“I was at Western Michigan University, packing to go home after my sophomore year, with no plan for a job for that summer,” said Ann Carney (1968-72).” 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.,   and handed me a crumpled a piece of paper with a number of the director, Dorthe Balaskas, and threw it at me. 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! We lived in Dearborn and my father worked for Ford. She was a very real person and understood who each one was as a person. She saw the person, not just the helmets, braces and prostheses.”

Meg Dahlem (1924) loved the ballroom dancing with campers and counselors in the evening, recalling that most of them were college girls or teachers. Martha Carpenter, who taught in the arts and crafts cabin and was a resident of Bay City, and was a student at Skidmore of New York. “Counselors stayed in “Dutton” and when they got tired of cooking, they would hike to Long Lake for pancakes,” she said.

Judy Crissey, who began in 1952 as a camper, became a counselor when she graduated from high school in 1962. “I loved kids and decided to get my degree in elementary education. It made me more empathetic to other’s feelings when I became a counselor and when the little girls were homesick and crying, I had much more empathy for them.”

“I remember I felt like I had such cute little kids in 1953 when I was a counselor for hut one,” said Marsha Immerman, who didn’t feel real secure or mature enough to be with the kids when she didn’t have the experience she felt she needed. “I was in strange water. I was fifteen or sixteen and those little ones, thankfully, were not old enough to pull pranks on me. Camp made me feel older than I was.”

There were many counselors from Bowling Green of Ohio and Colorado College when Judy Alcorn was at camp in 1946 and felt they were excellent staff. She taught swimming, sailing and rowing, but did not always feel as though it was fun, but as she matured she felt she had fun in a different way. “I became a friend to the younger campers and took responsibility for their well-being and enjoyment of camp.”

Others could not have had more fun and Debi Gottlieb was one of the sixties girls who felt that way. “We had great fun as counselors and we all got along pretty well, even as campers. It was always the girls against the counselors. They would stick our beds outside or short sheet them. I remember sitting by the campfire while the kids were going to be and we would chase the bats away and we could hear the noise from their cabins.”

How did you discover the job as counselor and what did it teach you?