Here’s today’s staff profile, this time from a member of this summer’s Woodcraft Camp Staff and the person who brought you the recent interview with new Woodcraft Director Sonny Atkins, Lt. Gee!

Position: Woodcraft D&B Counselor, Cabin 40
College/Winter Employment: Ball State University Recreation Services (I work at the gym)
Home Town: Valparaiso, IN
Nickname/s: if anyone knows, hopefully they aren’t telling
Favorite Quote: “Trust, but verify…and don’t be afraid to see what you see” -Ronald Reagan
Last Good Book You Read: “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell Favorite Culver Dance Song: once again, “that boom boom boom song…”i never really liked it but every time i hear it i think of dances 2nd class year at the naval building
Favorite Shack Snack: Early Risers!!
Favorite Spot on Campus: “The Bench”
Best Part of Working at Culver: Being able to re-live camp with and work with the people who made it so special the first time around. And to agree with Mr. Dees…to help try to make the experience just as great for the campers as we had it.

If you will be working at Culver this summer in ANY capacity and would like to have your profile included on the site Contact Me.

For our second profile we turn across to the better half of upper camps to present Deck One’s very own Miss Las:
Position: Deck One Assistant Counselor
College/Winter Employment: Harvard University
Home Town: Joliet, IL
Nickname/s: My volleyball teammates call me “L-cubed” because my initials are LLL
Favorite Quote: “There are things we do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money, but they may just be the real reason we are here.”
Last Good Book You Read: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Favorite Culver Dance Song: I’m gonna have to go with “Saturday Night” by Whigfield as well…it has the best dance.
Favorite Shack Snack: Mozzarella sticks, hands down
Favorite Spot on Campus: a little past the naval building, near the lasers, looking out onto the lake
Best Part of Working at Culver: finally getting that “Staff” t-shirt. But seriously, the best part is getting to meet so many people from all over the country and the world.

If you will be working at Culver this summer in ANY capacity and would like to have your profile included on the site Contact Me.

As summer 2006 approaches, I’ll be posting up quickie profiles of some of the staff who’ll be working at camp this year. If you’re going to be working at Culver this summer and would like to be included among these profiles left me know.

As our first, I thought we’d go with this summer (and last summer’s) Sr. Counselor of the Naval Band, Mr. Dees.

Position: Naval Band-Head Counselor
College/Winter Employment: Arizona State University- bartender/bar manager
Home Town: Culver, IN
Nickname/s: n/a
Favorite Quote: “stop looking for meaningful quotes and get out there and just do it”-me
Last Good Book You Read: “The Last Templar” by Raymond Khoury
Favorite Culver Dance Song: don’t remember…i do recall them being less than stellar
Favorite Shack Snack: BLT pizza
Favorite Spot on Campus: the water to the right of the naval pier, about waist deep.-comm ‘97, E ‘97, comm ‘05…some good memories there
Best Part of Working at Culver: Seeing a somewhat introverted youth evolve into a confident leader who can take the initiative and see tasks through to completion. I also enjoy seeing the guys that i went to camp with coming back year after year to impart the same wisdom that we were given.

If you will be working at Culver this summer in ANY capacity and would like to have your profile included on the site Contact Me.

With the online component of the 2006 Culver Parents Association Auction coming to a close today at noon (!) we should take a look at some of the cool stuff up for bidding still (better late than never eh?). In no particular order, right now you could be placing bids on (you’ll have to register with the auction site to see item details):

…Read the rest of this entry…

It was the worst day of his life!

I promise this will be the funniest thing you see today.

DISCUSS in “Web Finds” thread

For our latest Culver Summer Camps “Burning Q” poll on Go Culver.com I thought we could sink our hands into something tangible, simple, and very very greasy! Summer Camp Food!

What is your favorite Culver Shack Snack?

Are you a Mozzarella Sticks person?

A French Fries woman?

A fan of the old Taco Sticks?

A classical cheeseburger connoiseur?

Or do you just love a good slurpee?

For my part, I have to say I went with the taco sticks. …Read the rest of this entry…

(note: if you’re looking for “tunak tunak tan” lyrics or video click here. Click here for “Culver Academy Reviews“)

It’s that time of the month again friends, when I post up the list of all the crazy things that led people here to the site off of Google’s search engine (and link them to their relevant pages).

In past months we’ve seen a surfeit of visitors here to read about that “Hostle Movie” as well as “Tunak Tunak Tan” (can someone explain what the heck that means to me?). You can can check out our previous installments in the series here: March, February. You can read all about the Tunak Tunak Tan English Lyrics and watch the video on this page.

