North Star Camp for Boys







Monday, January 30, 2017

Bully to our February Birthdays


Happy Birthday to our February campers! We hope you have a great day, don't forget to thank the kitchen staff! Bully for you!

February 6- AJ Borsand
February 7- Ethan Garnes
February 9- Benjamin Kite
February 11- Ryan Gershowitz
February 12- Charlie Matyas and Marty Askenazi
February 13- Sam Schulman
February 17- Jadin Redmond
February 19- Aidan Black and Isaac Kliska
February 20- Miles Goldberg, Oliver Marks, and David Cohn
February 22- Jack Ringold
February 23- Jacob Kanter and Luca Burton
February 24- Ori Stone and Miles Guten
February 27- Eli Marks

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

From the NSC archives: Camp's first summer


A special thank you to Alumnus Tommy Feldman for sharing a piece of North Star history with us recently. Tommy sent us the 1945 Birthday list, as well as a list of staff from the summer, a picture of some work being done on the athletic fields, and an invitation to the first annual NSC Welcome Banquet!



We hope you enjoy looking at these pieces of camp history as much as we did.  If you have any pieces of camp history, or know someone who does, please share it with us! We love new additions to the NSC Archives!

1945 North Star Birthday and Staff List:
                                


Athletic Fields 1945




Monday, January 9, 2017

Summer of 2016 Video and Chicago Reunion recap



Chicago area campers and staff spent their Sunday afternoon catching up with friends and bowling at Pinstripes in Northbrook. The crowd of more than 200 also included plenty of new and prospective campers, allowing them a chance to experience some North Star fun first-hand. Those who were at camp last summer received photo books filled with memories from the summer of 2016. The reunion doubled as the World Premier for the Summer of 2016 video, produced and directed by camper Jack Yonover. You can view some of Jack's award winning work here. Way to go Jack!


After bowling, Andy took the staff out to dinner at Boston Blackies in Deerfield, giving them more opportunity to catch up. Stay tuned for information about the upcoming reunion tour, coming soon to a city near you!

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Bully to our January Birthdays


Happy Birthday to our January birthday boys and girls! Bully for you and don't forget to thank the
kitchen staff for your cake!

January 1  - Ethan Schaefer
January 2  - Jack Gruen
January 3  - Ethan Lichty
January 6  - Jamari Anthony
January 11  - Palmer Levy
January 11  - Simon Crane
January 12  - Bodie Florsheim
January 12  - Ethan Reinberg
January 13  - Jonah Stern
January 14  - Alex Burstein
January 14  - Benji Richheimer
January 15  - Drew Shore
January 15  - Samson Adler
January 16  - Tate Brand
January 17  - Ben Goldfeder
January 19  - Davis Gapp
January 20  - Jack Pinsky
January 21  - Benjamin Barnett
January 21  - Simon Schwartz
January 22  - Sammy Goldfeder
January 24  - Reid Gruen
January 25  - Zev Cherpak
January 26  - Aden Flora
January 28  - Luc Sun
January 28  - Mike Sun
January 30  - Gabe Katz
January 30  - Grant Nguyen
January 31  - Matthew Steinback
January 31  - Will Garnes

Sunday, January 1, 2017

NSC New Year's Resolution


An excerpt from Angela Duckworth's "Grit":
According to Stanford developmental psychologist Bill Damon, such a beyond-the-self orientation can and should be deliberately cultivated. Now in the fifth decade of his distinguished career, Bill studies how adolescents learn to lead lives that are personally gratifying and, at the same time, beneficial to the larger community. The study of purpose, he says, is his calling.
In Bill’s words, purpose is a final answer to the question “Why? Why are you doing this?”
What has Bill learned about the origins of purpose?
“In data set after data set,” he told me, “there’s a pattern. Everyone has a spark. And that’s the very beginning of purpose. That spark is something you’re interested in.”
Next, you need to observe someone who is purposeful. The purposeful role model could be a family member, a historical figure, a political figure. It doesn’t really matter who it is, and it doesn’t even matter whether that purpose is related to what the child will end up doing. “What matters,” Bill explained, “is that someone demonstrates that it’s possible to accomplish something on behalf of others.”
In fact, he can't remember a single case in which the development of purpose unfolded without the earlier observation of a purposeful role model. "Ideally," he said, "the child really gets to see how difficult a life of purpose is--all the frustrations and the obstacles--but also how gratifying, ultimately, it can be."
 
As I read these words again, I was struck by how relevant this science is to what we have set out to do. North Star has been put in place to ignite that spark, to create the beyond-the-self orientation. We recognize that these things don't happen on their own for children, but rather that these are lessons that are taught by intentional role models. So as the calendar now has turned to 2017, may we resolve to deliberately cultivate this selfless purpose in the lives of our campers, our families and our communities.
Wishing a Happy, Healthy 2017 to our North Star family!