extras on the Walking Dead at 7:00 AM when our work day begins!) and the best brands of frozen pizza (the answer by the way… Home Run Pizza). These are the exact kinds of discussions that take place in every cabin in camp throughout the summer. In short, within minutes, camp goes from that surreal (and wonderful) state of silence and isolation, to full on camp, and all it takes is the arrival of just a few camp folks, a crew working together towards a common purpose, a big family table to sit around together, and… of course… The Pines.
Looking forward to an amazing two months of experiences, laughs, challenges, and learning with all of them… and so much more. Here we go!!!
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.
The excitement is building for the beginning of camp! This week, we have a small community arriving to being setting up camp and putting in the docks. By June 12th, there will be 130 staff on the property preparing for the arrival of 200-or-so campers just a week later. The camp population will explode to north of 300 people! And among those 300 people, there are many common goals shared with each other for the summer — put on, and experience, the best summer of our lives! Of course, we all come to camp with our own goals in mind as well: try new things, or learn new skills, or meet new people… Camp Nebagamon is this wonderful place to try out new activities, ones that catch your eye and make you say to yourself… hey, I’d like to try that. Our program affords you the opportunity to chase that curiosity.
Even though The Arrowhead is going into hibernation for the next three months, please keep on sending any news of the camp family. Thank you for your contributions, and I look forward to sharing updates with you after the summer. And for those of you arriving here in the next few days and weeks… See you soon!
At long last the month of May brought some much-desired Spring weather to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Though the lake was still mostly iced-over for the first five days of the month and temperatures struggled to get out of the 50s, things really turned around for the second week as temps reached above normal. The opening day of the fishing season here in Wisconsin was Saturday May 7th and on the morning of May 6th the lake was still 75% covered in ice! The local anglers didn’t let that hamper their plans as we watched several boats launch into the 200-foot band of open water between the shore and the ice at the public landing and along the shore past camp to the west. The temperature had bumped up near 70 degrees both the 4th and 5th, and the ice cover was looking very candled and slushy, so the boat launchers’ gamble that the ice would be off by Saturday morning was a pretty safe one. Sure enough, they were right, and by early afternoon on Friday the 6th we were watching waves out on the lake, and for the fishing opener the next morning the sky was sunny. Although the water temperature was still very cold, the air temperature reached up into the lower 70s and a delightful day on the boat was had by those who participated in the annual Spring rite!
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF AND PROGRAM SPECIALISTS: Adam Kaplan (Director), Stephanie Hanson (Director), Joe Briggs (Associate Director/Office Manager), Adam Fornear (Associate Director/Wilderness Trip Director), Louis Levin (Associate Director/Program Director), Cassandra Owens (Swamper Village Director), Alex Gordon (Logger Village Director), Matthew Wilhelm (Axeman Village Director), Noah Stein (Lumberjack Village Director), Jeremy Nordin Berghuis (Waterfront Director), Isaac Murray Stark (Waterfront Director), *Amelie Sadler (Sailing Director), Troika Brodsky (CNOC Director), Sean Kennedy (Artshop Director), *Nora Starhill (Artshop Specialist), *Ellie Friedman (Artshop Specialist), *Philip Spyrou (MOCA Director), Stanton Strauss (Target Shooting Director), Gus Peters (Climbing Wall Specialist), *Ryan Huff (Climbing Wall Specialist), *Theresa Nevins (Waterskiing Director), *Li Kane (Promotional Photographer), Zach Muzik (Specialist At Large)
TRIP STAFF: Adam Fornear (Trip Director), Jason Yale (Trip Director), Bill Hensel (Trip Driver), Ron Gaare (Trip Driver), John Star (Quartermaster), Jonah Domsky, Phoebe Stern, Isaac Schiff-Lewin, Billy Galpern, Orion Kornfeld, Salma Schwartzman, *Zoe Peterson, Charlie Cohen, *Claire Barlass, *Henry Burns, *Kalista Jordan-DeBruin, *Caden Martin, *Kaitlin Weiss, *Rose Welch, Brady Rivkin.
18th – Drew Malk