Minnesota's Oldest Camp for Girls

DATELINE:  CASS LAKE, MINNESOTA

In a surprise ceremony held today, August 7, 2010, the dining hall at Camp Kamaji was named “Sloan Hall” to celebrate Marjena Sloan’s 30th consecutive summer as Kamaji’s Head Cook.   If you have been lucky enough to be a Kamaji camper or staff member during the past three decades,  your memories of camp probably include the wonderful meals which Marjena has prepared.  It took a bit of ciphering but we conservatively estimate that Marjena has served over 375,000 meals at Kamaji!

For the past 30 years, when it was time to “Ringie the Dingie” for mealtimes at camp, Kamaji campers happily filed into Kamaji’s dining hall to feast on food prepared by Marjena Sloan.  Beginning today, when Kamaji campers hear that bell, they’ll head to “Sloan Hall”.

To Marjena we say “Thank you for your hard work, your dedication, your loyalty to Kamaji, and, most importantly, your friendship!!  Forever you will be a part of Kamaji!”

Kamaji Hugs From

Kathy and Mike and All

Campers/Staff 1981-2010

P.S.   Stay tuned for the first edition of “Just Add Water, Favorite Kamaji Recipes of Marjena Sloan” which we’ll make available on Kamaji’s website this fall.

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Thursday’s evening program was really something special. It was the first-ever, Kamaji Float Parade. Each porch group created their own float for the parade, their own song to explain the theme of their float, and their own float costumes. You might be thinking that sounds like a lot of work. That’s why the Float Parade actually started two and a half weeks ago. Time was set aside during each of this session’s three Adventure Days for the porch groups to complete their Float Parade preparation.

Thursday, the big evening finally arrived. Each porch group lined up with their floats on the stone steps leading down to the waterfront. The Float Parade Drum Majors, completed with twirling batons, blew their whistles and the parade was off. For the next 25 minutes, everyone marched around the Lodge, up to the Arts Village and Archery field, and past the pump and Cabin 3 on their way back to the Lodge. (The parade crowd was a bit thin
simply because all the camper and cabin counselors were in the parade, however, the kitchen staff found the Float Parade quite entertaining.) Once inside the lodge, each group took the stage with their float, their float cheer and, of course, their costumes. The presentations were quite wonderful, as were the floats themselves. The Float Parade ended with a short, joyous dance party. It was pretty, darn terrific.

Quite honestly, Kamaji’s Directors were more than a little skeptical about this evening program.  As far as we can remember, there’s never been an evening program which took more than, well, an evening. We didn’t really believe that the campers and counselors would remain interested/invested in the Float Parade over a few weeks. Well, we were wrong. Being wrong is what happens every time we underestimate the creativity and enthusiasm of Kamaji’s campers and counselors.  We’ve posted pictures of Kamaji’s Float Parade. We had a bit trouble with the camera and the quality of the pictures isn’t what we hoped, however, you can clearly see the enthusiasm of all involved.

One more program note. On Friday evening, we were treated to the drama program
production of Mama Mia. Congrats to all 31 members of the cast. The performance was
terrific. And, due to scheduling problems and all the wilderness trips, the complete cast was able to rehearse together for a total of 45 minutes. Wow! What a show!

News bits
The Great Spirit continues to smiles upon us. The weather the past few days has been just
about perfect. Mostly sunny, high temps between 75 and 80 degrees. We couldn’t ask for
more summer-like weather than we are currently enjoying!!

Our Wilderness Trip Program winds down this weekend. Cabin 4 Porch 2, Nutshell Porch 6, the eight week Pine Manor campers and a few lucky horseback riders will all have their trips completed by this evening. (There are pictures of Nutshell Porch 6 stop at the famous
Mississippi River Sandhill on Smugmug.) As Kamaji’s Directors, we always breath a sign of
relief when all the campers have returned to camp safe and sound. We hope each of the
campers enjoyed their camping experience. We imagine you’ll hear about your daughter’s trip in a few days . . . or at least upon her return home.

Well, that’s all for now. We’ll be sending you end of the season news in a couple of days. It’s
hard to believe Kamaji’s 97 season is almost over. Oh well, we’ve still got a lot of camping to do.

Mike, Kathy and Kat

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First of all, I apologize for not writing more often. We’ve been busy with everyday camp life, and the time just got away from me. I’ll do better this next week. That said let’s review a few of the program highlights from the past week and a half.

