St. Patrick don't banish our Snakes!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (Well Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day But Whatever!) Time to don green clothes and lots of shamrocks and celebrate this fun Irish holiday. This day is named after the patron saint of Ireland Saint Patrick who was a bishop on the island during the fifth century.

My favorite myth about St. Patrick is that HE is the reason there are no snakes on the island in Ireland. The myth says that the snakes attacked St. Patrick during a 40 day fast he was undertaking on top of a hill,  and he  banished all the snakes, and chased them into the sea. As funny as that image may seem, the truth is there is actually no proof that snakes EVER lived in Ireland...

But you know where they do live????? HERE AT CAMP FOLEY! We would never want to banish them from camp, and in fact we love them! They are a favorite among campers and have been a staple of camp for over 20 years!

A Hognose snake in the wild

According to some of our snake expert counselors from 2019 Ace and Ryan, one of our most popular snakes is a Hognose snake, named "Hoggy". She's old enough to vote, clocking in at 18 years old. She uses her upturned nose to dig and burrow in her cage. Her scales mimic that of a rattlesnake and sometimes she will "rattle"trying to pretend to be a much more dangerous snake.

Ryan holding Lucy with campers

Our nature instructors  also say our gentlest snake is a black rat snake named Lucy. As you can see from her pictures she isn't black though! She is something called "leucistic", a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal causings white scales or fur. This is similar to an albino animal except leucistic animals do not have red eyes. Lucy loves to climb all over campers and be held.

Check out some pics of our campers with the camp snakes. And from everybody here at Camp Foley... HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

A cure for homesickness?

Hey Parents! It may only be January, but school (online or otherwise) will be over before you know it and soon you'll be packing the kids up to come to Camp Foley! While everyone is super excited right now, including us, a very common ailment that can strike campers when they least expect it is homesickness. Its a natural feeling, especially for our campers who are coming to camp for the first time.

But is there a cure for homesickness? The short answer is no, but there are many methods for helping relieve some stress and fear that comes with coming to an overnight camp. Check out some tips on how to stop homesickness in its tracks...

• Include your child in the planning process. Have your child describe the geographic location where they would like to go to camp and what kind of activities they would like to participate in
• Talk it out. Tell your child that while they might get homesick, you believe they can get through the sad feelings if they keep themselves busy, talk to their counselors and try to make friends. Try to avoid spreading any feelings of sadness or anxiety you may be feeling over them going to camp
• Create stamped envelopes addressed to home so your child can send you letters once a week updating you on how they are doing
• Get excited with your child. Talk about all the activities that they will experience during camp and ask them which ones they are looking forward to the most

Check out this article for more tips to prepare your child for camp. And at the end of the day remember that homesickness is completely normal, and actually a good sign! It means your child misses the happy safe home you created for them. They may not understand how important learning to be comfortable leaving home might help them in the long run, you can take comfort in knowing you are giving your child the tools to develop independence and confidence that will help them for the rest of their lives. 

10 Years of Blogs!

Guess what everybody?.... The Ratlin' Blog just turned 10 years old!

We have officially been publishing these weekly blogs since 2010, and it's amazing to look back and see all the different blogs that have been published over the years. So in honor of our Ten year anniversary we're going to take a stroll down memory lane and revisit some of the most popular blogs from waaayyyyy back when. Lets get started!

The Ratlin Blog has 321 blogs published so far, and that number gets bigger every week. We've had 9 different people write blogs for Camp Foley over the years, and many campers who have contributed to blogs throughout the years.

The first blog was published on April 16th, 2010. Written by none other than Alli Faricy herself. It is one of just 3 blogs published in 2010, and it is a welcoming message from Alli and it explains how one of Alli's goal for 2010 was to start a camp blog, mission accomplished! The most read blog of 2010 was also written by Alli, and it details an experience she had during Outdoor ed, where the kids were stuck in the pouring rain while canoeing but had their spirits lifted when they got to see a beaver!

Sometimes things have bumpy starts and there are no blog posts in 2011, but they came back next year!

In 2012 we hit 1,000 views on one of our blog posts! Again written by our director Alli Faricy, this one was about Snapping Turtles! And is the second blog in our series of "Camp Creatures" where eac blog highlighted a different creature that was indigenous to Minnesota.

You'll recognize a pattern because in 2013 we got 1,455 views on another "Camp Creature" blog. This one was all about beavers! This one was written by a past social media manager and counselor Krista Strobel. She would go on to write many blogs over her time here working at Foley.

