Camp Influences

Planning for the Centennial at Camp Maqua!

Published on by Kathy Baker

The end of Michigan’s season for us is always bittersweet. We head to sunny Florida, but the autumn leaves are so beautiful, especially around the boathouse and on Loon Lake. Our last boat ride before storing the boat for the winter was stunning. Calm lake, blue skies, baby loon growing, and foliage on display in all its glory.

The excitement of ending was the planning for our big 100-year anniversary next June 15, 2024. I have visions of the first campers arriving at the lodge, with the newness of each hut, meeting their counselors for the first time. But, I know campers and staff can envision your own realities and memories! Do you remember all the planning it took to prepare your trunks with the right items from the suggested list in your flyers? For the staff, there were days and weeks of planning for the activities for the summer; food acquisition, and preparation; medical and nature supplies; beachfront maintenance, etc.

Our committee managed to get all the details ready for tents, chairs, tables, food, entertainment, souvenirs, and volunteers to work the various stations on the day of the tours, walkabouts, and archival displays. But, we need your help to make this successful! The numbers need to be in by January for ordering purposes and for us to be able to plan for food. Your tickets are our guarantee that our planning will run smoothly on the day. Hopefully, 100 happy campers will not be disappointed with our efforts for a successful day.

There will be golf carts to ferry everyone from their cars to the lodge, and for those with disabilities–to and from the lakefront or Chapel Hill. The Plainfield Township Historical Commission will manage the check-in, tours in the main rooms of the lodge, and the display in the Craft Hut. The residents will be on hand to greet everyone and listen to your wonderful memories! We are as excited as campers on their first visit! Sending greetings from our families–The Starks, R., and B. Baker, Engel, Smith, West,Gorman, Clancey, Kirila, Braun, and Fidler families welcome you!  (Photo  credits  Keegan  Cooley)

 

 

Camping Indoors

Published on by Kathy Baker

Greetings to all those in isolation during the COVID-19 Pandemic! During these days of indoor “camping” and social distancing, I cannot help but wonder if the skills you learned at Camp Maqua are helping you during these times. Surely, there are more stories to be told of survival skills and talents of those years that you could share? What are you doing to retain your sanity?

My husband and I are living a smaller footprint here in Florida, having sold our course  and our larger home. The guest house is perfect for the two of us and it is situated a mile from the Peace River, where we can watch the sunset with others. (Six feet apart, of course!) We have plenty of projects to keep us busy, from painting to gardening. We get out every day to either ride our bikes or walk and the weather has been unseasonably warm. At the end of the day, we sit on our new deck, eating dinner and relaxing with the sound of cows, turkeys and a braying donkey next door. Life is good and so far, we are healthy.

We had just visited all four of our children, here in Florida and in California, before the country went on lock-down. How wonderful it is not to be deprived of seeing our grandchildren in this time of social media. FaceTiming and Skyping brings them into our house without contact. We have tremendous empathy for the three families with young ones, home from school. Two of the daughter-in-laws are teachers and one has to begin virtual teaching next week, with four-year-old twins and an eight-year old. One has two toddlers in San Francisco and the weather has not been cooperating for them to burn off extra energy from being house-bound.

Although I was never a camper at Maqua, my Burningman experience this past summer taught me how to live very simply for six days. My daughter and husband did all the shopping ahead of time, and it was amazing to watch the meals appear from a desert kitchen on a two-burner cook stove. The shower utilized gray water from the ice in the coolers, and when we did not use the porta-potties, we used our “She-Pee” portable urinal in our tent. We stayed hydrated with water from our camel-backs and ate very sparingly. We conserved energy during the day, while sitting under shade structures. I never felt like I was in survival mode, because I had everything I needed, but the heat and harsh desert conditions were like nothing I had ever experienced.

