Tonight at dinner, just as everyone had loaded their plates with chicken, sweet potato wedges and veggies, a quick rain came out of nowhere as we sat at the picnic tables. Nobody flinched. The sun was still mostly shining, and though it never rains at North Star, this was a bit more than a drizzle. And yet the campers and counselors laughed, covered the food, and waited as the 60-second cloud passed overhead. It is hard to imagine a scene like this taking place anywhere else. Smiling, laughing with friends, and enjoying a summer rain was just a great reminder of some of the simple pleasures of childhood at camp.
After dinner we had our regular Sunday evening programming of Unorganized Free and Cabin Campfires. Unorganized Free is another opportunity to capture that camp magic with some unstructured free play. And Cabin Campfires are an opportunity for each group to set aside some time to process their experiences and their growth, while setting goals and making plans for the week ahead. To read more about our Sunday programming, please check out this earlier edition of The Siren.
Last night at camp was our first Green-White Series of Second Session. Campers are placed on Green-White teams during their first summer and those teams remain for the remainder of their North Star careers. Green-White is a fun way to organize many of events in an ongoing competition throughout the summer, which includes the Green-White Marathon, games of All-Camp Capture the Flag, the Camper-Counselor Hunt, the Dodgeball Extravaganza and many more great activities will be a part of our ongoing Green-White competition through the summer. Green-White at North Star is an outstanding lens into our philosophy on competition at camp, which emphasizes the importance of being kind even while playing hard. We remind the boys that they are playing with their friends - that they are their friends before the game, during the game, and everyone should behave in such a way that they continue to be friends after the game. Our boys are all too familiar with the “haha, we won, you stink” dialogue that often echoes during school recess or local sports leagues, and we don’t want our campers to have to sleep in cabins where that is the pervasive language. So we ask that the boys try their best and support each other regardless of the outcome in order to create an environment where everyone can enjoy playing.
Today’s Grace: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
- Albert Einstein
It never ceases to amaze me how long the line is at the keylog ceremony. The keylog ceremony happens each week at our Friday Night Service. This week’s theme was “Being Yourself,” and featured music by Cat Stevens, Jim Croce and Taylor Swift. Oli Katz gave a great sermonette about his own journey with music, his discomfort playing in front of others, and the self-confidence that has come from pursuing his passion. And when it was time for the keylog ceremony, even though it was the first of the session, nearly every camper and staff elected to stand up in front of the whole camp to throw a stick into the fire to express their gratitude. The speeches come in all shapes and sizes as campers thank their cabinmates, counselors, parents, siblings, and all sorts of people for being good friends, good listeners, or just having done something nice for them. I think the sheer quantity of participants speaks volumes about how comfortable our campers feel with the North Star community.
And gratitude builds resilience. By taking time to acknowledge the good things in life, we are training our brains to see the positive. Then, when things are hard, we have already created the pathways to acknowledge the good in our lives. (If you’re looking for a great read while the kids are away, check out Dr. Deborah Gilboa’s new book From Stressed to Resilient. She worked with our staff last year and it has some great tips and exercises in the book). We are so lucky to be able to share in this practice each Friday Night while enjoying the beautiful sunset of the Council Ring.
Today was the third and final day of the first set of projects. Tomorrow the boys will switch to three different instructional activities that they had signed up for on the first night. We also had our first Green-White event of 2nd session, with an afternoon game of North Star Ball - a variation of Capture the Flag where instead of one flag per side, you have to get several balls to your team’s side to win a round. The teams worked hard on their strategies and it paid off with a very fun game!
Today’s Grace: "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Earlier this week, I alluded to Cole Hanover's sermonette from last Friday Night about community, and I wanted to share it here in written form:
Community is the reason I come back to camp each year. Before camp, I wasn’t looking for a community; I would get upset whenever I was assigned to a group project, and I thought it was cool to be an “outsider.” In every community, certain traits are rewarded. I've seen some centered around wealth, some centered around athleticism. But at Noth Star, we see things a liiiitle differently. Here at North Star, we reward growth of character. Here’s a story about a time I learned what it meant to be a member of a community that rewards character:
In the depths of a dumpster somewhere in the Chicago area lies a terribly tattered, gruesomely grimy, 30-something-year-old pair of hiking shoes. Unlike the mundane objects in their surroundings, these busted boots carry a story, one that has both figuratively and literally dragged me through the muddy process of manhood. Allow me to elaborate.
