Traditions

Camp Envy–Traditions

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

 

 

 

 

The evolution of the new Maqua traditions began with the previous owners, Bob and Luanne Sukenik. Their hot dog and champagne cook-outs, with a Native Indian theme, hosted many friends and family members with water relay races and games. (One year they invited us, long before we bought the lodge and property. Bob started talking to me in the grocery line and invited my husband and me out to their “camp”.  (This photo was of that very day in 1984 on the shores of Camp Maqua with my husband Bill and Uncle Aaron Starks.) For years our association meetings, held in September, continued the hot dog and champagne tradition on the lodge porch following our meeting.

What is summer without a campfire, and we have had many! The fire-bowl or campfire pit, rimmed in huge boulders, appears to be in the same spot as decades ago. Our pile of wood is artistically stacked by one of our wood-chopping residents and we have never run out of logs for our fires. The usual activities take place under the stars overlooking the lake—adult beverages, hot-dog roasting late at night on long pronged forks and the traditional S’Mores for little and big kids alike. We sit in comfy chairs instead of sitting on logs, but the ambiance is traditional and ageless.

The Independence Day traditions include our annual potluck at the beach with our residents, and if it is raining we gather on the east roadside screened porch at the lodge. (We expanded the porch years ago to accommodate five vintage camp dining tables and the original bootstrap benches.) Other traditions in the past have included naming the baby Loon contest at our festivities and decorating the beachfront.

The most fun in recent years has been the boat parades, usually on the Saturday closest to the 4th. The Loon Lake Association purchases a boat flag with a loon and the date to be given as the prize for the best-decorated boat. Some years the weather has prevented many from participating, but each year a handful of families go all out to get into the spirit. Last year our family boat won with the Teddy Bear’s Picnic theme, so we were the judges this year. My eight-year-old granddaughter was so sad not to be here for the judging, so she was number twelve with the decision by viewing photos taken and sent via phone.

One boat was filled with cousins dressed as firecrackers and a patriotic theme, complete with music. One double-decker was the movie theme “Frozen” and nine kids were dressed in costumes as the characters. It was such a difficult decision, but the winner was a bubble bath theme boat, decorated with white balloons and friends taking showers. We hated to see the disappointed faces of the losers, but there is always next year!

Walking the trails in the autumn or cross-country skiing in the winter is a favorite with all the residents. The trails are usually mowed after the mosquitoes are no longer a problem, and residents have named their trails with wooden signs. We walk the roadside with family and friends to the main gate and pick flowers with our grandchildren during the summer, but when the black flies and deer flies appear, we have to cover up to avoid the bites or run!

Sunset cruises never get old and we all have so many photos of the spectacular skies over Loon Lake. One neighbor races out to the cove at the far end of the lake and parks his double-decker boat, expressing his amazement as if he had never seen a sunset before, but we all love the slow cruises and try to spot the family of loons or the resident eagles. Sunrises are a specialty for one of our early-bird residents, who tries to compete with a friend’s photos.

One of the most fun summer traditions happens with the adults and kids when we hook our boats together.  Each boat has appetizers to share. If the gates are opened, it makes it easy to walk from boat to boat to boat, catching up with our friends and sharing food. The night parties sometimes include adult beverages, music, and dancing on top of the Mother Ship–the  doubledecker!

 

 

 

Camp Envy–The Next Generation

Published on by Kathy Baker

Spring has thawed the ice on the lake and our photographic friend, Carole Elizabeth Wilson, is famous for getting up early for her daily sunrise photo to share. She is the weather girl on the lake, letting us all know when the loons are out or nesting, what the temps. are and what incredible sunrises and sunsets we enjoy. I am in Florida awaiting the journey north to escape the Florida heat and humidity that is just around the corner.

This year our summer home is even more meaningful to us, after selling our home of 38 years with all its memories tucked in each corner. The house was built with love by an uncle of my husband, who is from Hale, and his brother, who was my husband’s father. Various family members helped to build this first home we ever owned, and a Hale stonemason created the Michigan fieldstone fireplace that held our many stockings at Christmas and even a few fires!