The most amazing part of the whole Burningman experience for me was experiencing the ten principles practiced by all those who attended. (Radical inclusion, gifting, decommodificatios, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, leaving no trace, participation and immediacy.) No matter which camp I walked or biked to– someone greeted me, gifted me, fed me, offered me a drink or hugs. This temporary city in the middle of the Black Rock desert made me understand what I could live without. Possessions, jobs and personalities did not mean a thing. No-one cared who you were or what you wore. People mattered.

In 2004 we experienced four hurricanes–Charley, Jeanne, Frances and Ivan. Charley took out our 14,000 sq. ft. clubhouse, 1,000 trees on our 36-hole course, five out-buildings, and blew the pump on one course, which we lost. The other three finished us off.  It took six weeks to get the trees off the course and open the doors again, but life was never the same. We had a mobile kitchen and operated from a huge tent until moving back into the original 1971 building. Our home was damaged, but we could offer refuge in our makeshift kitchen by stretching salvaged screening around our carport, decked out with the ice-machine and commercial grill that survived.

For weeks we worked 12 hours a day and at the end of the day, ate the leftovers from the club, drank the wine and beer and shared all with neighbors. What we gained was strength, humor, camaraderie with neighbors and help from volunteers who came from hours away to help us. We had no power for 15 days. Generators powered the fridge and the washing machine. I hung laundry out for four families in 95 degree heat, but others shared their pools and helped us pick up debris. There was such great community and goodwill from this sharing and caring. People mattered.

When this whole lockdown is over, I believe the world will be different. Kids are using their imaginations. Parents are practicing patience. Families are eating dinners together and playing games. Medicine is being practiced tele-medically. Businesses are learning new methods of service. Socializing has new meaning with online parties and social media has kept us laughing with humor during dark times. People are coming together in community to help those in need, because people matter.

Those who lose their jobs will have life-style changes they never anticipated. I have no illusions that our children will be paying the price financially for a long time, and that our retirement will also be affected. But, as an eternal optimist, I believe there will be silver linings to these dark clouds and that the world will reinvent itself. Faith, family, friends and hope is my wish for all of you.

Camp’s Influential Memories–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Long after the young girls left camp, the smells of the lodge and cabins, the fresh smell of the piney woods, the sound of the Loons and the lap of the waves on the lake left an indelible mark in their minds. So much so that the great outdoors called to them in many ways.

Judy Sherman felt like camp was all about enjoying the outdoors and it still gives her good memories to this day, even though she camped in the forties.  Sixties camper/ staffer Karen Magidisohn continues to camp and kayak to this day.

Nurse Kathleen Clements said, “I learned to love the outdoors and it rounded me out. I had experiences I would never have had and I still love to fish and be on the water. If given the chance, I head to a lake before I will go anywhere else. I have such a respect for nature, animals and the environment. I had to watch out for critters at camp.  I would rather be outside than anywhere and I have this thing for animals and wolves—maybe because I heard wolves howling at camp.”

“I first went to Camp Maqua in 1925 as an almost-thirteen-year-old for two weeks, and I went back for five consecutive years—mostly for two weeks”, wrote Harriet Crumb. “The one year I hired out as a Kitchen Aid when my two weeks was up and stayed for two more. You can see how I loved it. In 1929 I went for one week—to take and pass the tests for my American Red Cross Life Saving Badge. I was a big girl then, of course, and the next summer when I couldn’t go at all, I thought the world had come to an end. Other girls seem to be able to take or leave it, but from the first, I was hooked and in some form have enjoyed camping ever since.”

“I ended up at MSU with a degree in Environmental Science and then my master’s degree and at thirty-one, I got my law degree and practiced family law with spousal, domestic and child abuse. I think the thing that helped me with the diversity of people in my profession was the caring and acceptance I found at Maqua, “ said Chris Lambert. “That stayed with me for the rest of my life. I was in legal aid for a while and I wanted to reach out to people. Camp helped me to become more responsible and my college years were wilder, with my active part in the Vietnam War demonstrations and a trip to the big gay pride demonstration in Washington in the sixties, but my job as a sports director helped me with organization, because I had a responsibility for an area and I found I liked it. My father was an attorney and my parents were affirming and encouraged me to become the person I was meant to be, but Maqua brought me friendships and closeness and those close relationships at camp, which followed into college when I roomed with many Maqua girls, was tremendously important.”

