Camp Nebagamon

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What If?: Adam Considers the Counterfactual

By Adam Kaplan

As most of you know, much of my winter is spent travelling to various cities around the country to reconnect with campers, alumni, and staff, and meet prospective new families. Admittedly, the amount of travel that I do can sometimes be a bummer as it means so much time away from my family. In an effort to improve my spirits, I spend most of my flight time binge watching television shows that interest me. Lately, I have been watching a show called The Man In the High Castle. The show posits the question of what would the world have been like if the United States had LOST WWII. (Spoiler alert…the world would be a much different and more awful place!) This genre is called a counterfactualin which causes and effects of different events are sort of turned on their heads and looked at in a different way. In short…the counterfactual is a massive exploration of WHAT IF? 

One of the main points that I take away from watching this show is that, seemingly, all events, no matter how large or small, can have a huge impact on the future. It gets you thinking. For example, certainly the ramifications of Columbus’ journey to North America have been felt throughout the world, on so many levels, since that fateful day in 1492. What if he actually sailed to India instead of North America as he intended? What if Alexander Fleming had been a more fastidious man, and had decided to clean his Petri dishes before heading off on vacation in 1928?

As the miles pass and I let my mind wander a bit more, I cannot help myself from doing a bit of musing myself. Camp Nebagamon counterfactuals began to flood my mind.

Muggs ponders his missed opportunity at Super Bowl fame and fortune…

What if…Muggs Lorber (a Big Ten college quarterback from 1922-24) had decided to enter the NFL instead of dedicating his life to the growth of young men? What if…Muggs and Janet had decided to found a co-ed camp? What if…Nardie and Sally had not decided to beef up our in-camp program by adding four designated project periods to every day? What if…Roger and Judy had not chosen to formalize and expand upon Nebagamon’s Campership program? What if… E.J. Hahn had not improved and formalized our Big Brother/Little Brother program by creating the Big Brother/Little Brother soiree? What if…Frank Sachs had not created new programs at camp like Wannado and Guinness T. Nebagamon to keep things fresh?  What if…Bendt Rorsted had not come over from Denmark and introduced orienteering to camp in 1952? What if…Troy Brodsky had not revamped the Cabin Cookout menus to make the food both more tasty and more interesting to cook? What if…the sugar shortage during WWII had not necessitated the creation of the All-Camp Birthday on July 25, 1942?

A DQ with no campers? Spare me the horror!

On a less serious note, What if… the Dairy Queen decided to stop accepting camp checks? What if…the Bike Shack was still a functioning hot dog stand within camp? What if…campers were allowed to bring as much candy as they would like to camp? What if…the camp water fountains flowed with bug juice? What if…the third round of Sunday morning sweet rolls tasted as good as the first? What if…the wind and rain the night before had not washed the signs away? What if… A.K. Agikamik was added to the Department of Homeland Security’s NO-FLY list?

Whether serious or silly, big or small, one thing is very clear. The events and people of the past, present, and future play a major role in shaping what Camp Nebagamon has become and will become. Some of these events were very deliberate changes that were instituted to make camp a better place, and some others were wonderful, serendipitous occurrences that also helped to shape camp.

The primary realization that I walk away with after thinking about all of this is that camp is a great place for What if… At camp we are in the enviable position of being able to ask What if…all the time. Each day of each summer we are presented with the opportunity to ask ourselves What if…and then explore the idea. What if… I try out the photography program for the first time today? What if… I face my fears and sign up for that Boundary Waters trip I have been thinking about? What if…I reach out to that kid that seems so unhappy lately and extend the hand of friendship and support? How will my world be different? How will I affect others’ lives?

Let’s all start to ask ourselves What if… on a regular basis. The possibilities are endless.

Adam Reflects from the Road

By Adam Kaplan

As many of you know, a large chunk of the “off-season” for Adam Fornear and me is dedicated to traveling around the country for camp reunions. To date, we have already visited fourteen cities this winter with many more to come! In fact, we figure that we travel about 10,000 miles a year together in a car, and this is our tenth year doing so. Imagine that….100,000 miles in a car with either of us as your travelling companion. Needless to say, we know each other well – the quirks, the sleep habits, the eating weaknesses, the musical tastes. (Though, in truth, we rarely ever listen to music. Believe it or not, we spend most of our time either talking about camp, or ribbing each other about one thing or another. We tried books on tape, but Fornear could never stay awake, especially problematic when he is driving! Personally, I think he fakes falling asleep during the books on tape because he misses talking to me.)

