Confidence, self-esteem, fearlessness, self-sufficient, and nurtured were other common words that campers and staff used to describe their experiences found at Maqua.
Karen Selby, seventies camper and staffer said,” As a camper, I tried everything I could not do in Bay City. I rode a horse. I learned how to shoot a bow and arrow. I learned how to orient out of a city and learned things I could not have learned in a city, which allowed me to travel later. I was so thankful for those experiences.”
“One of the best things about camp was it gave me self-respect. I was so timid”, admitted Bonnie Kessler (1947). “ People at camp accepted me and liked me and it was a boost to my ego. It changed me from being so introverted to a confident girl.”
World events did not register with this ten to twelve-year-old in the seventies and if something happened, she was unaware, but felt she only had positive memories of Camp Maqua and especially with that many women in one place! “If there is a story to contribute from my first summer there, it would be that I found my own friends, even with older sister Doris there,” mused Judy Engibous,” and I made my own way and became comfortable with my nerd role.”
The waterfront activities, the exposure to new people and interests, coupled with the mentoring of the older counselors helped Marge Hasty (1946) to develop new confidence. When she graduated from college, she and her sister took off in a convertible and became counselors at a camp in Minnesota for the summer.
“I first realized when I chose education and counseling as a career that Maqua had shaped my life. I actually really could teach, because as a junior counselor I had taught arts and crafts. I taught art in Missouri and loved it. My pathway was figured out at a pretty young age,” admitted Kathy Carney, who camped in the early seventies..
“This was the first place I connected with other women who were strong role models. It was the first place I experienced my power with other confident, intelligent, self-sufficient women who were great mentors and nurtured us as young girls in the sixties”, said Anne Moore, whose career took her down a holistic nutrition path. She is shown in the upper photo on the right with campers Marsha Immerman on left and Pat Purcell in the middle at the lodge on a meet-up.
“I don’t like to say I’m a feminist, but the typical housewife role was out the window during those days. My experiences gave me an understanding of women born around the time fifteen years before when you were the Mom, had babies and didn’t work. Camp helped me to realize women could exist independent of men and did a good job! We had good mentors. It was the first time I ever tied a bowline,” laughed Sally Allen (1968-73).
“I have a strong personality”, admitted Anne Obey, who felt like the atmosphere at camp allowed her to become competent and confident, “but I made great friendships there. I slept and lived camp. Not one day was I ever homesick and it was 100% easier to go to college because of the independence I learned at camp. I grew up socially and emotionally at Camp Maqua(1960-70). It was a camp that honed responsibility, leadership skills, and family values. The commitment I had as a camper and a staffer was a perfect lead into my education career.”
Jane Miller’s family had already fostered independence by allowing them to experience many activities at camp (1969-72) and in their daily life. She felt camp was just an extension of that and it influenced her husband and herself to attend Camp Michigania for U of M alumni for fifteen years straight with their two sons.
As an only child, Sharon Wilcox thought the camp experience in the late forties and early fifties was great from many angles. She had a chance to learn some cooking on the camp cook-outs, as well as learning what her strengths were while becoming independent. She learned to believe in herself, think for herself and share these experiences with other girls. She recalls only positives from those camping days.
“I never remember thinking I wished to be somewhere else,” said Valerie Monto, who is pictured below in the straw hat with fellow camper Deb Dingman at a recent Maqua reunion.”Those were good memories from my childhood and my parents would have never dreamed of talking me out of the experience. Camp gave me self-confidence. I could do things I hadn’t done before. I was less shy around new people after coming from such a sheltered background. In school, I had been around the same kids from kindergarten to eighth grade and at camp and in high school I knew no one! I thought I can do this!”
Marilyn Levine learned to ride a horse named “Spot”, played tetherball and loved the campfires by the lake in the thirties. To this day, she still loves to be outdoors and felt that despite knowing how to swim before she went to camp, she probably learned “real” swimming at Maqua.
“I got along with everyone at camp, and it is still a joy to me that I went there. I have it all in my heart. I still get a warm feeling just hearing about camp, and I’m sure that being there gave me confidence. I would have loved to have been a counselor, but our family moved away. Because of my time there, I insisted my kids go to camp and they did.”
“It made me fearless,” said Julie Bernard of her eight years there from 1970 until it closed. “It was a safe environment to try things. Nobody made fun of you or cared if you did things right. It allowed me to be me. I had three older brothers and although I wasn’t a tomboy, I was an athlete. Today I can steer a kayak, paddle a canoe, and row a boat—all because of Maqua. I loved trying new things, doing something scary, meeting new girls and having this overall growth from my camp activities year after year. I was quiet when I was young and with a dominating mother, I learned to keep my mouth shut, but I made friends easily and became an extrovert later in life.”
“I was sad when I heard Maqua was closing. It was time to go off to college anyway. I became a Patent Attorney, after getting my degree in Biomedical research. I have a lot of drive and got my law degree at night. I moved to Colorado the week after college graduation, feeling fearless, able and independent. It was a happy and safe camp. Everyone was on the same team.”
