There are no statistics or mentions anywhere in the archives of any deaths or drownings associated with the camp. The director selected her water safety instructors, boating instructors and directors for the waterfront with a careful eye on experience and maturity. But, incidents happen and that was where drills and safety procedures came into play at camp. Weather was one factor that could change procedures in an instant.

One night Margot Homburger (1946-48) took the canoe out with a friend and the water got choppy, (Although she was never a great swimmer, she had achieved the level needed to canoe.) “I think we were thirteen or fourteen. We could not paddle back, so we left the canoes, took the paddles with us and hiked back. Believe me, there was a welcoming committee for us when we got back,” she laughed. “The next day we went back without the counselor and paddles to get the canoes and ended up paddling all the way back with our hands!”

Janet Gehres, the camp nurse in 1961, had a similar experience. “One of the gals who worked in the camp took me out on a sailboat and we had a nice time until the wind died down. Then we had to paddle back.”

“I think I had to have a blue cap to canoe, so I decided to take a rowboat out. Everyone on the shore was in sheer panic when they realized I could not get back. I kept rowing in circles and someone finally had to come get me,” said fifties camper Jan Bateson.

Ann Carney (1968-72) had an unsettling incident on the lake one summer. “The winds came up on a perfectly beautiful day. It was scary, since all the canoes were on the lake and the girls were scattered all over. I can’t remember how we got them all back, but I think the girls all went to different shores and different families took them in and called from the homes around the lake. I think Dorthe and Mert went to pick them up. Linda Doering was supposed to be on the waterfront and I think she was sailing and it was one of those dicey situations that was very serious and a huge lesson. It made such an impact on me. I got it.”

Later Ann Pennington and Ann Carney were asked to come to the YWCA to meet with the board of directors to let them know the safety needs of the campers. “It was so important to have a boat with a motor, and we were all hardly adults. Here we were with over one hundred campers and counselors,” she said.

“One year on the waterfront, the staff thought someone had been lost in the lake,” said Sarah Smith, who camped in the seventies. “I was in charge of area three and we had a procedure where we did a breaststroke and then went down. I remember seeing something wavy, like long hair and then I realized it was the weeds in the murky lake. We had a buddy system where you had to put the tag on the board and one of the girls had forgotten to do that. Honestly, when I got out of the water, I blubbered my head off. I did not know whether to hug her or kill her. I took that job so seriously!”

There was always that panic of the buddy system if someone did not put the tag back on the board. “I learned to stay calm in the center of storms at camp. I was coaching a workout class from the deck one day and I remember looking over at Pam Hartz and she had that classic hypothermia reaction. She was cramping everywhere. I took her into the cabin and quilted her and physically held on to her and warmed her body with my body,” said Ann Carney.

Karen Selby’s younger brother attended camp when he was twelve or thirteen, which was an added gift  to see him running around camp in the seventies. “I was working in the craft hut one day and there was George out on the sailboat and he “turtles” that thing! (Flipped) I knew my brother was not a good swimmer. He was the only one on the sailboat and I am thinking, really???? I totally forgot the kids I was working with and ran down to the waterfront, since I had been watching him out of the corner of my eye. I screamed for them to go help him.”

For Stephanie Patterson (1961-65), her favorite activity was anything on the water. She learned to sail at camp and had one adventure that ended up in a rescue. A storm blew up while she was out on the sailboat that was blowing dangerously close to Camp Mahn-go-tah-see. Although the girls were disappointed they did not get to those hallowed shore, they were in for discipline once their worried counselors retrieved them.

“I did have one near drowning on Loon Lake one summer in my canoe, “ said Amy Falvey (1969-78). “We had to do all these Red Cross water safety procedures, which included canoe over canoe rescues. One time I had to kneel on the bottom of the canoe. We could not sit on the seats. My calf got stuck under the seat and the canoe tipped over. I had long legs. I could see the top of the water and the sky and I managed to crawl out, but I could have drowned. I was a good swimmer and I never told anyone what happened.”

Waterfront drills, buddy boards and precautions, but many near misses happened. Did you ever experience an incident on the water that scared you?