By Adam Kaplan
I am sure that we are all feeling a bit unsettled these days. The world that we inhabit seems to be full of chaos and bad news. Every day we are slapped by shocking, upsetting, and frightening events. Our society seems off-kilter. Chaotic, depressing and hostile American politics continues to rear its ugly head. The news cycle is dominated by tawdry courtroom drama. Angst and anger asserts itself into our college campuses. And then there is the Middle East…It seems as though the world has gone mad. If it were not for the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce union, one might feel that our planet’s love reservoir has run dry. Truly there is little that feels stable and predictable these days…
Luckily, for most of the readership of these articles (which, by last count, includes eight to ten die-hard campers, a couple of first year staff members, and, sometimes, my dad), June 1st means that an escape from the turmoil of “the real world” is not far off. Depending on your role at camp, some of you have already checked out of the “real world” and are up here at camp braving the icy waters of Lake Nebagamon to get camp ready for the summer. For others, this break will come in about ten days when you arrive at camp for our eight-day staff training week. And yet for others, this break will come in just under three weeks, as the first buses full of campers arrive. Then, finally, yet one month later, the patient campers that comprise our second four-week session will arrive. I know that I speak for most of these groups in welcoming our self-imposed exile from the intensity of the “real world.”
For all of us that choose to break from the rest of the world each summer, we welcome this escape. For those of you that are less familiar with our modus operandi at camp, you may be interested to know that we deliberately do not read the news during the summer. (Ok, I admit I read the news, but I don’t tell anyone!) In fact, the closest that we come to sharing current events with the camp family is the morning ritual of reading the baseball scores. (And, in truth, the only reason that we do this is to give the kids an opportunity to wake up and exercise their lungs with cacophonous cheers…often coming from kids that could not name a single player on virtually any team in Major League Baseball!!)
One of the benefits of this self-imposed exile is that we truly get the sense that our entire world consists only of the hallowed grounds of Camp Nebagamon. As a boy, I can distinctly remember how it felt to be completely oblivious of the fact that there was a world at all beyond the camp gates. This separation allows us, each summer, the space to create as perfect of a world as possible inside the camp gates, free from all of the bad news and challenges of the “real world.” In leaving all of these things behind for a month or two, we afford ourselves the time, focus, and energy to connect with each other in a way that the outside world sometimes doesn’t allow. We get in touch with ourselves, get in touch with each other, and get in touch with nature. Anyone that has ever been to camp knows that the friendships and connections that are forged here, away from “reality,” are significantly different and more substantive than virtually all of those that exist in the outside world. We abandon the disquieting intensity and stress of the “real world” in favor of a world that is safe, consistent, and enduring. Every summer, the Camp Nebagamon world is exactly as positive of a place as WE make it.
In the Camp Nebagamon world, the NASDAQ means nothing and CNOC means everything. We forget about Tax Day and focus only on Cruiser Days. The tech bubble is meaningless and blowing the biggest bubble on Guinness T. Nebagamous Day can make you a hero. Salary caps are worthless but the Chef’s Cap is priceless. The unpredictability of the political world is replaced with the unpredictability of the week’s dessert menu. Fears about global warming are washed away with that first leap into Lake Nebagamon in June.
To be sure, despite my lamentations in the first paragraph about the current sorry state of affairs with our species, our decision to shut out the real world for the summer is not strictly about giving ourselves a break from the bad news out there. It is not a simple decision to bury our heads in the sand. A big reason for this approach is to prove to ourselves that there is a better way to be a part of a community. There is a better way to treat each other. There is a better way to manage disagreement. There is a better way to seek compromise. And, sure, there is a best way to make the perfect s’more. With these experiences and with the lessons learned at camp, we hope to send folks out into the world after the summer that are equipped to lead with kindness, compassion, and level heads.
I have great faith that the “real world” will settle down a bit…it has to. But in the meantime, see ya later “real world,” we are all taking a well needed break from you. See you in August.
And also, it’s not quite right! Over the past week, and over the next two, our whole staff is arriving at camp in various stages. While the quiet is pronounced for a few days, it’s quickly drowned out. First, the pre-camp crew arrives, and along with them comes the sounds of mowers, weed-whackers, rakes and shovels. The silence is broken by socket wrenches and hopefully-not hacksaws assembling the waterfront, and motor boats and pontoons buzzing towards the newly installed docks. Next, our trippers arrive (just yesterday!), accompanied by sounds of boots on the ground practicing portages, and hopefully-not scraping canoe gunwales as they rehearse their canoe-over canoe rescues. Soon our kitchen staff will be here, with the sounds of chit-chat from the Rec Hall and the clang of dishware as we set more and more tables in the Rec Hall. Then whistles from the waterfront staff arriving early for our Wilderness Water Safety course, and “On-Belay!” from our climbing staff here for our climbing training. As we get close to the official start of staff week, our administrators arrive at camp, making whatever sounds meetings make(?!), and then the rest of our staff, new and old arrive, as we prepare for staff training. And the sounds of introductions, reunions, laughter and, yes, the sounds of more meetings fill the grounds.
