Audrey Delcourt  was a first-year biology major at Albion College in 1968 and had a few classes in her field when she was hired as the Nature Director. She had relatives in northern Michigan, and had often gone up to Oscoda. She saw the sign as she passed through Hale, and her Mom wrote the camp name down. The director came to her house to interview her and that was the beginning of her north woods adventure!

There were no notes left for her to follow, despite the camp having always had a nature studies program. Audrey made charts and used her own interests and knowledge for the program. There were scavenger hunts, where the girls would run around and find plants on lists, including “Lady Slippers”. “They don’t grow everywhere,” she said, “so I told the girls not to pick them.”

Dissection was also on her program and she believed the girls thought it was fascinating. One of the maintenance staff secured a cow’s head and they dissected the eyeballs. There was also an outdoor site, which was a moat with a little island on the side of the nature cabin.

The second year, Audrey came in as the assistant cook, hoping to try something a little different. “It looked more like perseverance. I got up early for this job. I burned my fingers a few times and decided I needed to change my attitude,” she said. “Then I had fun. Before my attitude change it was just work. I remember bringing my plant press into the kitchen because I needed a heat source to dry my plants. I used a shelf over the huge stove.” (Audrey’s explanation for this fascination was the recent plant course she had at college.)

Audrey received excellent ratings from Dorthe. “Nature went very well this summer. I felt Audrey worked very hard and had planned some new interesting activities for the campers. A great deal of hard work went into the completion of the island started last year. The Nature part of Dutton was always neat and clean at all times and it was a pleasure to visit her classes and observe her in action. She was an asset in many ways to our staff.”

“Audrey was new to Maqua but right right into the spirit of Maqua. She was always interested in the campers and was most effective with them. She ran a good program in Nature and had a variety of activities. She was always on the job and most mature in the way she assumed her responsibilities. She could be called on for extra duty or to help out in the kitchen and she was always a willing worker. She was liked by her co-workers and was indeed an asset to our staff. I found her most cooperative.”

In a copy of “the Loon” dated August 11-17, 1968 it noted that Tabi Dodge helped her out and Audrey described her as “always up my side” and very charming. “The nature classes do all kinds of projects. They find bugs to make displays and even dissect cow’s heads and frogs. Sometimes they take the rowboats and go over to Turtle’s Cove to look for frogs. The campers also worked hard on Dorthe’s Island.” It also listed her pet peeve in the August 10, 1968 edition as” “Thurber eating her basket.” (A German Shepherd puppy.)

I think Cara Prieskorn (1966-71) was the only camper to mention her negative nature experiences. “The nature hut was never a place I wanted to go. I thought it was so boring. Catching butterflies, killing them and sticking them with a pin on a piece of Styrofoam was not cool to me. We would go to the snake pit and there were no snakes. We would go for walks and identify trees or plants,” said Cara, who was less enthusiastic about her instructors.

What were your experiences in the nature classes that you found boring or interesting?