Over the next couple of years we didn't crack 1,000 for a while, but in 2014 a blog written by Krista was the most popular of the year. It was an original comic created by Thomas R., a camper from that year. It involves a mystery around camp with him and his friends.

And then our blog was 5 years old! 2015 was an exciting one because its the first year that our director Marie Schmid wrote the most popular blog of the year! She wrote a reaction to a Washington Post article, where Parents got in trouble with the low for allowing their child to walk home. She recommends a book explaining how the concept of camp helps children develop more independence, and talks about how she felt raising kids within a camp setting.

Rolling into 2016, it was Jordan Anderson who wrote the most popular blog of the year. It was our thanksgiving blog (this will become up again, pay attention) and Jordan chose to spotlight camp and show off some beautiful images of the Camp Foley grounds, with Sunsets included!

We got so close to 1,000 views in 2017 with 883 people visiting our blog to read Jordan's Thanksgiving blog, making it the second year it was the most read blog post (told you this would pop up again). This time Jordan highlighted a camper, Mae, who joined the Hall of Fame that year. he posted her 5 year essay and had Mae answer some questions about her time as a camper here at Foley.

Photo by Alli Faricy 

So we've haven't hit over 1,000 views for fours years now, well things are about to change... drastically! 2018 is the year we not only hit 1,000, we hit over 10,000!! With 12,609 views on this blog post, it is out most read blog to date, written bu Jordan. It is an animal spotlight post about bald eagles. I couldn't tell you why so many people thought this was so provoking but the numbers do not lie!

Almost caught up... second to last but certainly not least is 2019. The most popular blog of the year was published right after camp ended. It was written by Billy Weiss and gave campers tips for going back to school. Not quite bald eagle numbers but we did get over 500 views on this post.

And here we are, in 2020 with so much to look back on and so much to look forward to! I've have been writing the blogs for Ratlin Blog for a few months now, and I love that we continue to reach audiences with new articles, camp tips, and Foley updates. Stay tuned for more blogs to come!

Dive Right In!

This week I thought we could "dive in" on a very popular activity here at camp... DIVING!

Here at Camp Foley, we have a diving tower that is installed every summer right before campers arrive, then taken down and stored in the winter... so it doesn't freeze! Our first diving tower was a metal standing tower, that had to be walked out to its location by several counselors, walking on the bottom of the lake. In 2011 we replaced this tower with a new floating diving tower. It is much easier to get in and out of the water, and is much easier to install as part of the swim dock, which all the counselors are grateful for!

There are 3 awards you can recieve in diving here at Camp Foley, the springboard basic, the springboard master, and the very difficult Flying Eagle. Campers must gain each award sequentially, no skipping around! The awards focus on  mastering a variety of dives like the tuck, back, and leg straight dive. To earn these awards you must also be familiar with the mechanics of diving. These

include your body alignment, your approach when diving, and even what the appropriate settings on the diving board should be. The last award in diving, the Flying Eagle, is considered one of the hardest awards to earn at Foley. It includes front and back dives, flips and even a 720 degree spin. There is an added difficulty of having to perform all these dives with an audience! That's right, Flying Eagle recipients must complete a dive show in front of campers and staff in order to get everything checked off.

Our most current recipient of the Flying Eagle is Ben Scholtz, who earned the award in 2019! Check out pictures from his dive show below...

Alpha Games Update!

The color war!

Camper racing boats they made themselves!

2019 was the first year we had the Alpha Games!

We divided the camp into four teams, red, blue, green, and yellow. The campers competed in multiple challenges, including building boats out of cardboard and milk cartons, ending in an epic race on Whitefish Lake. Each session a winning team is announced and NEW this year the winning team of each session will have a trophy adorned in their team colors to honor their accomplishment. These trophies are displayed on top of the piano in the dining hall for all to see. After our 2020 alpha games, new winners for each session will be announced and that team will have the opportunity to decorate their trophy in their team color. In 2019 we had the battle of whitefish lake, but campers should be prepared for a whole new challenge in 2020!

New Alpha Game Trophies!

Campers were all assigned to one of the four color teams last summer, and this team placement will stay with the camper for the rest of their time here at Foley. That’s right! If a camper was on the blue team last year, they are on the blue team every year! This tradition will allow teams to develop team dynamics that will last a long time. This gives campers the opportunity to deck out in their team colors every year because they will know exactly what color to stock up on. Songs and cheers will be passed down through the ranks and become a part of the team as they are performed throughout the coming years. We are very excited to see how the Alpha Games develop over many summers here at Camp Foley.

Leap Frogs for Leap Year!

