The Unexpected Visitor

I have been at camp Foley for many years, and I often hear amusing camp stories floating around the office, but my quest to bring you blog-worthy tales of happenings from around camp brought me in contact with Kara Sime. Kara spent 3 summers with us (1991, 1992, and 1993) providing fun and guidance to Foley campers, and presently works as the Director of Human Resources for Agropur, a dairy Co-Op. She resides in Roseville, MN with the 2 significant people in her life, Ted and 2 year old daughter Catherine.

Kara recites a story where her duties called for a little more than she bargained for...

It was the summer of 1991 and I was the counselor of 9 year old girls in cabin MicMac. One night during the session we had a hike and overnight planned to the Tipi Village. Although it began to rain on our walk, our spirits weren’t dampened! When we arrived, I had a hard time lighting the fire due to the rain, but eventually managed to get it lit and cooked the hotdogs for the girls. Due to the rain, I allowed the cabin group to eat the hotdogs inside the tipi, and afterwards, I made sure that the girls removed all the leftovers from inside.

During the night, the nine 9 year-old girls were fast asleep in a circle in the tipi with their legs pointing inwards and I was awoken by a strange noise coming from outside the tipi. I was a little spooked by this noise, and my main priority was the safety of my sleeping campers. I laid there stiff and awake while I thought of a plan. I sat up slowly, grabbed my flashlight and for a fraction of a second, flashed it at the opening of the tipi. I was greeted by the unmistakable black and white color scheme of a skunk!

While I didn’t want to wake the kids, more importantly, I didn’t want the skunk to get any closer, or spray near the tipi. In the darkness, I started to lightly tap on the floor of the tipi (which was slightly raised off the ground) in an effort to scare the skunk away. The tapping was followed by ruffling noises from the skunk, so again I tapped a little harder on the tipi floor to try to spook my new “friend”. The second time, my tapping was followed by silence. I sat anxiously for a few seconds before building up the courage to turn on my flashlight to check on the skunk. When I did, the skunk had disappeared! The skunk had not sprayed and the girls were fast asleep - a complete success!

Kara is standing in the back row on the right and is pictured with her MicMac cabin group. As a side note, our tipis have now been replaced by tree houses, so stories like this are thankfully a thing of the past.

- Mary Stevens, Administrative Assistant, Camp Foley.

We are ready to be wolves!

When I agreed to interview Helena Hickok (2 year Foley Campers) and Riley O'Connor (1 year Foley Camper) for "The Rattlin' Blog", I was immediately struck with two thoughts - 1. This is going to be fun and 2. Will I be able to get a word in edgewise?  Here are the results.  I'll admit I had to fill in a lot of the holes, but you be the judge.

Now that you are away from camp, what is the one spot that you miss the most?
H: Foley Green!
R: ya, Foley Green!
Why?
H:You get to hang around and chill and play Gaga. Oh ya and look at nature (laughter).
Me: Do you really just sit and look at nature?
H & R: (laughter and a whole bunch of stuff I couldn't understand) No, but we just like to hang out there. Its peaceful.

Oh boy. I'm losing them already.

If you are helping a new camper pack for camp, what is the one item that you can't live without?
R: Lifejacket!
H: No you can just use one of theirs.
R: oh ya good point...umm...
H or R: (too much laughing at this point to tell) Sunglasses! Friendship string! Water bottle!

You are going to be 8th graders next year so that means you will be Wolves for the first time this summer at camp!
H & R: Oh ya!  YES!
I know! So exciting!  So what part of being a wolf are you most excited about?
H: Probably staying up later and going to that extra activity period after dinner (6th period).

So you probably have heard a lot of rumors about what is in the Wheelhouse (the staff lounge) what do you really hope they have in there by the time you are counselors (I'll admit I have no idea who said what and in what order...too much laughter)?
H &/or R: A recliner hot tub with cup holders a delivery guy from Rafferty's Pizza that just always shows up.

I won't even try to explain that one.  Ok, girls, on a more serious note.  Why are you so excited to come back to Foley?
H: The activities and all our camp friends from last year.
R: And wakeboarding.
H: And fun time.
R: And all the counselors.
So pretty much everything?
H & R: Yep.  Everything.