In my first year at camp, in J-2, I had a blast. I had my best friend from home, Ben
Rothschild, and met awesome new guys like Ethan Doane, Elliot Bramson, and Jack Ringold. But no cabin is perfect. Ben and I argued over the smallest things, Ringold was occasionally violent, Elliot had a competitive side, Ethan had a temper tantrum when I stole his magic trick book, and I was far too often naked in front of my cabinmates (they weren’t happy about it). The next year, for reasons unbeknownst to me, Ben and I were switched out of that cabin and put in J-6, while the rest of them were in J-5. I still liked my cabinmates though, so I was still happy. But for the next few years, I didn’t realize my cabinmates and counselors might not have enjoyed my presence as much as I thought, especially when I would sit out of activities, refuse to do cabin work, or deliver a snarky comment to my peers. Looking back, especially for my first few years, I was sometimes rude, whiny, disobedient, unengaged, and a smart-alack. Even though “sometimes” is not much, it is still vastly more than I prefer. Eventually, I became aware of this fact, but at first, I had a clouded perception of my own behavior. That’s the biggest thing I learned at camp. Character is not how you’re perceived, but how you act when nobody’s looking. Around the time I came to this conclusion, a few weeks before my 6th year, I made a resolution to not make too big of a fuss.
I had just finished middle school, and life was good. I’d also just about finished packing myself for the first time, which is a lot less fun than it may seem. So you can imagine that once I thought I’d checked off all items on the list, I was fairly relieved. But all that relief was drained out of me when my mom told me we forgot hiking boots. While she offered to buy a new pair, my super-genius father rushed up to his closet and unknowingly brought downstairs the demonic moccasins that would plague my next few weeks. In a rush to go to bed, I hastily tried them on, concluded that they fit, and thought nothing of it, drifting back to inaction.
On the first day of camp at the flag pole, I heard the names of all my usual cabinmates, but to my surprise, didn’t hear mine. Miraculously, Ben, myself, and Austin Flamm were all switched into S-2, back with Ethan, Elliot, and Ringold, the guys who I never stopped seeing as the kids they were 5 years earlier. I held into this warped reputation of them, taking no regard for how they had grown. I distinctly remember pulling aside Austin and Ben, saying, “guys, this will be a difficult cabin to be a part of, so we just have to stick together and defend each other against these guys.” I played into the trap so many people fall into every day, I let my cabinmates' insignificant mistakes define my perception of their character. This mistake is how communities fall apart.
On the second day of camp, right after we unpacked, we embarked on our five-day hiking trip, a longer and more demanding trip than I’d ever taken before. I knew I’d be fine though because I’d have my new hiking shoes. As I said, I’d been notorious for being an annoyance on these trips, but I was determined to stick to my “no fuss” resolution, especially because I wanted to impress my new cabin. I am proud to say that on the first day, we exceeded all expectations, and plowed through the five miles. In fact, I stayed in the front of our single-file line the whole time, setting the pace for my peers, and exceeding my comfort zone speed. While it was quite a challenge, I knew I was doing the right thing, and not falling behind. The sights were beautiful, and I considered it a good day, even though a park ranger kicked us out of our camping area, and we were forced to eat a dinner of cold carrots and onions. The theme of ups and downs was definitely a constant during this trip.
Along came day two. We were required to trek twice the length of the first day, so I had my doubts, but I started off strong in the front. About midway through the day, I got tired, and I ended up in the middle of the pack. Eventually, it felt like I was stepping on flimsy rubber with each step, and that’s when I saw that part of the soles of my shoes had began to peel off. What a funny occurrence, thought everybody. After the whole group paused for a few minutes, the shoes were good as new, fixed up with medical tape from the first aid kit. However, as the next few days went by, the shoes would begin to lose all reliability. They would burst at random, emitting the popping and squeaking noises of a malfunctioning machine, and every time, the whole group needed to stop so they could be taped up. They would gain additional thick layers of mud each day, making it even more difficult for the tape to stick. At one point, we found duct tape, but that worked even worse. We tried to wash the mud off in a river, but that just made the shoes grimier. As this process continued, I gradually worked my way further and further towards the back until the group stopped waiting for me, and it was just the trip leader and me, walking alone, both frustratingly dreading the next tape breach.
