A True Throwback Thursday

It was Marie's Birthday on Sunday!!!!!!! 

Camp Foley wouldn't be what it is today without our wonderful Executive Director, Marie Schmid! She is the reason so many kids can come to Camp Foley and have amazing life changing experiences. Marie understands how important camp is to its campers and alumni because she went to camp too! So in true throwback fashion, and in honor of Marie, we're bringing back a blog she wrote in 2012! Here is her earliest camping experience in her own words...

"Imagine me as an extremely shy seven year old spending my summers at Camp Foley which in the 60’s was all boys. I was also sandwiched between two brothers. So down the lakeshore I went for 4 weeks to Camp Wabigoniss, for girls only!

So what does a seven year old remember about this first camping experience almost 50 years later?

• Being the shortest and youngest camper in camp.
• Wearing my camp uniform proudly – white T-shirts, baggy white or blue shorts, navy crew neck sweatshirt, blue jeans, and my blue bucket hat.
• Riding the white, fat mare – “Dusty”. She was so round that my legs went straight out like I was doing the splits and she had one slow speed taking us around and around that ring.
• Engraving a wooden plate and making a leather belt (found years later tucked away as treasures within my mom’s things).
  
• Being totally embarrassed with the 8 Camp Foley sisters, in full habits, arriving in the “big green buffalo” – a bright, one of a kind green car, probably a prelude to what is now the van, to visit me!
• Muffling my face at night and crying into my pillow for the first 4 nights of camp and then crying my little eyes out when it was time to go home.
• Sitting on my bed and having girl time with my new, best friend.
• Being horrified with my fellow campers and counselors when told to eat this square of green Jell-O, nicely displayed a leaf of lettuce and seeing the leftover vegetables suspended in this creation – lima beans, carrots, green beans, corn, etc. And the dab of mayonnaise on top!
• The hand bell that would ring frequently during the meal to remind us that we were too noisy. (It was very quiet on that Jell-O day.)
• The older campers turning us “youngers” into these hideous reindeer complete with red noses, sticks as antlers on our bucket hats and singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer at skit night.
• Being hungry at night and hiding under my covers eating toothpaste – a skill passed down from an experienced camper.
• Being a “celebrity” with the older girls who had brothers at Camp Foley and wanted to know all about the cute, male counselors and older boys at Foley. I wanted to evaporate and just be a Wabi camper!
• Kneeling on the wooden floor for the daily Catholic Mass.
• The kindness of the director, Booty, in making me feel welcome and wondering how the other director, "Insky" ever got her name.
• Knowing that I wanted to return to my rustic cabin at the point next year to be with my friends and the sadness that camp closed forever that winter with the death of Booty.

The Wabigoniss Building named for Marie's old camp

I wish now that I could thank my parents (both deceased) for this first camping experience. The seeds were planted in me to be independent, to be victorious in dealing with homesickness or embarrassing situations, and to overcome my shyness. I thrived in the camp environment as a seven year old! I may not have eloquent memories or life changing experiences, but a foundation was started. I also have “camp” within my memories to return to, on those not so happy days.

At Camp Foley, when passing by our building called the Wabi, where one of the original signs of Wabigoniss is proudly displayed, I have wonderful flashbacks. Even the Jell-O is a fabulous memory! Thank you Mom and Dad! And from the younger Foley campers, thank you to their moms and dads also!"

- Marie Schmid, Executive Director

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

One of Camp Foley's best traditions (in my professional opinion) is it's birthday tradition. I love when the entire Dining Hall sings "happy birthday" to someone as they stand on a milk crate and followed by the counselors surrounding the birthday camper and singing the staff birthday song. Who can resist ominously chanting, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we hate do it, but we must we must," as campers and counselors follow the birthday boy or girl to the lake to be thrown in by his or her counselors? Follow all of this up with a special Foley birthday cake - amazing! Guest blogger and 2013 counselor Melissa Martutartus recalls the birthday of one of her 2012 campers.

Melissa helping to throw Jessica into Whitefish Lake.

I have many favorite moments that I can recall from my first summer at Foley. I love the fact that there are so many traditions that one would only understand having gone to Foley. One of which is to be thrown in the lake on your birthday. It was one of my favorite moments, being a new counselor, that I was a part of throwing my camper into the lake. It made me feel like I helped make Jessica’s day even though she knew it was coming. However, it made my day even more because the entire camp was watching. I felt as though it is an honor to throw someone into the lake. And since Jessica was a member of my cabin, we were able to laugh as a cabin about it that night together! 

-Melissa Martutartus

Have you ever celebrated a birthday at Foley, or  might you be a first-timer camper this summer and have this tradition to look forward to? Do you have another Foley tradition that's your favorite?