Three women with three different experiences were shaped and influenced by their camping years at Maqua. Each one continued their careers as leaders and attributed many of their skills and successes to experiences at camp.
Carol Hulett, pictured left, was the “Camp Health Director” (or nurse) during the time when it was impossible to find a nurse. After her junior and senior years at Albion College, where she majored in Biology, Carol trained under the American Camping Association and came to Maqua for summers 1973 and 1974, where she ‘learned to be a nurse at camp. Carol always knew she wanted to be a doctor and had a private practice as an Orthopedic Surgeon in Mt. Clemens until 2008.
Carol’s view of camp remains to this day one of well-adjusted, homogenous and mostly white middle class. There had been kids from difficult homes who had problems, but most were happy and enjoyed taking advantage of the activities that camp offered. She had been a camper since the age of eight and had been in camp every year until she was twenty-one.
The only child of second marriage, she felt even though her family had been influential in her values and character, camp was more influential.“I was the youngest in the family and the “bossy brat” at home, but at camp it was okay to be a tomboy and be understood for who I was. In terms of the outdoors, I still canoe and if I have the opportunity, I am outside.”
Kim Moore, pictured below right with Sheryl Biesman, was nine or ten years old in 1967 or 1968 when she attended Camp Maqua for the first time and went every summer until she turned fifteen when she ended her “career” there as a kitchen aid. Kim helped start a Charter School (DaVinci Institute in Jackson, Mich.), which is a non-traditional school that serves an at-risk population, as there is a prison there with many transitional families. “It is the hardest job I have ever loved, as it is attached to a high school and I started the K-8 section and was principal and now a curriculum coordinator, but those little things from Maqua helped me. Just weaving the plastic lanyards in the craft hut meant I could do that with my students here and I can trace relationship building back to Maqua. The sense of community, being open to meeting new people, and building relationships that I learned at camp have all been put to good use here.”
Ann Carney, below, (1968-72) shared an interesting story about how she became a counselor at Camp Maqua—“I was at Western Michigan University, packing to go home after my sophomore year, with no plan for a job that summer. Brooke, a fellow classmate that I did not know, said she was going to camp as a horseback riding instructor. I had just finished my certification as a water safety instructor. She told me the camp was looking for a W.S.I., crumpled a piece of paper with a number of the director, Dorthe Balaskas, and threw it at me,” said Ann. “I had no money, but knew I was going to be a resident advisor for the dorm the following year. I taught at the “Y” in Kalamazoo for extra money and knew what it was like to swim competitively. “
“I called Dorthe, who told me to come to her class in East Dearborn, which was close to my home.”She was very direct. I met with her at the end of the school day and I think now it was a small test. She was teaching special education to some of the most severely handicapped and disabled children I had ever seen and I think she wanted to see how I would respond. I engaged with her and the children. She basically told me camp starts on June first and you should be there. It was total happenstance.
“Out of the three Carney sisters, I was the responsible oldest one, and then there was Kathy, who was known as “Little Carney” and Susan, who was known as “Baby Bird. I was probably more serious and more introverted than most of the counselors, but I think I learned to have fun and became less serious. I was always the hyper-vigilant one and they were always the flaky ones,” laughed Ann (1968-72). “I learned about grief and love and saying goodbye and leaving people. I didn’t have that same experience that many of the counselors had that had camped their whole life there and spent their entire summers at Maqua. I learned to get along and develop real compassion for people while I was there.”
”I am a director of a non-profit Hospice, and I know for a fact that I learned leadership at Camp Maqua, I learned about delegating and making mistakes as a leader. I learned that many people had different work ethics. I made a lot of mistakes myself but needed to make, because it helped shape my decisions. I also learned there were many there who had similar values. I can honestly say it launched my leadership. It was nice that we didn’t have to compete with men and if I had to do it again, I would probably go to a single-sex college. It was definitely a unique experience.”