Our four children had mixed feelings about the sale of the home they grew up in but had one thing to say. “Do not ever sell the lodge!” For all the memories that were stored in their childhood home, none could compare to their relaxing and carefree summers on Loon Lake. It is where they learned to ski, build campfires, play in treehouses, hike trails, and enjoy the out of doors. Their happy times included making new summer friendships, driving the boat, fishing, catching fireflies and camping in the bunkhouse next to the lodge with their cousins. For all of you who camped and worked here, those were memories that are relatable.

This summer the entire family will gather in July and for the first time ever we hope to have every one of our children, spouses, and grandchildren all in one place. It will be a new experience for this growing family, who we manage to see on a regular basis, but not as a huge unit. With the new loft and extra space, we have room for everyone on the east side. The importance of the lodge as a gathering place will be cemented by the new memories made by the next generations.

With our life in transition and retirement just around the corner, the lodge gives us a sense of permanence and a place for future projects and reunions. It will always be our summer happy place. Our hearts remain in Florida where our children were born and raised, but our Michigan souls remain at Maqua. As the blogs come to an end in June, the transition of this website will turn to stories from the existing residents and perhaps a laugh or two. Thank you for all your special memories that have helped to keep the history of this magical place alive.

Camp As A Family Tradition–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Aside from the wonderful experiences and skills the girls learned at camp, many were so enamored with their adventures, they made sure their kids attended a camp.

“Camp was definitely one of my top life highlights and memories that I have ever done, “ said sixties camper Holly Foss. “It was always the highlight of my year and I cried when I had to leave. There was so much bonding and it was a fun escape from living, just being outdoors and laughing so much. It was an absolute joy.”

“The confidence factor, not from the survival but the skills I learned—like sailing and canoeing and the backpack trips. I would never have done that otherwise. There was a sense of accomplishment. It is hard to know whether I would have felt that if I had not gone to camp. The girls made lifelong friendships. I know if there was a reunion right now that I would be instantly back to those days with the girls I went to camp with.”

“I live in Colorado now and there is not much of an environment for canoeing or kayaking, but when I am in Michigan, I try to fit that in. My daughter is thirteen and I send her to a Y camp in Michigan and I encourage her to do the overnight trips. I cannot wait for her to come home each summer and share those experiences with me. It is similar to Maqua, and had it been still open, she would be there.”

“I loved the arts and crafts and the decoupage boxes we made in the Craft Hut. We would beat them up and then decoupage them,” said Val Van Laan (1965-70). “I liked the whole experience at camp. Learning to swim, boat, singing “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and “Rise and Shine” with all the hand motions in the lodge. That’s why I sent my kids to camp and why I loved going to the scouting “Mom and Me” camps with them.”

Anne Shutt (1961-66) had one son and two daughters and admitted she tried to find a camp like Maqua to send her children to. One daughter was the assistant director for a Michigan camp for fifteen years. In addition to those lasting days influencing her life, she also continued her love of the outdoors with a cabin on the north branch of the Au Sable in Grayling. After camp, Anne attended an all-girls boarding school and had a great time. “You recognize who you are at camp. It was such a great time. Camp just let me be me!”

Kathy Krohn’s camping experiences at Maqua in the third through sixth grade (1965-1968)  were so memorable, that she continues to this day reading books about camps, and even sent her son to a camp as natural as Maqua, so he could have similar good memories. “I needed to share what Camp Maqua was to me—a single gender camp where most people did not know who you were, or where you came from or what you had. I did not want him in a fancy camp. I wanted a campy camp, so he went to the same one my father attended as a child.”

The camp influenced Amy Falk’s love of nature in the seventies and the simple existence, which heightened the importance of camp so much so that she sent her kids to real camps to continue the outdoor fun. “I thought it was great to be thrown together with different kids to enjoy the same things and get away from our families.”

Some. Like Pat Rehmus, (1962-65) who had triplet boys, wanted them to go to camp, but they didn’t want to go. Finally, two of them attended a camp in Lake Tahoe and the third homebody stayed home, but she found the cost of camps out west were outrageous.