This month we get an extra day! Every leap year features an extra day added to the end of February, giving February 29 days instead of the usual 28. This bonus day happens because it actually takes the earth 365.25 days to rotate around the sun. To compensate for this extra time, an extra day needs to be added approximately every four years.

But enough about math, let's get to the frogs!

Frogs are a huge part of the ecosystem in northern Minnesota where Camp Foley is located. We have gone on many a frog hunt around our grounds and a frog is a requirement for our "Nature Hall of Fame" award where campers must catch and identify 5 specific animals found around camp. Here are 3 cool frog facts to impress all your peers on our extra day in 2020!

1. Wood frogs make their own anti-freeze?
 The wood frog can endure temperatures as low as 23 °F for several weeks, with 65‒70% of its body turning to ice during that time. The wood frog protects the remaining fluids in its body by increasing the concentration of glucose in its body, essentially creating a natural protective antifreeze.

                                                                2.The Mink frog STINKS!
The smell a mink frog gives off is a lot like the stench of a rotten onion! The frogs do this to seem much less tasty to other animals, and its very likely you will smell these guys long before you see them. It spends much of its time in water that have lots of water lilies. The mink frog uses the lily
pads as a means of escape from predators.

3. Bullfrogs are Illegal?
That's right! In Minnesota it is illegal to buy or sell a bullfrog unless you have a DNR (department of natural resources) permit! Or... if you're going to use it for bait in fishing. Because this law is not well
known bullfrogs have actually become an invasive species up around northern Minnesota. Bullfrogs eat almost anything they can fit into their mouths, including insects, mice, and other FROGS! With their appetites so large and their number of predators so small, scientists think they may be having a negative impact on the ecosystem in Minnesota.


Check out this website for lots more Minnesota frog facts! Enjoy your extra day on February 29th, and maybe play a game of leap frog to celebrate. The record to beat is 1,348 people leap frogging at once! And that's an extra leap frog fact in honor of our extra leap year day... HAPPY LEAP YEAR

Performing Arts Class Spotlight

Video Creativity

Campers continuously return to camp for the plethora of athletic and intense activities camp has to offer. Waterskiing is a favorite activity on the water. Paintball is a unique land activity, where experience and a mixture of athleticism and strategy is required. What we don’t always consider, though, are the just as popular creative activities Foley offers. One of these activities that gets continuous sign ups is Video Creativity.

Campers who so desire may take a Video Creativity Class. They will work together to create short 2-3 minute films to be shown on the last day of camp on a screen in the Wabigoniss building, in front of all of camp.

On the first day, campers come up with a script and outline for their video. Some popular video themes include:
Music Videos
Movie Trailers
Counselor Impersonation Videos
Video Blogging (Vlogging)

After a strong outline is made, the videotaping process begins. The 2^nd day is devoted to filming shots for the scene. Campers can rehearse and practice lines if time permits. On the last day, campers complete their last minute touches or filming. They give the counselor notes on songs or edits that they want in the film. Counselors are given time after the film is shot to then make a video, in Final Cut Pro software. Once complete, the video is ready for the last day of camp.

Check out the Camp Foley Youtube channel to see some of our past video creativity videos!

Canteen? Yes Please.

The LONG line for canteen. Campers patiently wait for
their turn to pick their treat!

A few of the delicious
options at Canteen!

What do campers love more than activities? More than meals? What do they always try and compete for against both staff and fellow campers?


Canteen.



After 4th period, all of camp gets together for a nice afternoon snack and socializing time famously called, Canteen. Mail is also handed out during Canteen so campers have the chance to relax and recuperate with a treat and reading some updates from family and friends.

We aren't quite sure why Canteen is such the hit that it is, but one can safely assume with ice cream, skittles, chocolates, gummies, beef jerky and many other treats it provides kids with one of the best "choices" they get to make each day.

What’s your favorite Canteen item? Drop a comment below of your go-to item OR let us know what special treat we are missing at Canteen!

Foley's 5K Runs

Each Session at Camp Foley provides the opportunity for campers to partake in a 5K run (or similar event) within an hour radius of Camp Foley.

1st Session Foley 5K Runners!

First Session there was the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Awareness Run at Pequot Lakes High School in Pequot Lakes, MN. Second Session the annual Lori’s Walleye Run 5K was in Crosslake, MN. Third Session had 14 campers go to the Muskie 5K for the Nevis Public Schools in Nevis, MN. Fourth Session saw another trip to Pequot Lakes this time for the Dru Sjodin Memorial 5K.

2nd Session Foley 5K Runners!

