Meet the Bats!

Have you ever taken a walk through Camp Foley and wondered what those little brown boxes were fixated onto some of the poles and trees? Well friends, those are homes for some of our year-round campers....the bats!

Little Brown Myotis.

Now, don’t get creeped out and scared like many people do when they hear the word "bat". Bats, like snakes, are very misunderstood creatures and serve as a great resource in keeping our ecosystem at Foley healthy! Many people fear bats because of stories and movies about tropical bats that suck blood and swoop and bite humans, but I can assure you, they don’t live in Minnesota.

The bats living in Minnesota are very small, weighing in at about 1 ounce. The most common bat found is called Little Brown Myotis. Together with the Northern Myotis, they hibernate in caves and mines during the winter and then find caves, building and hollow trees to roost in during the summer months. And, just like in movies, bats hang upside down!Bats are beneficial and gentle creatures, but have terrible eyesight! While many people claim to have been swooped at by a bat, they are more than likely in the way of bat catching his dinner! Bats can occasionally look like an erratic fliers, but that’s what it looks like when you chase insects through the air. Because the eyesight of a bat is so bad, they give off supersonic cries that bounce off objects in the path of the bat. Those echos guide bats toward prey or away from obstacles. Another reason to appreciate the bats in Minnesota is their preferred insect to eat...the mosquito!

Northern Myotis.

So the next time you are watching a cheesy horror flick and a scary looking bat comes into the scene, remember, he isn’t trying to look scary, he is just trying to find his dinner with his eyes closed!


- Carrie Stageman, Assistant Director

BEST. CAMP. EVER.

A few months ago, we heard from Claire Benton; a Foley camper from 1987-1992. Claire is currently the Assistant Director at Cornell University’s Engineering Co-op & Career Services Office, working as a Career Counselor. She lives in Ithaca, New York with her husband, Sam Simkin, who is busy finishing up his PhD, and future Foley camper, daughter Lydia, 2 ½. In the process of updating her information with us, she mentioned she couldn’t wait until her daughter is able to attend Camp Foley “as attending Camp Foley is the best thing I’ve ever done!” I thought, who better to feature on our next alumni blog! Here are Claire’s thoughts about the “BEST. CAMP. EVER”:

Claire Benton.

Camp Foley, ra ra ra! Often I am asked what experience has had a big impact and influence in my life. Without hesitation, my answer is always Camp Foley! Honestly, I can’t think of any other experience I have had that has impacted me as much as my years at Foley. I have always felt that there are “camp people” and “non-camp people.” Then one day, when listening to NPR’s “This American Life,” I hear an entire episode decided to this very topic! I understood then that it isn’t just me; lots people out there GET IT! They fully understand what I am talking about. But THEN, there is the whole idea of what makes “MY” camp the “BEST” camp. Where to start!!! What about Foley comes to mind off the top of my head?? Just watch this…

• Amazing friendships that I still have today 
• Friendship campfire and the giving and receiving of the Anchor Award. The year I got it and the year I gave it away especially…and the tears that came along with it 
• The annual talent show 
• Capture the Flag 
• Awards/merit badges 
• Soda bread 
• Cabin time and the bonds made with the people in my cabin 
• Singing songs at meal time, camp fires (filled with joy and tears and various times) and throughout the day…ones I STILL know all the words to 
• Being carried and thrown into the water for my birthday... "Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. We hate to do it but we must, we must!"
• Canteen time (and having a hard time deciding if I should get candy or soda) 
• Mail time and water on my head when my folks would purposely send a large number of letters on the same day 
• Care packages 
• Lake Superior sail trip 
• ALL the amazing activities including my favorites: 
• Sail racing, riflery, windsurfing, archery, tennis and swimming 
• Families! 
• My cool brothers and all my friends’ brothers and sisters who attended. 
• LOVED the generations Chapel time 
• The counselors getting dressed up and dancing around like fools and LOVING it!
• Cute boys and all the juicy conversations that were had late at night in the cabins about them 
• The buddy system 
• Washing up in the lake 
• Canoe trips to who knows where but were they fun 
• The wonderful counselors that were SOO old and wise; who are now friends and aren’t really that much older at all 
• Meeting people from all over the US and the world and being able to visit them when outside of camp
• Learning all about cool new clothing trends…Birkenstocks, GAP, Polo, etc. and shopping with my buddies who lived in Minneapolis since northern WI didn’t have that much to offer 
• Conversations about “soda” vs “pop” 
• Learning “lifelong” skills from an early age: respect, encouragement, perseverance, how to have fun!
• Learning how to live away from home at an early age and learned how to live with others 
• ALL the laughs, energy and cheering that occurred daily 

And the list could go on and on!

One thing that continues to keep me connected to Camp Foley is that the same dedicated people, year after year, continue to make Foley what it is…the BEST CAMP EVER! I love that the next generation is involved as well. I very much enjoy hearing from all my camp friends, seeing what they have become as “adults” and seeing their children grow up. I hope that one day my daughter Lydia will be able to experience Foley and have a similar, most amazing, experience. I can only hope that she will be so lucky. Thanks to everyone at Foley, Foley attenders and mostly to my mother and father who allowed me to have this experience!

- Claire Benton, Alumni

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.