North Star Camp for Boys







Thursday, May 26, 2011

May/June Siren Is Online


The May/June 2011 Siren is online, hot off the presses... and since its news for two months, we promise you twice the news, twice the excitement, and twice the journalistic excellence.


While those of you in the midwest may contend that we proclaimed it summer a bit too hastily, summer is definitely around the corner. This latest Siren is chocked full of news, including details about a slew of new counselors and support staff who have come on board over the past month or so. Read all about them by clicking on the above image or going to the Media Room of the NSC website, which can be found in the "Current Families" section.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Wait, go back...That's Santo!


We were watching the NBA Western Conference Finals at Leb and Sue's house when all of the sudden a familiar face popped up on ESPN. I quickly grabbed the remote to the DVR and pressed rewind. The Baseball Tonight commercial featured North Star's very own Jordan Santo proudly sporting his traditional Cardinals jacket and hollering like the crazed baseball fan he truly is.
Sue used her iPhone to capture Jordan on screen using up approximately 1.3 seconds of his 15 minutes of fame. We're looking forward to having Jordan back at camp in the flesh for his third year on staff.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

You Make the Menu!


As we get ready for the Summer of 2011, we are preparing the menu for a summer's worth of delicious food. And we want to hear from you! Whether you're a current camper, staff or alumni, we would love to get your help on the North Star menu. Don't forget to stay within budget...

Friday, May 13, 2011

Our 2011 Adlinistrative Team


A lot of great staff members are necessary to make a camp run smoothly. Our last several newsletters have detailed the counselors, trip leaders, and support staff who have committed their summers to making camp great. We're proud to introduce the administrative team that will be there to support those staff members and ensure that each of our campers has a safe and meaningful summer of 2011.

CIT Director - Jeff McCormack:
Jeff returns to North Star for his 16th summer and his 7th as our CIT Director. In this role Jeff oversees our Counselors in Training and serves as a vital mentor to our youngest staff members. Jeff grew up across the lake from North Star as his grandparents owned a resort on Spider Lake, but didn't join us until he we needed a senior counselor in the middle of the summer. Jeff hasn't left since. During the off season, Jeff is a special education teacher in Denver, working with young adults. He's also known to play a bit of disc golf from time to time. Most importantly, he's the husband of Kim (our program assistant) and father of Lake.

Waterfront Director - Cathy Topping
Cathy joins us for her first summer. Cathy has been a long time high school state champion swim coach and she is a open water swimmer having swam to Alcatraz and in New York harbor. Her dream is to swim the English Channel. Cathy worked for Pratt and Whitney selling jet engines to foreign countries and is now back in school getting a masters in education. She will add to our dog pack. A big welcome to Cathy.

Trip Director - Jason Mann
Jason joins us for his second year on out trip staff and his first as trip director. A Soils and Waste Management student at UW Stevens Point, Jason was referred to us last year by another camp in the area who had already filled their trip staff, but really liked Jason... We're glad they did. Jason made all of his trips a lot of fun and all of our campers loved having him as their trip leader last year.

Village Director - Michael Eichner
Returning for summer number nine, this will be Michael's first year on our administrative team. He brings a tremendous amount of enthusiasm to North Star. Michael hails from Northbrook, IL where he went to Glenbrook North High School and he is now a student at the University of Illinois where he is involved with the Phi Chi Theta business fraternity. He is also our climbing wall project head and resident pop culture expert.

Village Director - Ben Mizel
Ben joins us for his eleventh summer at camp and his second as a Village Director. He grew up in Scottsdale, AZ, attending Chapparal High School, and will be graduating from the University of Chicago in a few short weeks. At camp Ben has been a tremendous counselor and has helped oversee our athletics programs over the past two summers. He brings a thoughtful sense of humor and intelligence to all that he does at camp. Ben has worked with all ages as a staff member and has played a big role in planning many of our special programs.

Village Director - Andy Rodheim
Joining us for his ninth summer from Buffalo Grove, IL, this will be Andy's first summer as a village director. Andy has been one of our great junior village counselors and has done a tremendous job working with the little guys. Just about to finish his freshman year at Northwestern University, Andy is active in the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, where he is the rush chair.

Village Director - John Sheehan
John joins us for year number two and his first summer as a village director and adds to a village director team that is exclusive to Illinois Universities. John will actually be coming to pre camp this year a few days late as he is about to embark on a month long mission trip to Kenya. An avid basketball player, John headed the program last year for us and was also on our ski staff. John is from Carol Stream, IL and is a senior at the University of Illinois.





Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Superstar Counselor Recognized for Other Endeavors



At North Star, we know that Zach Blumenfeld is a great counselor. As it turns out, he has some other talents too.


We've been lucky enough to have seen Zach grow up at camp since he was in the fourth grade. The keyboard playing wiz-kid quickly turned into the Jeopardy superstar (see Zach talk about North Star on Jeopardy!). As the Stevenson senior gets ready to head to Vanderbilt in the fall, even the President has started to take note of what a special young man he is.

Zach was recently named a Presidential Scholar, one of only 141 high school seniors to receive this prestigious award. This honor, in addition to his success at water polo and music, has earned Zach a couple headlines as well. Zach's award was published in the Daily Herald, and the Chicago Tribune wrote a great profile of what makes him so successful.

We are so proud of Zach and all that he has accomplished. We look forward to the successes to come, and many more great summers at North Star!