“Maqua was a loving cocoon,” ended Chris. “It was a spiritual, warm and loving place. The best I could hope for would be the preservation of that spirit. To this day my partner and I still love outdoor activities. My parent’s idea of camping was a room at the Holiday Inn, but I have taken survival classes, hiked the Appalachian Trail, camp, kayak, still love to canoe and have hiked in the Colorado Mountains for two weeks. I owe the start of all this to my activities at Maqua, which contributed to my love for the outdoors. I have to admit, I do have a motor home now, so I can have a real bed and bathroom.”

Friendships, the music, campfires and the ceremonies were a large part of Karen Kaiser’s (photo above) memories at camp (1959-62). “It was a chance to become who we were. Karen met her husband at WMU and both were both successful athletes. She went to college on a sports scholarship, but due to an injury on her ACL after a fall, was in danger of losing her scholarship Every year she had to be voted back into the program and sign letter of liability release, so she could stay in the program and compete. Her husband began a camp for underprivileged kids and they became co-directors and now works full time at Van Buren Youth Camp.  She said they both have a long tradition of camping in their family. Karen is the author of many books and is a motivational speaker and is pictured above.

Read More

Camp Honed Responsibility–

Published on by Kathy Baker

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.”

Read More

Camp As An Opportunity To Grow–

Published on by Kathy Baker

There were many life-shaping stories from the girls of Camp Maqua, from learning manners, to working as a team, to earning their first paycheck or developing confidence. Others were influenced to go to single-sex colleges based on the close friendships made while at camp.

Amy Johns’ (shown above at a Maqua reunion), (1967-78) constant family moves left her with very little camp memorabilia, but she has a few photos, award ribbons, and memories. “I was the baby of the family and definitely a crybaby and a drama queen. I could turn on the tears and get what I want. But, Camp Maqua made me resilient and independent. It was a safe place to grow up and make friends and get away from the chaos at home. To this day my favorite bird is the Loon.”

As a self-professed people person, Tracy Topping (1962-63) babysat to make money when she was younger and taught special education as a profession. “The kids loved me and I loved them because I was the fun teacher who taught them how to make those lanyards and sing the camp songs.”

“They were the best years of my life. I grew as a person. I took risks in a supportive atmosphere and I developed as a young girl. The counselors were supportive and it came from the top down. It was the first time in my life I worked as a team, cleaning up, trying to pass inspections and even doing dishes together. I felt a part of a valued experience. I learned things I used for the rest of my life and no one was too good to be left out. It was a smorgasbord of opportunities, surrounded by friends, love, and laughter. I will remember Maqua for the rest of my life.”

“I loved having the experience of making my own decisions and learning responsibilities,” said forties camper Mary Jane Keschman. “I learned how to four- corner my bed, and many table manners. To this day, when I have a piece of bread, I remember to break it into four pieces, instead of eating the whole piece as I did at home. It helped my independence to be away and learn to do laundry. When I went away to college, I was all set”, said Mary Jane.“I think about camp a lot. I will meditate to relax and I envision camp memories and create a movie in my head to relax. Camp is still with me.”

“For me, the summers formed friendships which grew and developed, “ said Barb Rehmus, shown on the right of the photo,(1965-76). “I also learned to let go, because it was such a short summer that the girls would gather together and them you knew some would not come back. I also learned a sense of fun. We learned a sense of responsibility having to clean our cabins as campers and later knowing I had to be responsible for kids and classes and to take care of them. It helped develop me as a person, give me new skill sets I would have never learned at home. It also developed my confidence. It helped me enjoy the outdoors, which we still do with our RV.”