We must start with Sunday August 1st. At the end of breakfast, Tribe Day was announced! After much carrying on and cheering, the campers headed off to their cabins. After a brief cabin cleanup it was time to get fired up for Tribe Day. That meant putting on every piece of clothing in your tribe color and maybe adding some face paint to match. After a brief meeting in the Lodge, each camper then headed off to the first of her three activities. Now these weren’t the normal Kamaji activities. For instance, in Dance, two campers from each tribe had to make up and preform a three-legged, three-armed dance. What’s a three-legged, three-armed dance? Well, that where the campers tie one of their legs and one of their arms to their partners leg and arm. In horseback riding, the campers had to ride an obstacle course and then bob for apples.

After each camper completed their three activities, it was time to head to the waterfront for the Tribe Day Picnic Lunch, featuring the traditional foot long hotdogs, the traditional potato salad, and the traditional baked beans. Of course, dessert was the traditional watermelon. Now you may think that watermelon isn’t a great treat, however, there’s more to the watermelon than just dessert. After the campers were handed their watermelon, they all marched out on the swim docks for the traditional watermelon seed spitting. It’s quite a sight — just imagine 200 campers and counselors, dressed from head-to-toe in their tribe colors, all spitting watermelon seeds into Wolf Lake.

After a much needed Tribe Day rest period, everyone changed into her swimsuit for Tribe Day swim and canoe relays. Highlights included the Put-Six-Campers-in-a-Canoe,- Give-Them-Empty-Buckets-and-See-Which-Tribe-Can-Sink-Every-Other-Tribe’s-Canoe race and, everybody’s favorite, The-Open-Faced-Peanut-Butter-Sandwich-on-the-Face Swim Relay.

When the campers finished up on the waterfront, they changed back into their tribe colors and headed to the Lodge to decorate for the traditional Tribe Banquet. That’s where the dining room tables are moved into the Lodge and grouped together so the tribes can sit together. Perhaps the best part of Tribe Banquet is dessert: the traditional Ice Cream Sundae Buffet. Finally, everyone headed back to the waterfront for the raising of the tribe flags. The Mundahmin’s flag ended up at the top of the flagpole. If you haven’t seen the Tribe Day Smugmug pictures, check them out.

Another example of how much fun camp can be was last night’s evening program. After the traditional Adventure Day Rainbow Burger BBQ, everyone headed to the archery field for Recess Night.  Campers and counselors scurried between the following school yard games: Bombardment, 4 Square, Double Dutch Jump Rope, Spud, Knock Out and Hop Scotch. There was also a generous supply of sidewalk chalk. Now, you may think that the campers would consider these games old-fashioned.  Well, what’s old is now new. The campers and counselors couldn’t have enjoyed themselves more. When the “Recess is Over” announcement was made, a chorus of boos could be heard all over camp.

By the way, during last Tuesday’s Adventure Day, the Cabin 2 Porch 2 counselors came up with a wonderful idea. They decided to produce their own music video. After shooting it, Mariana LaMadrid and Laine Schwarberg, two of the counselors, spent a few days secretly editing the footage and on Monday night, the whole camp was treated to the premier showing. It is pretty darn cute. Want to see it? Go to http://vimeo.com/13864416 and take a look. (The video is password protected – email kathy@kamaji for the password.)

News from our Travel Department
Last Monday, two groups of 7 Pine Manor campers each returned from their week-long adventure to the White Otter Wilderness Area north of Atikokan, Ontario. This trip is the culmination to the Kamaji trip program. These groups canoed for hours and portaged between lakes in a true wilderness area. The memories of this trip will last a lifetime. Check out the Canadian pictures on Smugmug.

During the rest of last week, a group of campers from the Cabin on the Hill also completed a four day canoe trip to Voyageurs National Park along the U.S./Canadian border. Cabin 2 Porch 1 went on a three day trip to Lake Andrusia and Cocoon went on a two day Mississippi River trip and the Hatchery gang completed their two day trip to Webster Lake. Also nine lucky campers went on a three day Lake Superior climbing trip to Minnesota’s beautiful North Shore. Check out Smugmug to see just how beautiful.

This week Cabin 3 Porch 2 headed out for a three day trip on the Crow Wing River, Tikinigan, Nutshell Porch 4 and Nutshell Porch 5 each went on their two-day Mississippi River trips and a lucky group of campers took an overnight horseback trip. Later this week, they’ll be another riding trip, Cabin 4 Porch 2 is taking an overnight trip to Webster Lake and Nutshell Porch 6 is taking a three day trip to Lake Andrusia. And the eight week Pine Manor campers will take Kamaji’s 100 year old, 27 foot canoes to Star Island! Whew, we’ll be busy right up to the end of the camping season.

