Farewells and Goodbyes

Ashes On The Lake

Published on by Kathy Baker

INTERVIEWS WITH GEORGE BROWN AND SHIRLEY WONTORCIK–Husband and best friend of deceased SANDY LANGELL BROWN

Sandy Langell spent three or four summers in the late forties at Camp Maqua and told her husband, daughter Trina and best friends Shirley and John Wontorcik that they were the best years of her life.

“One of the last things she asked me to do,” said her husband,” was to spread her ashes on Loon Lake. She loved the water, lakes and the country. I was able to determine what lake the camp was on from some notes she had made one year.”

“My wife’s personality was that of a bright and shiny person—always smiling. She was part fish and loved the water. She was so torn up to leave Midland when her father was transferred to Boulder, Colorado. Even though she graduated from high school in Boulder, she always came back for the Midland reunions.”

Sandy suffered a stroke and the passed away from cancer in December 2009 at the age of seventy-three. Shirley and John were able to track down who to contact at the camp and despite the fact that my husband and I were not up at the lake in early summer of 2010, residents Thom and Lydia Engel took her husband, daughter and two friends out by boat for the ceremony.

“We had a little service on their pontoon boat and spread her ashes and felt we couldn’t have been luckier,” said George. “The people who took us out were absolutely fantastic and they treated us like they had known us forever and even gave us a tour of the camp.”

Shirley and Sandy were close friends in middle school, but their friendship developed even more in high school. Although Shirley did not attend Camp Maqua, Sandy’s friend Dixie Maxwell went with her and has since died, also. Shirley also described her best friend as a fish but said she was very easy to get along with.

“It was the circle of life,” said George. “Those were the happiest days of her life. It was the biggest thrill for her to swim in Loon Lake and spend time with the other girls in the little cabins.”

Maggie LeDoux had a friend who passed away that had attended camp. She bought a book of camp songs from Restoration Hardware and sang them to her while she was ill, along with photos from camp. Cynthia Gregory was also at a funeral for a fellow camper and discovered at the wake that many of her friends had also camped at Maqua, so they all sang the songs. Kerry Weber had one wish from her camper friend who passed away—for her to share Maqua memories. These stories are reminders of how lasting the Maqua experience was for many young girls.

A few years ago, one of our beautiful Maqua residents, Sandy West, passed away from ALS. Those who loved her boated out on Loon Lake and spread her ashes over the water, as one of her favorite songs was played. I’m quite certain these traditions won’t be the last from our friends.

Sing-y-swim-y Camp

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

 


Shelley Harris spent ten years at Camp Maqua, half as a camper and the other half on staff, including a stint as Program Director. As a fourth grader in Flint in 1965, she was excited about the idea of going to camp after her cousin had been the previous year. Just hearing that there was horseback riding was enough for Shelley to think camp would be “cool”.

“Maqua was huge to me—I really considered it my home, while Flint was just the place where I lived. It was a “sing-y swim-y” camp and everyone had to swim daily regardless of weather, except in storms. I was a song leader when I was on staff, and lived in Dutton.” (She still remembers all the lyrics to all the camp songs!)

“There was a huge group of Jewish girls, including myself, that went together from Flint every year. We never felt any religious pressure or prejudice and loved the weekly procession up to Chapel Hill wearing our Sunday whites for a very ecumenical service. After lunch at the lodge, we would all change our clothes. Only the Catholic girls rode into town for mass.”

It was the year of “I am Woman” sung by Helen Reddy and that is exactly how Shelley felt about her camp experience and how it influenced her life. As a young girl growing up with brothers, she felt like she was “home” at camp with all the girls out of doors. She had a great appreciation for the rough and tumble life at camp.

“I felt like I do anything. We did not need boys to have fun. We sang with girls, danced with girls, played with girls and the girl counselors did all the work loading and unloading when campers arrived. We didn’t care what we looked like and we became very self-sufficient. I felt like I could do anything without a guy.”

She went with friends, made new friends and still stays in touch with her camper buddies. When her Mom would ask why she wanted to go to a “dumpy Camp”, she would respond that it was the spirit of Camp Maqua and the nurturing of the counselors.

“ I did stuff that stayed in my heart. For years I used to dream about Maqua—-well into my thirties, until one night I had a magnificent fireworks-laden dream about a huge celebration on the lake with canoes, islands, flowers, music, and glitter. That was the last dream I had about it. I guess I was saying goodbye to that era of my life. That’s how important it was to me. I’m now in my late fifties, but Maqua is still in my heart”.

(And I might add…….her name is penned on many of the counselor canoe paddles that still grace the lodge wall.)

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Sadness For End Of Camp

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

 

 

Camp meant freedom from family, the chance to make new friends and the opportunity to learn new skills often not offered at home. For many girls who did not experience the pang of homesickness, leaving camp held true sadness.

For Harriet Crumb, it was the best experience! “You can see 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 seemed to be able to take it or leave it, but from the first I was hooked and in some form have enjoyed camping ever since.”