“Maqua was a huge part of my life”, said Laurie Cullen who felt like it was the “hey-day” of camping in the sixties and seventies. “My friendships were fabulous, we had so much fun and the mentoring experiences there formulated my decisions for college. It was just a wholesome, happy, fun camp!”

Susan Purdue, known, as “Super-Do”, was her influence to attend college in Colorado, which was a single-sex college. While there, she convinced friends to come back to Michigan to camp at Maqua.“These girls were from Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri and all over”, said Sue. “ The balance of women from out of state was disproportionate one of the years I was there. And there was a gay dynamic, a Jewish dynamic—it wasn’t just girls from Bay City. It was the sixties and it was interesting.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp Formed Character–

Published on by Kathy Baker

The word independence was mentioned more than any other word when talking to the women who camped and counseled at Maqua. (Besides the word happy.)  Forties camper Kay Alcorn, along with many other women, was saddened by the closure of the camp, hoping that their children and grandchildren could have camped at a place that promoted their independence.

“I learned independence and it was the first time I cared for myself and the first time I made my own way,” said Susie Utter, who camped in the fifties. “Even the songs were special. My cousin Polly Vliet died of pancreatic cancer and I helped nurse her during her last days. The first thing she wanted me to do when I came to her was to sing those Maqua songs—-“High On Chapel Hill” and “Sail, Sail Wishing Boat”.

“I loved the people and very few went away at that age, but it was an exciting part of my growing up. It made me more independent.,” said Barb Krohn (1970-72). “My sisters and I all went to prep school before college, and it was a natural transition. It was a privilege to go, but when you were young, you took it for granted. It was a natural part of my summers, and my parents must have known since both went. Even my husband went to camp, so we sent our daughter off at eight she loved it, too.”

“ I think going to camp is an untapped asset for children who do not go, “ said Doris Engibous (9167-70). ”It is a gift to be able to go away. It is another level of independence. My parents expected us to go to college, and I got my degree in Chemical Engineering, which was pretty unusual for girls back then, but my parents had already established that independence by sending us to camp.”

Michele Butsch went to Stevens College, which was all women, Her parents had also gone to camp, as did her children. “When I was in high school, I was not a leader, but I formed strong relationships at camp and college and became a leader in college. I was President of my sorority,” said Michele, who is married with three children and a director of PDP. (Prescription Drug Plan.)

Fifties camper Katie Harris said,” The leadership and character building were lasting. You did it all by yourself. You survived and became independent. I told my kids and grandchildren it was the greatest experience of my growing up years. It was great being on my own, and I’m sure I missed my parents a little, but I loved being with other girls, becoming responsible and the whole gamut. I am a nature person. It is the crux of me. I loved it.”(She told her grandchildren to go to real camp camps, ones with rafts to dive off and not the camps for single interests.)

“I loved being outdoors. Even when I came home from camp, I would build my fort in the woods out of sticks and branches. It would be a place I could go where no one bothered me. Years later, my son, who became an Eagle Scout, told me he had built a fort in the woods. It was my fort he had fixed! “said sixties camper Cindy Rose.“I think camp made me very independent. I can travel and associate with anyone and anybody. It gave me freedom. I don’t have to be part of a group, even though I like to. I taught young children arts and crafts, gymnastics and baton as a community education teacher when I was fifteen. Camp was one of my influences.”

“The lodge was always the spiritual heart of the camp and the experience of having a sense of family and being close and all inclusive was wonderful,” said Maureen Moore (1968-70), who is a nurse at McLaren.” I have the personality of loving everybody and my Mom wasn’t like that. Camp heightened my compassion, made me try new things and believe that anything was possible. I was never a joiner, but I became very independent and the experience appealed to my sensibilities. I always wanted a big family and one that was non-judgemental.”

Three girls from different times, Cathy Hawkins (1962), Kathleen Dworman (1966) and Carol Requadt (1945), all expressed their influence of independence, self-reliance and the ability to make choices. Cathy still dreams of driving up the road to camp.