Adam and Fornear at the Manhattan Reunion

Without a doubt, this annual cycle of travel is one of the more fun aspects of this job. Through this work, we have been through forty-seven states in the past fifteen years (amazingly, we have never been able to pull off Vermont in the lower 48!), driven through countless beautiful landscapes, visited some of the more iconic and interesting off-the-beaten-track sites around the nation, and, most importantly, visited many people in their own hometowns.

This experience has allowed us to notice many things about different communities. First off, we have noticed that, no matter which metropolitan area we seem to be in, there is a HUGE shopping area with a Best Buy, a Target, an Olive Garden right next to a Red Lobster, several Starbucks, a Bed, Bath and Beyond, a Home Depot, and an Office Depot. We have become completely convinced that were we to be blindfolded and taken to any one of these shopping areas around the country, when the blindfold was removed, we would have absolutely no idea where we were. But….that triple Caramel Macchiato would still be pretty darn good!

And then we have noticed that each town has its own feel to it as well. Whether it be the beautiful brick homes of St. Louis, or the lovely wooded feel of Louisville, or the steep hills of San Francisco, or the stunning views of Lake Michigan from all over the Chicago area, or the awe-inspiring concrete jungle of Manhattan, every place we visit seems to have its own character and uniqueness.

Highlights from DC, including the reunion and a walk through the monuments at night

One of the other things we have been struck by is the sense of pride almost everyone has about where they live. If you give them an ear, they will regale you with tales about how the people in their town are the nicest, how the weather is the best, how they have the most wonderful restaurants (and by the way, almost everyone will claim to have the best barbeque restaurant anywhere….something that I have really enjoyed trying to flesh out!), and how, simply put, they live in the best place in the country. At first, I assumed that this was simply a byproduct of living a somewhat insular life. I thought people just needed to travel and see what life is like outside of their hometowns. While this may certainly be a part of the reason people are so positive and passionate about the place that they live, I think there are at least two other important factors that play into it.

The first is this idea of diversity that we hear so much talk of these days. In most cases, diversity is mentioned in reference to the color of people’s skin or their ethnicity. But, clearly, all of the extraordinarily varying tastes in geography are symbolic of another very real aspect of diversity. Those folks that live in San Diego are passionate about warm days and want nothing to do with earmuffs and scarves. The families that hail from Minneapolis cannot imagine a January without sledding and snowball fights. The folks that live in Denver or Salt Lake would feel at a loss without the mountains surrounding them. The families that hail from New York City would feel completely cut off were it not for their intensely busy and cosmopolitan surroundings. This is real diversity in action.

The second factor that plays into why folks are so dedicated to their hometowns is just that…….it is their home. It is the place where they have either grown up, or raised their kids, or both. It is the place where they enjoy all of life’s highs and endure all of life’s challenges. It is the place they are comfortable. No other place can possibly match up to HOME. It is the best place on earth. (Now, my friends often make jokes about the fact that I always find a way to tie these articles back to camp, so I won’t do it this time. Though, it might be an interesting exercise to re-read this paragraph and think about your OTHER home!)

Happy New Year to all of you and, for those whom we have not visited yet this winter, we will see you soon!

The More Things Change…

By Adam Kaplan

The last page of our brochure poses a question that we are often asked.  “How has camp changed over the years?”  The written response is, “Not much…what’s truly important…the traditions and values of Nebagamon remain the same.”  (Full disclosure: those words were written by our predecessors, the Wallensteins, so I guess even in our brochure not much changes!)

