Remembering Rooster
Washington Irving said, “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief…and unspeakable love.” It is this overwhelming grief that I am dealing with right now with the sudden loss of Rooster. I have […]
A Look Back at Leaders-Nick Charlton
Every year, we ask the parents of our Deerhorn leaders to look back at the early years of their son’s Deerhorn careers. It’s always fun to hear about their initial impressions and how they’ve grown at camp. Nick Charlton is leading the 2018 Iroquois, and when we asked his parents to write a blog, they […]
Understanding Boys
Our kids are now 9 and 11, in third grade and sixth grade. I have friends who are just starting out and who have littles who are potty training, not sleeping, throwing tantrums. They have asked me, “Does it get easier?” I never know how to answer that question. I want to say “Yes! Everything […]
The Force of a River
There is a book called Everest to Enlightenment, written by Alan Hobsen. In it, he details how he took the failure of two previous expeditions to Mount Everest and turned them into a resounding personal triumph. In one section, he says, “If we flow with the events in life, rather than fight them, we take […]
The Best is Yet to Come
The summer of 2017 was incredible. We had an incredible staff, supportive parents, and fun, energetic campers. We broke records for total enrollment, and 2018 is on track to break those records again. Because of our enrollment numbers, and due to the generosity of many camp parents who spearheaded and donated to the capital improvement fund, […]
Homesickness Round 2
As camp directors, we have faced homesickness hundreds of times. We know that it is usually most common in first year campers, but that even returning kids can struggle with it for a few years. We know how to distract kids, keep them busy, to help them keep their mind off the homesickness. We know […]
A Regular Fellow
“What is a ‘regular fellow?’” This is the question posed by Walt Szafran, leader of the 2017 Apache, in his Water Campfire speech this year. (Walt’s speech starts around the 10 minute mark on the video.) He was referring to the line of the Deerhorn Creed that says “To be a ‘regular fellow,’ a pal […]
2018 Deerhorn Leaders
This day of the year is always the best day and the worst day, all rolled into one. It’s the best day because we get to make the phone calls to four very deserving teenagers, asking them to be Deerhorn Leaders for the following summer. But it’s the worst day because we know we are […]
Support
I wrote a blog last spring about The Importance of Community. It was in response to my parents having been recently hit by a drunk driver. They both survived but not without lasting impact and the accident left me struggling to continue living in the present, rather than being fearful of something happening to those […]
A Brilliant Ending
It was a gorgeous blue sky day for our last full day of 2017. We couldn’t have hand-picked better weather. Today was our guided fishing day, and although everyone had a blast with our guides, only one family was lucky enough to land the big one. Bill and Billy Cadigan landed a 35 inch musky […]