Thanks very much to Helena and Riley for taking the time to text, call and facetime with me to get all the answers we needed. Their favorite foods at camp include scrambled eggs and strawberry yogurt. When not making all the campers and staff crack up, you can find them both on the soccer field, knocking in goals or zipping down the hills as part of the Orono teams.

Meet Mr. Nick St. John

They say you have just a few seconds to make a good impression, and it's almost impossible to ever change it. Well lucky for me the first camper at Camp Foley I met was Nick St. John. Nick tells me he has been coming to Camp Foley for 4 years, and it's the people that keep bringing him back! As a brand new Assistant Director here at Foley, these words were like music to my ears. When I asked Nick if he meant the other
campers or the staff he answered "both!" "Christina, Peter, and Austin are probably my favorite counselors, they always make sure you're having fun and involved in what’s going on."

This will be my first summer with Camp Foley and I share Nick’s enthusiasm to fast forward to summer. "I like coming to Camp Foley because the weather is cooler up there than in Arizona, it can be around 100 degrees so it’s not as fun to be outside." I was a little jealous when he told me he was wearing shorts all year round and I'm looking out the window to a frozen lake.

Nick and I share interests in all the activities at Camp Foley from
Paintball, Riflery, and Wakeboarding. The older kids might
want to look out for Nick on the speed ball course in Paintball - I
won’t give away his secrets but I think I have my work cut out for me
this summer.

When I think about what I would want my kids to get out of Camp Foley,
I'm happy to hear Nick's thoughts on how camp has changed him as a
person. "I'm more mature. It’s easier for me to make new friends and
I'm more outgoing." It’s not every day you hear a 12 year old boy say
he's more mature. It’s easy for us to think about Camp Foley as being a
summer getaway with all the great memories - From timidly arriving on
the bus the first day, to wishing you had just one more night to hang
out in your cabin with your new best friends. Nick and the other
campers will carry all of these memories with them for the rest of
their life, but what they don't realize today is the way Camp Foley
has given them the mold to becoming a more confident, responsible and
respectful person.

So whether you wear shorts year round or 'parka' is in your vocabulary,
keep June and July in your minds and I can’t wait to meet hundreds of new
friends!

- Adam Ashley, Assistant Director, Camp Foley

We probably needed a bigger table

The best part of camp…..reunions! Oh! Surprise! You thought I was going to say soda bread or maybe waterskiing…well…I didn’t. While those things are of course way fun and more importantly actually happen at camp, one of my favorite parts of camp is all the great get-togethers you get to have with camp people after you leave. Sometimes they are unexpected (like when Gaby Driessen hailed a cab in downtown Chicago and out pops Ben Hawkins) and sometimes they are obsessed over, strategically planned for years and scheduled to align with everyone’s schedules (not to mention the Midwestern weather in the middle of winter)!

Today we are going to highlight one such reunion that happened over Thanksgiving break this past November in Minneapolis, MN. I hesitate to start with this one because it is so epic in, not only its size, but the locations people came from in order to hang out for a few days (Chicago, St.Louis, Des Moines, London). I feel like we will have a lot to live up to down the line. But here it is anyway. I’ll start with a list of attendees:

Megan Beh, Megan McGuire, Sabrina Carlins, Allie Farino, Mary Grace Schuler, Caroline Schuler, Parker Stevens, Luke Walden, Tate Spencer, Cole Spencer, Anna Copman, Maddie Lorentzen, Melissa Ferrie, Jess Hickok, Austin Lilly, Peter Beltz, Jack Firth-Powell, Leslie Strobel, Robert Lilly, Evan Oncay, Courtney Kronschnabel, Katie McGuire, Stephen Davis, Kevin Moakley, Miranda Lockner, Sean Moakley, Gaby Driessen and Jessie Garretson. Oh and Norm. And I. And if we are getting technical then Martha Lopez Driessen was there too. Campers, CITs, Octos, Counselors, Past Counselors, a Director and a Mom (who also happens to be an Alumnus of camp). And a Dog. Epic.

While I sat there being peppered with countless questions about who, what, where and why and trying to not get overwhelmed by all the fantastic energy, it dawned on me that this is not only the BEST part of camp, this IS camp. Friendships with people from all over the world, a language that no one else understands, a common accomplishment of staying away from home for 2 or 4 weeks at a time, and an overall feeling that something beyond mosquito bites or Whitefish waves bind us forever. THIS is camp.