By the end of the fourth day, the only thing holding my shoes together at all was tape and prayers. My predicament was only worsened by my sensitive feet, the reason I normally have special supports in my shoes. Without this support, my immense pain spiked. This endless cycle climaxed on the fifth day when we were drenched in rain and my shoes completely gave way, resulting in me having to wear tripper Syd’s extra pair, which were five sizes too big. To make matters worse, one of the counselors decided it would be best if we arrived at the landing as a group, and put me back at the front of the line, making me set the pace for a few miles, resulting in some groaning and frustration from my cabinmates, but nowhere near as much as I was used to on previous trips. They weren’t upset because I wasn’t doing my fair share of work, but because I was struggling, and because of their empathy, they felt my struggle with me. Empathy is the currency of a community.
I was dumbfounded. Being put with these guys after so many years wasn’t a curse; it was a blessing because now I had a new chance to change their perception of my character. If my cabinmates could be so open-minded, forgiving, and flexible, why couldn’t I?
My counselor was named G and was from the UK, so obviously he was wise, or at least sounded so. He was the only counselor who led me on both my Porkies and the Superior Hiking Trail, and he seemed pleasantly surprised the whole way through. Occasionally, in between painful silences in the back, we would have fun little conversations, almost letting our problems slip away. At the end of the trip, I asked him why he was so happy. He responded, “I’m happy because you are. While suffering throughout this entire trip, you haven’t complained once, even though you had every right to do so, which is the exact opposite of last year. It’s been an honor to have witnessed your growth of character.”
Once I was struck by this sincere comment, I drowned in a sea of emotions: surprise, appreciation, skepticism, pride, and confusion. I had been meaning to grow as a person for a while, but I never expected it to happen without me even noticing. I may not have addressed it at the time, but during those five days of pain, I learned willpower. Willpower is the foundation community is built on.
When every crutch I was leaning on was snatched from under me, I truly had zero excuses not to put my best foot forward and power through the situation. And when I had to do it, why make a fuss about it? Why not embrace the obstacles? It was at that point I realized that I was going to keep the scrappy shoes in the cabin for the rest of the summer as a reminder that once I lost my soles, ironically once my foundation crumbles, that’s when I could actually build myself up, that’s when I could shift my perspective and will myself to a place where I’m actually proud of my character without having to worry about my reputation. And I can’t stress enough just how proud I am to be in a community that lets each other make mistakes, that builds each other up instead of bringing each other down, and that emphasizes growth of character above all else.
Thank you Cole for sharing your story!
It was a beautiful day at camp, with our 2nd day of activities off and running. Our evening finished with an Open Mic night that featured musical talent, circus skills and plenty of humor, while we simultaneously had some great games running on the fields.
Today's Grace: "Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion and knowledge."
- Plato
Today was the first typical day of second session, where the boys get to choose much of their schedule for themselves. On a normal day, we have five periods between breakfast and dinner. The first three periods are our instructional periods, which the boys sign up for on a weekly basis. They choose six electives for the week and take each of them for three consecutive days, for one hour and fifteen minutes each day.
The fifth period most days is our Organized Free period, which is an opportunity for the boys to choose an activity that they want to do just for that day. They can also use that time to rest, read, shower, or just hang with friends. The 4th period is the one period that the boys don’t have individual choice, as that typically rotates between Challenge Games, Village Activities, and Green-White competitions. This all puts together a schedule for each child that has a great deal of structure, but also a great deal of choice within that structure.
The idea here is that every boy can explore his own interests. Different kids will gravitate towards different activities, with a wide array of activities providing myriad opportunities for our boys to find success. And the hope is that this will also give the boys the freedom to have their favorite activities evolve through the years as they evolve as people. By summer’s end, you’ll hear stories of so many activities that your son has tried throughout the course of the summer, with each providing a chance to learn a new skill and a chance to learn more about themselves.