Staff arrivals ramp us up slowly but surely. This steady transition builds our enthusiasm, energy, and most of all, anticipation. Our community grows, both in number and volume, as more people voyage to the Northwoods to prepare for the ultimate arrival: the buses arriving at camp, and campers pouring through the gate to truly light this place up with the glorious sounds that this place was built to generate…children at play. As you’re reading this it’s T-16 days, and the group of us up here at camp, and those arriving in the next week, can’t wait for it all to begin. Because while the peace and quiet is nice for a little while, the sounds of laughter, of joy, of singing songs in the Rec Hall and Taps in the evening is what makes this place feel alive.
I arrived at camp two days prior to the official start of pre-camp this summer, and, in fewer than 24 hours, I broke camp’s new riding lawnmower (by running over a rock). Much to my relief (but likely not to Andy’s, to Joe’s, nor to Jeremy’s), I learned, upon bringing the mower to the Caretakers’ Shop, that I was not the first one to have broken it this summer (Louis had done the same a few days prior). As of earlier this morning, that same lawnmower sits in the shop, out of commission (briefly), as a result of yet another unexpected rock. I recount these woes not to bring attention to mechanical failures, but to highlight a success in spite of them: all of the mowing still got done. Several of our pre-camp crew made up for John Deere’s shortcomings using hand mowers and weed-whackers. Neither was the day I broke the mower wasted—instead I got to spend an afternoon learning to troubleshoot and fix a machine that was, previously, just a loud, intimidating tool to me.
It’s the last day of May and the pre-camp crew has been hard at work for the past week. Pre-camp is hard work but a lot of fun for those who choose to participate. We have several international staff in the crew this year, a group of pre-shakedown-trip wilderness tripping staff, and even a few guys that have made pre-camp a way to stay connected to the place. Even though they can’t stay for the season and must get back to their chosen professions, they take a working vacation that allows them to reconnect with their Nebagamon roots. 
May has been a very busy month around camp – we’ve had a number of external work forces doing some big jobs around the property. A big roofing outfit was in last week and tore off the old and put new shingles on camp’s largest roof, the Rec Hall. A small local two-man roofing crew removed and replaced the worn out shingles of Swamper 1 and 2, and Logger 5. An asphalt company came and laid the asphalt for camps new Pickleball courts down at the side of the Herb Hollinger museum, and a local cement crew set the post sleeves in place. One last big job that is being handled by an outside company, the resurfacing of tennis courts 3, 4, and 5 over by the bike shack, and the painting of the new pickle ball court has suffered 
We have a great variety of new and returning cabin staff for 2024. This summer, Senior Counselors include Josh Marcus, Nelson Mendels, Nick Fleisher, Jason Shacter, Ben Hackney, Andrew Kuria, Aron Dudas, Justin Munoz, Aidan Capes, Andrew Condrell, Tyler Gray, Joey Rivkin, Eric Portillo, Sam Reichert, JEese Herzog, Jose de la Pena, Adam Eberhard, Patrick Baggaley, Matthew Perry, Anthony Gutierrez, Fernando Lapetra Murcia, Oscar Ellis, Isaac Fetnacci, Raul Fernandez Alvarez, Sandy Johnson, Alex Allbrighton, Solomon Wexler, Oliver Held, Nick Friedman, Asher Friedman, and Michael Berler. Junior Counselors include Ben Polonsky, Oliver Gray, Tristan Hall, Ezra Maidenberg, Griffin Scissors, Jacob Rolfe, Jasper Braunschweiger, Matan Seigel, Wes Schwartz, Atlas Barnes, Eli Zelvy, Jacob Lutsky, Asher Corndorf, Micah Rosenbloom, Jack Krupnick, Sam Montag, Chase Herbert, Mark Gingiss, Jonah Rontal, and Logan Segal.
Returning to run our office and operations is full time Associate Director Joe Briggs. He’ll be joined in the office Josie Hanson-Kaplan, Beau Caro, and Sam May, and Gabe Colman, Dave Knoepfle, and Hugh Broder will serve (at some point in the summer) as town driver. Our Caretaking team is being led once again by Head Caretaker Andy Mack, with year round Caretaker Joe Crain, and seasonal caretakers Jair Torres Ponce and Jeremy Nordin-Berghuis. Our new Big House Housekeeper is Georgette Corona Peralta. Leading our infirmary this summer is our Nurse, Carolyn Robinson, with nurse’s assistants Aimee Knutson, Katy Condon, and Haley Schultz.
13th – Isaac Murray-Stark