Club Med Remains Quiet
The good news is that there isn’t much news from Kamaji’s Club Med. Alan Braverman, Kamaji’s Camp Doc for the past week reports some bruises, sniffles and poison ivy, but nothing more serious. Remember, if your daughter is admitted to Club Med or is taken to Bemidji for any medical reason, we’ll call you. Let’s hope the “Vacancy” sign stays lit at Club Med.

Weather News
While much of the you have been sweating every time you walk outside, we have enjoyed delightful weather. For the past two weeks we’ve had high temperatures between 75 and 82 degrees. We’ve had some rain, but happily it really hasn’t interrupted our program. For instance, on Tribe Day we had a couple of rain showers. One was during swim relays and we just  retreated to the lodge for a 10 minute songfest before returning to the waterfront. The other rain – more torrential-like – occurred during dinner, so it hardly mattered. That’s been the story of the summer: rain when we’re indoors. There have been plenty of picture perfect days, too. Yesterday, for instance was just about perfect. Sunny, nice breeze and a high temp of 81 degrees. And the forecast continues to be pretty good. Keep your fingers crossed.

That’s all for now. Sorry we haven’t written more. We’ve been having too much fun.

Mike, Kathy and Kat

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. . . spend their time while their daughters are at Kamaji!!

The mom who sent in the picture (printed with permission of all present in the photo) writes:

For the 3rd summer, many of your Chicago campers moms have enjoyed a
lovely night out together w/o having to get home for our kids.
Someone lovingly nicknamed our group the ‘Momajis’. This summer we
let Tom Dutton join us. While we know our kids are having a great
time at camp, we’re having our own fun w/o kids around (or w/ less
kids). Thanks for taking such good care of them for us!

Your Friends in Chicago

Need Ye Directors say more??!!

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TRAVEL INFORMATION FOR JULY 14, 2010
July 14th will be a long day for your daughter! We’ll have about a 5:30 am wake-up bell and the buses will leave camp at about 7:00 am for the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. Campers are heading to 20 different cities around the country. We sent you our flight schedule last week, so you should know when to pick her up.

If you are meeting your daughter at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, you should pick her up at the Transit Center between 11:30 am and noon. Your daughter and her luggage will be there.

If your daughter is flying on DL 3482 to St. Louis, DL 5682 to Chicago O’Hare or SW 200 to Chicago Midway she will be escorted by a Kamaji counselor. That means you probably won’t be able to meet your daughter at the gate, however, you can try to get Delta or Southwest to issue you a security pass. If you can’t get to the gate, the counselor will escort your daughter to baggage claim and remain with her until you arrive.

If your daughter is on a flight other than the ones mentioned above and is flying home as an “Unaccompanied Minor” you should be able to obtain a security pass from the airline which will allow you to meet your daughter at her arrival gate. Plan on arriving at the airport in plenty of time to obtain your security pass.

If you have any questions about travel, just ask.

END OF SEASON INFORMATION
Here are some final details about the end of your daughter’s stay at Kamaji:
1. If your daughter is missing clothing or equipment items, please notify us as soon as possible.
2. Your daughter’s store account refund or bill will be sent to you before September 1.
3. Information about Kamaji’s 2011 camping season will be sent to you in a few weeks.
4. We’ll be sending you an evaluation form from us in the next few weeks. We hope you’ll complete it. If you have a more immediate concern, feel free to contact us now.

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THE SESSION FROM YE DIRECTORS
(Ed. Note: This section of the letter may sound familiar to many of you. The concepts are not new, but we’ve freshened it up a bit.)

Be prepared! In a few days your daughter will be hanging out with you. The first session of Kamaji’s 97th season will be history. We want to warn you that your daughter may, at any time during her first few days at home, fall into the “Kamaji Zone”. You will immediately notice a change in her behavior. Don’t worry as these changes will only last a short time. Right after your daughter eats breakfast don’t, we repeat don’t, panic if your daughter suddenly jumps on the kitchen chair and sings at the top of her lungs. That’s what we do at meals. And after breakfast, YOU had better sit down. We don’t want you to faint if your daughter runs to her room to make her bed and straighten up her closet. Don’t worry. We are confident that THIS behavior won’t last more than a few days. If you are sitting at the dinner table and you would like her to get something from the kitchen, just tell her that it’s her turn to be “hopper”. And if you go out to dinner at a nice restaurant, please remind her NOT to put her chair on the table when you leave. And be prepared. Your daughter will expect you to have 4 or 5 different activities planned for her each day. (How about windsurfing, horseback riding, ceramics and sailing – just to start.) There may be certain words missing from her vocabulary – Words like “TV”, “texting”, “facebook”, “download” and even “hair dryer” – Don’t worry. Most girls will pick up these terms quickly. There are other behaviors – too numerous to mention, that you may observe during the first few days your daughter is home. If you cannot interpret any of them, feel free to call the “Kamaji Kommand and Kontrol”. Trained camp personnel will be on duty 24 hours a day to answer your call.