Tonight’s evening program was Karaoke Night, where our staff introduced themselves by singing and performing. While a subset of the group demonstrated some real musical talent, the majority of the staff showed off that they bring energy that makes each day at camp fun and makes us all smile.
Our first trips of the summer leave tomorrow, with S-1 and S-5 headed out on their respective adventures!
Today’s Grace: “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members..”
- Coretta Scott King
Today was our first Cruiser Day of 2nd session. Cruiser Day, which typically takes place every Tuesday, is a cabin based day where the campers work together to choose their activities for the day. In some ways, Cruiser Days are like our weekend at North Star because the schedule is different from the other days. Cruiser days start with a slower wakeup and we have donuts, fruit and cereal for breakfast. Then the cabins do a big cabin cleanup before heading out to a day full of fun.
Cabins can choose from the regular list of activities, or they can do some things that are out of the ordinary at camp like tubing, Musky fun, slip and sliding, or a cooking activity like making Oreo Balls. These opportunities for silly fun make Cruiser Days extra special, and the water-based activities had a particularly strong draw today because of the heat.
For dinners on Cruiser Day, every cabin cooks out their dinner over a campfire. We ended our first Cruiser Day with Tin Foil Surprise at our cabin cookouts. Each cabin gets potatoes, vegetables, hamburgers, cheese to wrap up in tinfoil and cook over the fire. Campers enjoy making funky shapes out of their tinfoil bundles and having the responsibility of making their own meal. The result is a delicious stew that is a classic favorite meal.
This Cruiser Day was also a Junior Village Cruiser Day, meaning our J-Village staff planned an incredible day of activities for “High School Day.” The staff divided the village into four high schools for a day of fun and silly competitions. Our junior campers got in the spirit of things by painting their high school’s colors across their faces, chests and backs. They wrote cheers and songs, played Counselor Ball (basically a big game of keep away), jumped over pizza boxes, played some football, had a trivia competition, swam and more before ending the day with ice cream.
Cruiser Days are also when we take the time to meet as an entire staff in the evenings after the campers are fast asleep. At our staff meetings, we review all things going well and that need improvement as well. We talk about the week behind and the week to come. Staff give each other where they’ve noticed a job well done. We discuss individual campers and how to best support them. We talk about how to get the most out of our program. And we finish off with a raffle for prizes and a delicious staff snack to appreciate our incredible staff who are working so hard to take great care of the boys.
Tomorrow will begin our regular program with the activities that the boys chose on the first night. More on that tomorrow!
Today’s Grace: “I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."
- Jimmy Dean
The first full day of 2nd session was a scorcher in the Northwoods. It was hot and humid with a high of 93! That meant that the water was warm for swim tests and a great afternoon of waterfront options. All of our four-week campers hopped in the lake to swim laps and tread water, the length determined by their age level. Swimming in a lake is always a bit different than swimming in a pool, but our boys did a fantastic job of handling any nerves and were very successful! I get to swim with the Juniors as they take the swim test and I love to see the way the campers support each other as they get over their nerves and get swimming.
Every village played dodgeball today, but in this version everyone has to stop and introduce themselves to the people that they had just eliminated. With the heat of the day, the Junior Village Dodgeball ended early in favor of running through the sprinklers. The campers also had their entry physicals in the Health Center, and had time to continue getting settled, explore camp, catch frogs, play roofball, tetherball and get in a little fishing.
Dinner was our opening banquet, which features a delicious pasta feast with spaghetti, ravioli and tortellini with sides of garlic bread and Caesar Salad. And for dessert, we feast on the camp tradition of Dirt & Worms, oreo pudding with gummy worms. But before the kids get to eating, they celebrate the banquet with the welcome line, featuring our staff dressed in ridiculous costumes singing and dancing. Our 8-week campers and counselors spent time teaching everyone the cheers, songs and camp traditions. One such unique North Star tradition is our birthday song. Today at dinner we celebrated one of our Pine Manor camper’s birthday! Our baker Sandy bakes beautiful cakes, that look and taste delicious. Birthdays are always exciting over here in the Northwoods because the camper’s entire cabin gets to enjoy the cake, the whole camp sings to them, they get to make a birthday wish, and often they get woken up with a pizza party later that night.