Running days start early. Campers wake up around 6:15 am for a 6:30 am breakfast and a 7:00 am departure. Once breakfast is done, the campers hop in the van, driven by one of the counselors. They get the opportunity to all drive together while talking and getting hyped up for the run! An awesome team (camper) bonding time.

3rd Session Foley 5K Runners!

Once arrived, everyone hops out of the van and prepare themselves for the run. Each 5K is run by volunteer staff and each 5K usually offers some free swag for all registrants, such as t-shirts and water bottles. The shirts are often fun and stylish and the campers love them! Other light refreshments are given, such as oranges, granola bars, and water bottles. This is also a great time for local communities to be introduced to the Camp Foley community! Especially if they haven’t met anyone from Foley before.

4th Session Foley 5K Runners!

The 5K Race typically starts at 9:00 am. Runners may take anywhere from 17 minutes to 1 hour to complete. We wait until all runners are finished and stay for the awards ceremony. Foley had an awesome showing this summer as many campers finished in the top of their age group and divisions. The campers surely showed off their medals to their parents when they returned home!

Campers return to camp tired but smiling after a busy morning. We look forward to these Minnesota philanthropic runs and events, and encourage campers to take part in the 5K's for Summer 2020! To get your name on the early list of interest email Mary with an inquiry and what session your camper is attending!

Lastly, check out how we are keeping the running going this October with Camp Moves Me!

Five Love Languages for Showing Gratitude

Happy New Year from all of us here at Foley! As we gear up for 2019 (what?!) we start setting resolutions. We have goals we want to stick to, and with it being National Thank You Month, what's more fitting than adding gratitude to that list of what we continue to progress in?

As we know, people come from all walks of life with different backgrounds, cultures and family traditions - especially at camp. That being said, different people are appreciated in other ways than you might like to be appreciated. You might have heard of the Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, and as we dive into National Thank You Month, we have the opportunity to appreciate others in deeper, more meaningful ways:


1. Words of Affirmation
Expressing affection through spoken or written appreciation and/or praise.
Words of affirmation is one of the easiest ways to show your appreciation, but often it's neglected. Here are a few fun ways to express gratitude through words of affirmation!

1. Give yourself a thank you quota! Try to say thank you a certain amount of times throughout each day. You can even roll a die to get your quota for the day.
2. Saying any number of these 'thank yous'.
• "You are such a positive light wherever you are!"
• "You're a true friend, and I'm so grateful to have you in my life."
• "I admire and appreciate all that you've done for me."
• Congratulate someone for a job well done!
• "You're great at what you do!"
• "Thank you so much for all the time and energy you've put into _________."
3. Leave a sticky note with something positive written by you!
4. Write a Thank You Letter, poem, song.

2. Quality Time
Expressing appreciation through undivided, focused attention.
You can say thank you by spending quality, focused, conscious time with someone else! Leave your phone behind, get rid of distractions, and enjoy the present moment with that person.

1. Have a meaningful conversation with someone - maintain eye contact, ask reaffirming questions of understanding. It can be as easy as asking how someone's day was.
2. Go out to eat with someone! Enjoy visiting with someone over a delicious meal. Share laughs, good conversation. 
3. Go on a road trip! It could be cross country or just a ride around your neighborhood!
4. Take a class together - art, cooking, wood shop, (think about activities from camp!)

3. Receiving Gifts
Gifting is the symbolic gesture of saying thank you.
This isn't all about the gift itself, so much as it is the thought and love that went into why that gift was given. Say thank you to that person by putting thought and effort into their likes and dislikes!

1. Sneak a snack into their lunch bag.
2. Surprise them with their favorite drink.
3. Handmade gifts tend to be very sentimental and caring, as a lot of thought, time, and effort contribute to make something special for somebody.

4. Acts of Service
Actions that express gratitude and appreciation.
This can be one that is also easily overlooked as a way to say thank you! Think about what they have on their to-do list.

1. Maybe they're in the middle of a large cleaning project- lend a hand!
2. Make a meal for them if it allows them to relax for a bit (or a snack!)
3. Think about chores that would help not just you, but the whole family! Contribute your time and efforts to make someone's day a little easier.

5. Physical Touch
Expressing gratitude with physical touch towards another person!

1. Give that person a high five
2. Hug someone to say thank you
3. Give a pat on the back for a job well done.

Consider using any of these if someone has done something nice for you, and you want to return it with something kind!  Remember that National Thank You Month doesn't have to stop on February 1st, and we can observe these symbolic gestures of gratitude any time of the year.