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.”

“Iroquois hired three staff from the previous year and Maqua had at least six. Rhonda Thayer, at least from my perspective, knew a lot about the operations and knew what she needed to do in her position in the office. I had an assistant, Joe Liberati, who was three years older and wanted to do things his way, but never threatened to quit. He had been the program director at Iroquois in 1976. Our cook was local and she was a great cook, but I lost ten pounds that summer. (I was so disappointed when I had to go back to cooking my own meals again.) Mary Stark was the waterfront director and had been the program director before me at Iroquois.”

Ken’s home for the summer was the hut directly out the front door of the lodge, where he set up a single bed and his office. Dutton was used for the boys who did not have cabin assignments. Rhonda and Mary were housed in the lodge. The boys’ cabins were to the west and the girls’ were to the east and numbered ten total.

The boys’ bathroom was down the hill on the left and the girls’ was further and on the right. At Iroquois the bathrooms had been named “KYBOS”, which stood for “Keep Your Bowels Open”. At Maqua they had been name “Brownies”, but he decided to call them “BWANAS” in honor of David Bast, which Ken had affectionately nicknamed.

The Indian signs had been brought over from Camp Iroquois, but Ken does not remember using them, although he contemplated changing the names on the cabins. He does remember all the trips by truck he made back to the camp on Sand Lake to empty everything “lock, stock and barrel”. “The furniture, canoes, boats, program equipment—everything that we needed, we loaded up,” he said.

“It made the summer very hard. We were starting over. We wanted to start developing our own traditions, and we knew we couldn’t throw them all out. There were our kids from Iroquois who would ask “what are you doing?’ and the girls from Maqua had all those years of traditions. The most difficult task that summer was to honor all those years of tradition and make the camp a new camp. Here it was—my first year of being in charge with some people who thought I was too young. I must admit that I had a few sleepless nights.”

Iroquois brought over their biggest tradition—their Ragger Program, which was developed to build character in the boys at the YMCA in 1914. “I taught it, and not everyone went for it. It was curriculum specific and had seven steps that the campers worked their way through and received cards at the end of their goals. They usually began this program at age twelve,” said Ken.

The traditions that remained the same from Maqua included the services at Chapel Hill, the Wishing Boat Ceremony, the many activities, skits, songs and campfire traditions, which had been similar to many of the traditions at Camp Iroquois. Ken played guitar and banjo and enjoyed singing along with them all. With the merger came some new activities. There had never been waterskiing before. The staff also built a ropes course and cleared the underbrush across from the Infirmary, where the campers could climb trees.

“One night a week we had an overnight campout and we were expecting the newspaper the next day to come out. It poured on us! We had one hundred soaking wet kids and all their sleeping bags were hanging out to dry. The place looked like a disaster,” he laughed. “It was such a huge storm, but quick—the next day was pretty much a normal day.”

Ken had his staff meetings together and they wore uniform shirt that was worn on Sundays and changeover days when the parents came to pick up their children. He instituted a system of supervision at night for the; safety of the camp where two staff members walked and patrolled until midnight. “There were no major situations and no major accidents when I was the director. I think I was the one who was injured the most getting the camp open before sessions even started!”

Now retired from full time camping positions, he is still active a few weeks out of the year at a day camp in California. Ken spent forty-three years in the field at seventeen different camps in seven states.