But the fun did not end at dinner. Following dinner, we had our first Wanegan of the session. Wanegan is the Ojibwe word for store, and for our campers it means candy! Campers line up and sing for candy at the porch behind Cabin J-5, and campers go through the Wanegan line to a great deal of excitement and fanfare to choose their candy bar. Our Wanegan King Nkosana brings all sorts of fun and joy to the experience as well as the kids cheer their way through the line.
We followed up Wanegan with an all-camp game of Capture the Flag. We split into temporary green and white teams and based one team behind the Junior Village and the other on the athletic fields. The flags were flying tonight, with teams opting for quick offense and less defense.
Tomorrow is Cruiser Day and we have a great deal of excitement planned for each cabin all, All, ALL day long!
Today's Grace: “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.”
- Oprah Winfrey
The second session of North Star’s 78th summer is officially underway! We arrived to find an incredibly enthusiastic group of 8-week campers and staff greeting jumping up and down, forming a tunnel and then they began hugging their old friends and introducing themselves to new ones. There was great energy throughout the bus ride and it was even better when we got to camp. We gathered around the flagpole to announce the cabins, and a lot of cheering, high fiving and hugging ensued.
From there, the boys headed to their cabins to get unpacked, and that is where the relationship building begins. It is our expectation that by the time everyone goes to bed, they feel that they have one counselor that they are comfortable waking up with a problem or a question and one friend that they are excited to play with in the morning. The counselors will be checking in with each boy, and helping them feel settled. Once the boys know that they have people that they can play with and people that they can count on, they can feel the physical and emotional safety that allows them to feel at home.
The boys are now unpacking and new campers are receiving a tour of camp. There is a lot of excitement as they head out to see our redone tennis and basketball courts, the addition of pickleball and our brand new fitness center! By the time they go to sleep tonight, they'll have played games with their cabins and met some of the other guys their age as well.
Dinner this evening will be burgers, fries and jello, plus the ever present salad bar and Sun Butter and jelly. There will be vegetarian burgers available for those that prefer, and Gluten free options for those that need it. And of course brownies for dessert. Immediately following dinner, the campers will choose their first week's activities.
At our Friday Night Service this weekend, one of our counselors Cole Hanover delivered an incredible sermonette about how the North Star Community has been a part of his own growth. He spoke beautifully about how camp allowed him to feel secure being himself, and how being himself allowed him to build deep friendships, develop self-awareness, and work to become the best version of himself. Cole noted how he had grown through the activities and the camping trips, the special events, the conflicts he had with his cabinmates and the feedback he received from his counselors. We strive to build that type of community for every camper that pulls through the arches so that each camper can have a safe and successful summer. After evening activities, each cabin will have their own candlelight ceremony, where each cabin will have a meeting led by their counselors. They will share their goals and expectations for the summer, while continuing to get to know one another. This will be the first of many cabin discussions that are an important part of developing the strong sense of community that we strive for at camp.
Tomorrow the kids will have a busy day as our medical team checks in the boys. They will take a swim test on a nice hot day and find time to play several games of dodgeball. Evening program will be our first game of All-Camp Capture the Flag. And Tuesday will be a modified Cruiser Day, so that the boys can spend one more day in their cabin pod before we hopefully clear our next round of our testing protocols. If everything goes according to plan, the boys will have their first three elective instructional activities, which they chose tonight, starting on Wednesday. From there we will also begin sending out our camping trips to get the boys back out having adventures in nature.
The first four weeks of the summer have absolutely flown by, and we’re so excited to have our second session boys in the rhythm of camp! We're excited to have everyone at camp for an amazing 4-weeks!
From here on out, you can follow along with the summer of 2021 on our website at www.NorthStarCamp.com/blog. We will also be posting updates on Facebook at www.facebook.com/northstarcampforboys, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/northstarcamp, and on Instagram @northstarcamp. We post pictures online on a regular basis, and you can access those directly from your CampInTouch page. To access your CampInTouch page, go to www.northstarcamp.com and click "login" in the upper right hand corner. From there you can click on "Photos" to see those smiling faces. If you'd like to set up guest accounts for friends or family you can do that from your landing page by clicking on "Guest Accounts."