“In those days camp was different. It helped mold me for sure. Just getting away from home and not being homesick was formative. It gave me self-confidence, where I could make decisions in a larger community. We had to listen to our counselors, but we had a lot of freedom, even to choose our activities.”

Carla Schweinsberg decided to send both her girls to camp, since she had such a great time in the fifties. “Where else can you all get up as a group, eat as a group, and have fun as a group besides camp? It is a place where we all learned to get along with each other and I thought it was the greatest thing in the whole world.”

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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.

The Fiftieth Celebration

Published on by Kathy Baker

A document in the archives from 1974, was soliciting for donations for the “camp restoration program” for the fiftieth anniversary for Maqua. It listed “Trail Blazer” as $1,000+, “Maqua Sponsor” as $500-$1,000, “Camp Circle” as $300, “Century Camp” as $100, and “Builder” as $99 and under. Checks were to be addressed to YWCA Camp Maqua Fund and could be paid in installments.

The results of the Camp Maqua Improvement Fund Drive listed the amount pledged as $15, 737.32. There were 153 individual pledges totaling $13,237.32 and the Osthelder Foundation pledged $2,500.00. On January 7, 1975, the amount spent on improvements was $7, 525. 81. There was a list of itemized expenses, which included $3,947.97 paid to Bob Feasal for labor and materials. Paint, hardware items and lumber, as well as campaign expenses were listed. It left $6,392.51 in the checking account on that date.

The second session “Loon” edition was July 20. 1974 and it was Maqua’s fiftieth anniversary. (July 15 was the actual date, but camp celebrated on the 14th.) The day cleared after it rained in the morning. The camp worked on cabin projects such as cleaning the boathouse, washing the boats, cleaning the firebowls, and washing the cars. Two of the cabins made signs that instructed the cars to slow down and a sign to direct people where the camp was located. Some painted the trash cans, some created new song sheets and one cabin made a new cross for Chapel Hill. In the evening there was an old fashioned picnic at the waterfront with hot dogs and “S’Mores”. “It was a beautiful day and after taps, the trees whispered their thanks for all we had done,” the article ended.

There was a full page spread in the Bay City Times on April 4, 1974, titled “Celebrates Fifty Years” under a photo of the entrance sign of “Camp Maqua YWCA”. Times staff writer Gay McGee wrote the article detailing the history of the camp after a rally had been held at the YWCA to mark the date with old photos, stories and a few original campers there to celebrate. Photos from every era graced the pages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mixed Reactions–

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

Born in Flint, Sheryl Biesman was eight years old when she camped for the first time in 1973 and it closed before she could ever have a leadership position in 1978. Karen Selby was one counselor she could remember from that “wholesome camp” that closed with little fanfare to the campers who were there the last year, including Sheryl.

As part of the transformation from a girls’ camp to co-ed, Sheryl was thirteen and just becoming interested in boys. “My initial feeling was, they are invading my space,” said Sheryl, who recalled one drama girl moment when one of the boys liked someone else. “But, I don’t have strong memories of interacting with the boys at camp.”

“It was a very sad time for me. After the camp closed, I tried to go to another camp with my friend Diane. I remember I hated it. I only went one summer and it wasn’t Camp Maqua. We had to wear white. I was so distraught. I kept searching for something I had lost and was so disappointed. I am sad it didn’t work out. The experience taught me leadership. Many of my Jewish friends went to Jewish camps in Maine and elsewhere and had good experiences and ended up staying friends with people they met there. I guess I was just so emotionally attached at age thirteen to Maqua—“

“My Mom thinks I started going when I was eight, so that would be 1972, through the end, although she doesn’t remember me going that many years. I remember the last couple years were co-ed, “said Beth Phillips, who was disappointed that the boys were now a part of the camp, but admitted there were some cute counselors, and one in particular that took them on a nature hike in the woods.  “We took a trek through the backwoods that led to a secret area, which was off to the side of Chapel Hill. The counselors always tried to keep the boys and girls apart, and the boys had the cabins down the hill, while we were all up top. There were different activities when the boys came, but before that, we just used to sit at the campfire and holler at the boys across the lake.”

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