Camp Nebagamon

By Adam Kaplan

Over the course of the summer, while we were up at camp listening to an empty Rec Hall, lamenting a vacant Council Fire Ring, and desperately staring at cabin doors in the hopes that they would fling open and laughing children would come barreling out of them, we spent a fair bit of time planning for this fall. You see, this miserable pandemic that has affected each and every one of us was going to make my normal “off-season” travel schedule impossible. It is simply not reasonable for me to log the thousands of air miles I do every year to travel to the dozens of cities that I do every year. Those annual camp reunions in many cities that give us all a small taste of camp during the winter, to help us get through to the next summer, just were not going to be able to happen. And those critical face-to-face meetings that I have with virtually every prospective family before their first summers at Camp Nebagamon seemed impossible.

It was all going to have to be done online…with computers…and screens.

The thought of meeting new families exclusively over Zoom calls was quite unappealing. Still, we knew this was most likely the way that it was going to happen this year, and so we came up with a plan for trying to bring camp to life for brand new folks over a computer screen. Our intrepid video editor, Louis, created dozens of new short videos illustrating each of our projects, our special events, and some of the more affective parts of camp like our special staff, the friendships that are made at camp, and how we all grow at camp. The videos are excellent and the plan seemed a decent way to show new folks who we are. It was going to be fine….

But fine just didn’t sit well with me. We are better than fine and I worried that we wouldn’t be able to communicate the essence of camp through computer screens.

There is just something so much more meaningful and powerful about meeting families and would-be-campers face to face. When you sit down with people you get to know them in a way that cannot be duplicated digitally. You can read their excitement and anxieties, you learn how they FEEL about each other, about meeting new people, about adventure…about possibility.

There had to be a better way.

And then I ran across an article about how RV sales and rentals had really taken off since the pandemic began. An RV! That was it! What a great solution! Sure I have hardly ever driven an RV before and the mechanics of it are daunting…but this seemed a good solution for my pandemic travel concerns.

The rest of the plan came together in a matter of hours. I would buy a used RV and do a lap around the country visiting all of the cities I normally do and meet with prospective families, making that all-important face-to-face meeting possible. If I could get this scheduled quickly enough, I could get on the road by October 1 and complete that full loop of the country before winter arrived. This would allow me to personally meet all of our prospective families, while the weather was warm enough, in their backyards, or in a park, or somewhere outdoors to ensure safety. Outdoor meetings! What could possibly be more Nebagamon-y than that?! How had we never tried to do this in the past? (Well…besides the fact that outdoor meetings in Minneapolis in January are decidedly unfun!) The solution was clear…and very exciting!

So, the day that you receive this Arrowhead, I will be taking off from Boise in my brand new (used) 2008 24-foot Winnebago View on a 47-day journey that will cover 10,000 miles, almost every state in the lower 48, and nearly 20 different cities. To be sure, I am more than a little intimidated by what lies ahead of me. There are so many unknowns, but that is par for the course in this pandemic world. What will living in this small box for 47 days feel like? What will the RV parks be like? How will I eat? Is Hot Pocket subsistence possible for a 53-year-old man? Will I suffer incalculable injury when my never- before-used Instant Pot explodes in a moment of incompetence? Will I ever be able to dump the black water tanks of the RV without fear of taking a bath in my own…well…you know? And the list goes on.

I suppose my trepidation heading into this adventure makes me a lot like the kids I will be meeting on this trip. Boys who are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead of them, but also nervous about the unknown. What will I eat? Where will I shower? What will my bed be like? What will I do every day? I am nervous…and so are they. And that is the magic of this trip to me. I have never felt more prepared to help them and empathize with their feelings about trying something brand new. We are going to do it together this time.

I am REALLY excited to get out and meet people (in a socially-distanced outdoor setting). I am really excited to see the country. I am really excited to try something brand new!

I will likely be headed to your town relatively soon – you can find more details here. Please give some thought about families that might be interested in Camp Nebagamon and either send me their names or have them contact me to set up a meeting. I’ll bring the Hot Pockets…