I love the constancy of this place.  I love that when we sit in the Rec Hall, we are sitting on the same chairs and at the same tables as literally thousands of others before us at Nebagamon. I love that the songs that we sing at the end of our meals are the same ones that have been sung for decades after breakfast. (I love that multiple camp directors before me butchered those songs with the same cacophonic aplomb as I do every morning!)  I love that, at the Council Fire Ring, we sit on the same wooden planks that thousands of campers before us have sat on Sunday nights, throwing our arms around each other, fighting back tears during poignant Keylogs, and singing the same beautiful songs that have concluded every Council Fire.  I love that the words, that I have the true honor of speaking every Sunday night, are the exact same words that have been spoken by each of the three sets of camp directors that have preceded us over these past 90 (90!) years at Nebagamon.  There can be little doubt that the traditions and “sameness” of the place over the years are a large part of its strength, richness, and character.

Maintaining this continuity is an important part of our job as stewards of Camp Nebagamon.  We take our roles, as guardians of this tradition, very seriously.  Protecting the history and legacy of Nebagamon is part of virtually every decision we make as directors.

And there is little doubt that we have help in protecting camp’s traditions. Our camper, staff, and alumni base are a fiendishly loyal and committed group.  They zealously work to maintain Camp Nebagamon as the special place that it has been for so long.  As is the role of groups like these, when changes are posed, they are met with a wary eye.  One of my favorite stories relating to this comes from our very first summer as directors. For those of you that did not know, despite my having grown up as a camper and staff member at Nebagamon, just prior to becoming the director of Nebagamon, I had been directing a camp in the San Juan Islands of Washington.  While there, admittedly, I worked pretty hard to make them more Nebagamon-y, but I also learned some things there too.  One of the things I learned was the Ping Pong Ball song, a totally silly song that is a ton of fun to sing.  So, in my first year at Nebagamon, I started to sprinkle that Ping Pong Ball song into the morning routine sometimes.  The boys eventually took to the song and recognized how much fun it was.  But, in the offseason, I received several scathing notes from alumni warning me not to ruin Nebagamon by trying to change things…..like bringing in ANY new songs! By their reckoning, there were to be no Ping Pong Ball songs belted out in the Rec Hall.  No way…no how!

Eventually though, as our credibility as camp directors grew and people began to trust that we had no intentions of destroying camp (even if we had a fondness for songs about tiny white balls that clearly endangered young minds), people became much more accepting of new ideas that we brought to the table in an effort to keep camp current.  When we built the climbing wall over a decade ago, we were really pleased with the reaction of our camp family.  By and large they got behind it and realized that this could become a logical and wonderful part of camp moving forward.  The same was (mostly) true when we introduced waterskiing in 2014.  People get it…the place, while its roots and values will never change, does need to grow and even CHANGE sometimes.

It is with this in mind that we are so excited to share with you this new Arrowhead format.  The truth is that this is not the first significant change we have introduced to our monthly newsletter.  Several years ago, in an effort to reduce our paper use, we went to an online PDF format for the Arrowhead.  This change was welcomed by all but a few of you who still insisted on a printed Arrowhead, declaring that the Arrowhead was a special piece of correspondence that could only be enjoyed in a special room of the house where computers were not handy (aka the JOP!).  After using this format for quite a few years, we are upgrading again since an online version allows us to incorporate fun elements that are not possible with a PDF. This new format will allow for more photos, games, and general richness.  We are psyched and hope you are too.  (Plus, the non-PDF format will work great for those “special room” readers who can now enjoy the Arrowhead on their smartphones.  But, did you folks ever stop to think about the incongruity of washing your hands fastidiously after spending time in that room….but not the phone? Hmmmmmm…..)

The same portion of the brochure that I referred to at the beginning of this missive concludes by saying, “The Camp Nebagamon experience still strengthens character, engenders compassion, inspires self-discovery, creates lifelong friendships, and provides boundless fun.”  We could not be more excited than to introduce our brand new Arrowhead format that will allow us to connect easier, have more fun, and strengthen our camp family.

ENJOY!

Hope to see you at a reunion this winter!

90 Years

After 90 summers of hosting boys from all geographies, backgrounds, and interests, there can be little doubt that Camp Nebagamon really works. Nebagamon provides an experience, a venue and a community that fosters social and emotional growth, lifelong friendships, and fun for boys ranging in age from 9-15 years old. Of that I have never had a doubt.