Another way to ease your daughter’s transition into the “other” world is to show her the “Smugmug” pictures. She hasn’t seen any of them and what a great way to re-live the past few weeks. We suggest that you go through the pictures with her. We don’t want you to miss the chuckles. Heck, you both can follow Kamaji’s second session through the posted pictures.

When parents and friends talk to us about camp, one of the questions often asked is, “How has camp changed over the past few years?”. Well, camp hasn’t changed much. Oh sure, when the campers arrived this summer they were pretty excited to see the brand new ski boat, but the magic of camp is that it’s pretty much the same as it was 20, 40 or 60 years ago. The biggest change over the past few years is not with Kamaji, but with Kamaji’s campers. They are more enthusiastic about camp than ever before. We believe one explanation for this change is that kids feel more disconnected from their school and neighborhoods than in the past. I-Pods, e-mail, cell phones, Facebook and unrealistic academic demands have made it possible for all of us to communicate with each other without any real human contact. It literally takes less energy to send an email message halfway around the world than it does to walk over and say “hello” to your next door neighbor. Contrast all this to life at camp. No matter what you do here at camp, you do it with other people who can hear, see and touch you. We eat together, sing together, learn how to do new things together. We know each other’s names. We laugh with each other, swim with “buddies”, sail with a crew, set tables with our tribe, clean cabins together, sort laundry with our porchmates. We have a shared language (Metigs, Za, Za 2, O’Naug, keylog, gooey rolls), a shared history (“We were here in ‘010, ‘010…”), our own rituals (Boy, oh boy, what a day it’s been!), and most of all, shared experiences (remember our canoe trip, Tribe Day, Adventure Day). In simple terms we are a “community” where each camper is connected to her porchmates, her counselors, her tribemates, her “Kami Sister”. We touch, see and hear each other a million times every day. Yup, Kamaji has changed over the years. We have more fun than ever before! Maybe campers have figured out that sleeping in a bed right below your best friend is a whole lot better than being a “friend” on Facebook.

ONE LAST FAVOR….
The crazy economic news of the past two years have brought scary times for many private summer camps, including Kamaji. 2010 was a good recruiting year for us. The number of new campers this summer is up 135% over the summer of 2009. That’s thanks to the support of many of you. After all, referrals are really our only means of finding new campers. If you know families who might be interested in hearing about Kamaji, please let us know. Referrals can be friends of yours, friends of your daughter’s, relatives from another city or business contacts. We’re never get tired of talking about camp, so please send the names and contact information for anyone who may want to hear Kamaji’s story. Thanks in advance for your help.

FINAL COMMENTS
This has been quite a session! Even though we’ve been camp directors for a long time, every session is brand new. There are a couple of things that stand out about the past few weeks.

First of all, on June 18th, we greeted 38 new campers. Some were as young as 7 years old and, for the first time in recent history, we had 2 new 15 year olds. It was AMAZING just how quickly all 38 of the new campers were swallowed into the Kamaji Kommunity. Not one “homesick” talk! Not even close to one “homesick” talk. That’s quite a tribute to the campers, their counselors and, yes, you, their parents. And, it seemed as if each new camper was greeted with open arms and a huge smile by the returning campers as well! If your daughter was a new camper this summer, we hope she now feels that Kamaji is her “home away from home.”

The second thing that stands out is just how much fun the campers seemed to have during the past few weeks. When we say “fun” what we mean is just how creative and silly the campers can be. Whether it’s dressing up for Alien Abduction Night or just playing with flashlights in the cabin, these campers know how to get a make fun out of almost any situation. It’s great to see.
Lastly, thanks to you for trusting us with your daughter. We know what a leap of faith putting your daughter on that plane represents. Our kids are 26 and 22, and we still worry every time they leave the house. We also know how excited you must be to get your daughter back home.

We sincerely wish you and your family the very best for the rest of the summer and the upcoming fall. We hope that your daughter enjoyed herself as much as we enjoyed having her here and that she will return for Kamaji’s 98th season. “Boy, Oh Boy, What a Month It’s Been!”

Yours,
Mike, Kathy and Kat

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