Someone knew someone who knew someone who said Camp Maqua was the best. Either a mother, aunt, friend, cousin or sister would recruit future campers to enjoy the experiences they found to be so positive. Some would remain friends their entire lives and others lost touch.

“It was a huge part of our lives. We were all best friends all summer,” said Julie Bernard, who was eight years old in 1970 when she went off to camp, sharing the same cabin as Michele Plambeck and Michele Patterson. She stayed in touch with some of the girls and even stood up in Missy Plambeck’s wedding.

“I grew up at Maqua”, said Michele “Missy” Butsch of her many years at camp. “I was eight years old when I camped there for the first time in 1969 and although I was a little homesick, my sister, who was three years older, was there.”

Kim Sohigian and Michele were inseparable as young girls and shared the same cabin every summer at camp. “We are still close to this day,” said Michele. “I was shy, but I always had close friends, including Sue Williamson and Beth Hickner, who I stayed in touch all the way through high school. I was always in the middle of the group, which was popular, even though I wasn’t the most popular. We were always the screw-ups. Missy and Kim. If it could happen, it was us.”

Carol Wahl met Pam Moore at camp in 1972, the first year she was there. They ended up as college room-mates and Pam was in her wedding. While at Central she met many of the staff in her sorority, including Mary Toburen.

Anne Essau was in the same cabin as Mardi Jo Link in the seventies. Years after camp she found a book about Michigan at her local library and the name seemed familiar. It turned out that she was in the same author group as another camper Teresa Scollon and they finally realized they had all been at camp together!

While discussing camps they attended as young girls, JeanAnne Grego and Val Van Laan (1965-70) discovered they had both been to Camp Maqua, but not at the same time. They not only work together, they play golf together!

“My Mom, Virginia Walker camped there in the thirties and I remember finding her name on one of the cabin walls,” said Cindy Morrison, who camped with Sue Kilitie in the sixties.” Her best friend was Marilyn Joy (Bleeker) and they went to camp together. My Dad, who is living with me in California and Sue Kiltie’s Mom, who lives in Michigan, call each other every day! I guess you could call them long distance boyfriend and girlfriend.”

At thirteen, Jennifer McLogan (1965) and Laurie Cullen were at camp together, counselors until eighteen and friends all the way through Western Michigan University. As kitchen aides the summer they were sixteen, Jennifer said, “It was the greatest summer. I remember we both moved up as junior counselors and we had such a wonderful friendship—a deep love and respect for each other.”

Friends Lori Rosenbaum, Karen Magidsohn and Pamela Hartz (!966-75) were known as “The Three Musketeers”. Mary Wickizer, Mary Richardson and Susan Kiltie were three “partners in crime” at camp and school in the sixties. Ellen Hydorn was part of the “Fifth Street Gang” that followed in their mothers’ footsteps off to camp in the fifties.

The Michelson sisters, the Rawling sisters, the Krohn sisters, the Jacques sisters, the Foss sisters, the Engibous sisters, and many more sister groups formed family traditions that spanned years at camp. Despite having sisters at camp, many (including Karen Short in the forties) never spotted their sisters while there!

Did you find any of your camping friends later in life or did you keep in touch?