You’ll notice that this list is much much longer than previous months. While I can’t be sure, I’m guessing its a result of having a great deal more content on the site for Google to pick its way through. The more pages there are and the more posts in the message boards and on the blog, the harder it is for the Tunak Tunak Tan people to completely dominate the search results (though you’ll be surprised to see how well they fared this month nonetheless…)

So here’s this month’s list. Let’s see what brought people out …Read the rest of this entry…

Planning on visiting Culver this summer for Homecoming?

If so, post a “yep, I’ll be there” in my new Homecoming 2006 thread over in the alumni forum.

You can take a look at the event schedule here.

Anyone live nearby and willing to put people up?

Anyone driving in from out of town and able to give people a ride?

If we can help people find places to stay and ways to get to campus that’d be delightful.

Nature’s greatest gift=radiant health. *slaps forehead* Doh!

Mr. Sonny Atkins was announced last month as the new Director of Woodcraft Camp, replacing Janet Kline in the position. Recently, Woodcraft Counselor Lt. Joe Gee (D&B-NB) asked him a few questions on his outlook towards his new role.

Q: Where are you from?

A: I have lived all over the mid-west, MN, MI, PA, OH, IN. My birth state is Minnesota.

Q: How did you hear about Culver and specifically Woodcraft Camp?

A: I have been involved with Culver for the past 5 years. I have been the outside contractor that has trained the Challenge Course (leadership) staff. I also was part of the construction of the new ropes elements, and have done the inspection of the course for the past 5 years. I worked with Kim Kickert. I have known about Woodcraft ever since I have been involved in the camping industry.

Q: Where have you been working most recently?

A: My past job was with a Challenge Course company called ERi (Experiential Resources, Inc.) We were a full service company providing construction, training, consultation, inspections and equipment. I was the Director of Training. Traveled the country training camp staff how to safely operate their ropes courses. I also built them. I also am part owner of The Adventure Center in Bloomington, IN. …Read the rest of this entry…

Posted by Mr. Flora at 7:28 PM

I thought it might be fun to add a section to the Culverpedia with information on the various restaurants, hotels, and fun things to do in the Culver area. You’ll spot several links to it up in the camper, alumni, parent, and staff pages or you can just jump straight to the link for the three sections. Check it out and feel free to contribute your own thoughts on the items listed or perhaps even add your own. For instance, Renfro’s should be added to the restaurant guide, but I can’t find their info online.

Also, I started up a page in the Culverpedia called the “Counselor’s Guide to Maximizing Your Down Time” where staff and other visitors can compile together ideas for things to do during off moments or time during camp. If you know of any day trips or have anything you particularly enjoy/enjoyed doing during the summer, add ‘er on there.

DISCUSS

Welcome to GoCulver.com’s newest look. I hope you like it. While I had a nice time putting together the old design, more and more it was limiting what we could do with the site. Thus I finally bit the bullet and put together what you see now, a sleeker, slimmer look.

I’ve updated the look of the forums to match this new design and expect the Culverpedia to follow suit soon…one thing at a time.

You’ll notice some new things here on the front page and some familiar things:

• You can still see whats been happening lately in the forums over on the right.
• The poll is still there on the right as well.
• You’ve still got your index of article subjects on the left and your stories in the center column

On the “new” side of things:

• You’ll see pages with collections of links for campers, alumni, parents, and staff.
• I’ve added a “highlights” panel on the right for stories i think people will be interested in for some time.
• There’s a “quick links” drop down in the upper right with links to some areas of the site, including the “Guestmap.”
• You’ll notice some informational links there to the left on the front page
• When you click on a story’s headline, you’ll be taken to a special “single story” view with a list of related stories at the bottom of the story you’re reading.

Now that I’ve finally managed to get this all pulled together, I’ll be updating more frequently again. Expect some more links and sections to be up for view soon enough.

DISCUSS

Just did a little reorganizing on the forums following some feedback from a few people over the last few weeks. Just now I’ve:

• consolidated all of the unit forums into a new "Garrison" forum on the front page.
• deleted all of the company and deck meeting forums, moved any topics in them into the main unit forums, and switched any passwords onto the main parent forums. This means Deck 1, 4, Naval 2, and Band now have password protected forums.
• moved the contents of the Eppley Auditorium Forum into the appropriate locations (main guard or the Shack) and have closed it down.
• I’ll be toying with the color scheme of the front page and the forums to make them match up a bit better soon.
• I am looking into adding a chat function to the site as well.
• I would like to hold another online reunion sometime later this month to get people pumped up for this summer. We’d use the new chat room for it as well as the forums. Does anyone have any suggestions for the dates and or things we could do online for it?

The hope is to make things a little neater and less clumsy on the site. Here’s a question for all of you though: how would YOU organize the forums? This is as much your site as it is anyone else’s. How would you like to see it organized? Should there be a camper forum, an alumni forum and thats it? I’m all ears.

Lots of ideas….lemme know what you think…

Respond - E-Mail Mr. Flora