Sue Augustyniak lived in Bllomfield Hills and camped 1962-68 at Maqua. “Our parents wanted us to become independent and they encouraged up. We felt like we could do anything. We mastered skills. We expected to do well and we did. Saying goodbye on the last day was always a sad day.”

Kim Moore was nine years old when she attended Camp Maqua for the first time in 1967 and continued every summer until she turned fifteen when she ended her camp career as a kitchen aide. “It was a huge part of my life—one of the best parts of my life. I would cry at the end of the session because I didn’t want to go home. I felt so grown up at camp and so safe and independent.”

“There was a two-week block in July when I went to camp and loved it,” said Kathy Butsch, who was ten in 1968 when she first attended and camped until 1974. “I was always sad and depressed to leave camp because I was leaving all my new best friends”

“One cherished memory for me,” said Judith Moore, assistant director in 1970-71, “was the sight of the young campers making friends and bonding throughout the two-week period, so sad to leave each other at the end. They too had an experience for the first time and it was very emotional. There were those who waited so anxiously for their parents to arrive for pick up and it was always obvious to me which parents had a special bond with their girls. These young campers had an adventure that asked that they survive without their usual family support and develop these skills. Remarkable when I think about it.”

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Ken Dike—Last Director

Published on by Kathy Baker

When the decision was made between the YWCA and the YMCA to merge Camp Maqua with Camp Iroquois on Sand Lake, David Bast was the camp director at the boys’ camp. He was designated to be the director of the combined effort, but was offered a job in Alabama.

Ken Dike was the program director in 1976 under David and at age twenty-two, he was then offered the position in the winter of 1997 to become the director at “Camp Maquois”, which was the name David had created merging the two camp names. He had already accumulated seven years experience in camping and four years in directorships at Camp Nelson and Camp Oakes in California–in waterfront and programming, and had always worked in co-ed camps until Iroquois.

Born and raised in Chicago, he attended George Williams College, and received his B.S. in Recreation and later a Masters in Environmental Education and Administration. At the time he was hired, he was engaged to be married, and was offered the position for six months with the possibility of a full-time job. “I was offered the full time position with the YMCA during the off-season and the camp in the summer. That offer was made because of the initial success of the summer by making a profit of $1500,” said Ken. “It was my choice not to accept it and go back to grad school.”

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Directors #5

Published on by Kathy Baker

10399099_101324959880354_7997157_n copy“Dorthe had a gargantuan job with all those girls  ages six to sixteen and those counselors in their twenties, “ said Kim Wynne-Parry, who camped 1963-68. “She did her job with kindness and benevolence. I remember her as a huge presence.”

“A reserved and capable woman, friendly without acting silly. You took her seriously,” said Nancy Sautter (1968-70). “Very professional, people-oriented, caring and wanted everyone to succeed,” said her sister Tricia. “It took a lot of work with all the different personalities and she had many fires to put out, but she handled them with dignity.”

“We used to take turns with campfire watch, down by the campfire pit, and we knew some girls would sneak out. We could hear the noise coming from the woods. Their goal was to scare us. One of the counselors wanted to tell Dorthe, but I knew how she hated hiking down that long hill and back,” said Sue Wiegand (1966-67). “The girls finally revealed who they were, but when they saw Dorthe, they knew she had a firm hand, even the counselors were intimidated by their presence. But, inside once you got to know her, she was a marshmallow. She just had that walk where you knew she was in command.”

Doris Engibous (1973-75) agreed. “When I was twelve and Dorthe was director, she was the ultimate. No one could fill her shoes. She was a formidable leader and I remember that you did not stray too far from the straight and narrow. I never felt like her style was too regimented or disciplined, though.”

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Reverse Homesickness–#4

Published on by Kathy Baker

For those girls who were campers and then moved into staffing positions at Maqua, their memories of the girls leaving and their own feelings continued to be strong. They had to say goodbye to campers at every session and watch as girls left with many emotions.

“One cherished memory for me is the sight of the young campers making new friends and bonding through a two-week period, sad to leave each other at the other end. They too had an experience for the first time—very emotional. There were those who really waited so anxiously for their parents to arrive for pick up and it was always obvious to me which parents had a special bond with their girls,” said Judy Moore, who was the assistant director 1970-71. “These young campers had an adventure that asked that they survive without their usual family support and develop these skills. Remarkable, when I think about it!”

The staff of the “Loon” in 1961 penned this paragraph—“Dear Campers, Was it really only two weeks ago that all of us gathered together in the lodge together, watching the Kangaroo Court for counselors? The time has gone by so swiftly, and now we say ‘so long’, but let us not say goodbye. Instead, why don’t we take with us memories made rich by new friendships, made rich by new skills learned, made rich by evenings spent around a campfire. We on the staff will remember the fun we had on cabin day when we got to know each one of you well. We will remember the time when we sang together after meals, and the way Alice would holler “garbage”. Sure, we all know about the dishes and cabin clean-up, but deep inside we all know that these are only a part of camp life. And were they really that bad? We have all enjoyed these weeks. We hope you have, too.”

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