Despite this level of confidence in what we have been doing at camp for nearly a century, as our 90th Reunion approached over Labor Day weekend, I admit that I wondered if the place was capable of delivering that same experience to grown-ups as well.

The first hurdle was getting the word out and seeing whether there was enough interest from our alumni to make the trek up to the North Woods over a holiday weekend. Although I was not surprised at the level of interest, I was shocked at how quickly the registration filled and we found ourselves in a waitlist situation. With over 200 alumni signing up to live in cabins, and nearly another 200 registering to attend the event but stay offsite (perhaps those folks had not heard about our upgrade a few years ago to 100% plastic coated waterproof cot sized mattresses!), we were overwhelmed by the response. Registrants included folks from 24 states, as well as several international attendees.

To be honest, this only increased the stress we felt about delivering a special weekend. While the planning had been going on for a couple of years (thanks to a wonderful Minneapolis based Reunion Committee including Frank Sachs, David Sachs, Mark Segal, Jeff Goldenberg, Chad Goldenberg, and David Zalk), we knew expectations were high and we hoped we could meet them. Would the weather be ok? Would the food work? How would camp look to our alumni? Could we offer programming that would be interesting enough, nostalgic enough, and fun enough to honor our 90th season appropriately and serve as a good enough tribute to Nebagamon?

Silly me…I forgot about the most important part of Nebagamon…the Camp Family.Of course it was going to work!
Everyone stepped up in the most perfect ways.

Our caretaking crew (with the help of a few summer staffers that extended their stays), exhausted already from a full season, kicked themselves into high gear to paint, landscape, clean, and repair a place that 300 boys had done their best to push to its limits. They brilliantly made a 90 year old institution look even better that it has looked at the beginning of each of those 90 seasons. It looked gorgeous.

Our 14 year kitchen manager, together with our culinarily-gifted waterfront director, planned breakfasts and lunches in the Rec Hall and assembled an off-season kitchen crew, so that all of our reunion goers could experience camp food the way that we do camp food. (Which is WAY better than camp food’s reputation in the outside world!)

Our year-round staff delayed their post-camp tasks to throw themselves into the event completely. They worked tirelessly to organize, administer, and make sure that everything was set for our important extra session this summer.

About 20 staff members found their way back to camp to serve as the “counselors” for the event. These weresome of our very best staff members from the past decade or so.

Then there was the programming to consider. After much discussion about clever new programs that we might throw into the weekend, ultimately someone bonked me on the head and reminded me that what we really should do is give our reunion attendees a weekend of CAMP! So the planning became simple. We organized projects, we organized a GTC (talent show), we organized a visit from Chief A.K. Agikamik, we organized a Countdown (an activity that we engage in at awards ceremonies to recognize the years that people have attended camp), we organized a Council Fire, we organized friendship fires, and, of course, we organizeds’mores! It was to be CAMP….plain and simple.

Yet, even with all of the efforts of Nebagamon’s employees, ultimately the event was going to boil down to the level of “buy-in” from our alumni attendees. I admit, I felt like this was a bit of a risk. Let’s be honest, sleeping inone of those beds as a 12-year-old is a lot different from sleeping in those beds as a 60-year-old. A slumber party with eight friends is heaven to a 5th grade boy, but maybe not so much for someone whose last sleepover party was 40 years ago. What about swimming in a lake, or tackling a climbing wall, or sailing a boat that you had long since forgotten how to rig!? Would the cabin’s electrical grids be able to hold up to the staggering number of CPAP machines that were on their way? The potential for problems and discomfort were daunting. Could this really work?

Silly me…I forgot about the most important part of Nebagamon…the Camp Family.

The truth is, if we had done no planning whatsoever, they would have all loved the event. All we really needed to do was throw open the gates of camp and welcome everyone in. It was like magic. It was as if we had replaced the giant statue of Paul Bunyan with one of Ponce de Leon, offering each attendee a cup of special bug juice on their way into camp, one that transformed them back to their childhoods. Back to the joys of simple things. Back to the silly jokes that characterize kids at ease. Back to Nebagamon.