Hope to see you around!

Alli Faricy, Director

Special thanks to the Beh Family for hosting all of these hooligans. If you have recently had a camp reunion (big or small) or are planning one, we would love to hear about it. Submit your stories to Alli.

Foley helps parents with 'Child-Sickness'

Is the single most important thing about camp the fact that the child’s parents are not there? I’m sure for most campers this at least makes their top five. So why is it becoming so increasing difficult for parents to allow their child time away from their side? There are parts of me that can see where parents are coming from on this one – it’s no secret that a child is a parent’s most prized possession, and so they should be. But on the other hand (the hand of me that has worked as a camp counselor for five years) I can see the benefits that children receive from this time spent away from parents at camp.

For the past thirty years, Michael G. Thompson has consulted to independent and public schools throughout the United States. This work has given him a very unique view to the concerns and preoccupations of loving, dedicated, but often very anxious parents. “Educators tell me that they are seeing a growing minority of parents who are having difficulty allowing their children to go away from them.” Michael reports that he has heard very similar anecdotes from camp directors – parents calling every day suffering from severe ‘child-sickness’ even though their children are obviously thriving at camp. This discovery has inspired Michael to write ‘Homesick and Happy – How Time Away From Parents Can Help a Child Grow’; an essential read for those parents who are struggling to allow their child those times away from their side – those times away that in my opinion are so critical to the positive development of a child’s social skills.

Here at Camp Foley it is our philosophy to partner with parents during every step of the way – it is our promise to work closely with parents to develop confident, responsible and respectful youth. So please, if you have any concerns at all while your child is with us, let us know. We will do all we can to help. And if my experience here has taught me anything, it is that your child will return home after camp with stronger personal skills, increased confidence and with a heightened respect for themselves and others.

- Ricky Searson, Assistant Director, Camp Foley.

Tackling the trees...

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Well, what do you think about the opening quote? Does it make a noise? Does it not? Well, all I know is that the ones we cut down around camp all make noise!
Every year since I have been a part of the year round team, we have harvested trees throughout camp in the fall. Most of the trees we take down are rotten and unhealthy trees. Other trees we take down are in areas that are potential hazards to our active campers and our facilities and equipment.

In the fall of 2010 we harvested in the neighborhood of 25 trees. It was an exciting and new experience for me and one that I will never forget. Before coming to camp, I had just a little experience with cutting down trees and operating a chainsaw. With some training from a tree harvesting “expert” and help from camper families, the Ryan’s and the Welch’s, I have come a long ways. We had so much wood that after filling our woodshed, we gave the rest to needy people in our community and had the satisfaction that they had fuel for winter heat.

This past fall we had some more trees to drop. When you come back to camp I am sure that you will notice some of the larger trees that are missing like the two big oaks next to the Shop and a couple of smaller birches on the girl’s end next to Tekawitha and Matoaka. But the biggest and heaviest one that came down was the prominent tree on the corner of the tennis courts! Take a look at the video clip to get a front row seat.

Remember, when doing stuff like this, be safe and have fun!

Until next time...

Chris Mathiowetz, Director, Camp Foley

The Happiness Project

As a parent and a relatively new blog follower, I experienced profound joy when following one of my favorite blogs, The Happiness Project, and its author Gretchen Rubin had a wonderful, camp answer to the question she proposed to Rachel Bertsche (author of MWF Seeking BFF), “Have you always felt about the same level of happiness, or have you been through a period when you felt exceptionally happy or unhappy – if so, why?”

Rachel responded, "Some of the happiest times in my life were spent at summer camp… I used to feel a happiness rush the moment I stepped off the bus onto the campgrounds … all that was expected of me was to have fun. Suddenly there wasn't the pressure of grades, or the social drama that seemed to accompany school… It probably won't surprise you to read that my best friend in the world went to camp with me, so that increased my happiness plenty. Camp basically provided a double-happiness boost: it removed the stress of trying to excel in school or extra-curriculars that existed in my "regular" life, and gave me 24/7 friend time!”

What a tremendous gift that we can give to our children – the gift of a couple weeks of a “double-happiness boost” – no stress and friends 24/7!

- Marie Schmid, Executive Director, Camp Foley.