The reunion was a near perfect rekindling of a summer at camp. There were laughs. There were tears. There were memories forged. There was some amazing talent on display. There was some naughtiness occasionally on display. But, most powerfully, there was the Camp Family on display. Our Camp Family that we all depend on, and rely on. Our Camp Family that accepts us and welcomes us even if we have not seen one another for decades. It was an amazing weekend.

Buoyed by the spirit and positivity of this special celebration, we head into the off-season with a renewed sense of responsibility, excitement, and enthusiasm for this incredibly special place called Camp Nebagamon. Here is to another amazing 90 years.

All is well in the North Woods!

Commencement

We are squarely in the throes of pre-camp right now. These special two weeks set the table for the summer. The pre-camp crew puts in all of the camp docks, cleans all of the cabins, rakes every inch of this place, paints buildings, and a variety of other tasks so that when the kids arrive in just 18 days, theirnew home is just that….a home.

Every summer, all of this work is executed by our pre-camp crew. Given the fact that this work begins just after Memorial Day, our pre-camp crew is usually made up largely of college students. This year, several of the crew are recent graduates. We eat our meals together around the Big House diningroom table. (It is an AWESOME place for a family meal….especially when the family includes no actualblood relatives, just camp family relatives. There is less arguing that way!) Given the fact that some of the crew are fresh from their graduations, and I have just arrived at camp from my own son’s high school graduation (Yeah…little Joshua just graduated from high school. And in a flash, I graduated toOLD DUDE.), it is not surprising that a good deal of conversation has centered around the idea of graduation.

This is graduation season. In late May and early June, graduations are ubiquitous. From full-blown pomp and circumstance affairs like high school and college graduations to less grand middle school graduations, the traditional graduations abound. In recent years, the graduation circuit has become even more clogged with elementary school graduations and even pre-school graduations! (I can only imagine how hard it is to find a cap and gown in a 4T.) Throw on top of those ceremonies the after school pottery class graduations, the Tadpoles swim class graduations which mark the auspicious and life changing rite of passage into the Minnow class, and the graduation ceremonies marking the change from bottles to solid foods that are a hallmark of so many Mommy and Me classes every spring (considered to be the absolute pinnacle of prestige for anyone on the commencement address circuit). Yes, there can be little doubt that this is the season of graduations.

While it is certainly fun to give a little grief to the pervasiveness of all of this graduating that is a part of the modern world, I actually am a firm believer in marking the comings and goings of differentchapters of our lives. To be clear, while I don’t truly believe that a graduation from elementary schoolis that gigantic of an accomplishment, I really do believe in the value of marking the end of something. By doing so, we are gifted with the opportunity to look back at the forest, when so much of the hustle and bustle of our lives requires us to pay attention to just the trees. Graduationencourages us to look back and take stock….a very healthy endeavor.

But there is more to it than that….

It has been noted, I am sure many times, that graduation ceremonies are commonly referred to as“Commencement” ceremonies. Isn’t it fascinating that a ceremony that is all about celebrating pastactivities and previous accomplishments should be called “Commencement?” In my mind, this is abeautiful choice of words, for captured in that very small semantic decision is a very powerful statement. We are encouraged to look back with pride at our accomplishments, but also to understand that the end of one period of time leads to the beginning of another. Whether that new stage be entering the workforce, going to college, matriculation into middle school, or just moving into the revered Minnow swim lesson group, graduation does not signal solely an end….rather the end ofone stage and the beginning of another.

I love that the graduation time of year juxtaposes so perfectly with the beginning of camp. Campers and staff alike will likely be looking back with pride at all they have accomplished throughout the school year. And while they are enjoying that sense of achievement, they will also be looking ahead. At this graduation time of year, with docks freshly erected at the waterfront, cabins cleaned and waiting for their summer occupants, the project board perfectly clear with only possibilities ahead, and a brand new summer at Nebagamon about to begin, this is truly a COMMENCEMENT. It is all ahead of us. We will run hard, learn hard, play hard, laugh hard, and camp hard…until that last Council Fire onAugust 10th. That Council Fire is written and performed by our 9th grade campers on their very last nightas campers at Nebagamon…ever. It is their graduation night…and commencement ceremony.

Can’t wait for our commencement ceremonies to begin on June 18!

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