As I write, the intrepid midshipmen of Naval 2 are preparing for their first official Personal Inspection of the summer.  From the company office I hear the smacking of shoes, the clang of broomsticks, and above all, the sound of people telling eachother what to do in order to get the barracks clean.  It’s a great sound.

Following this 8:10 PI Naval 2 will head off to their first classes of the summer, sailing, waterskiing, basketball, math, english, all sorts of things.  Then we have lunch, another inspection, more classes, and some sports time in the afternoon.

The most important news is that company 2 survived the first weekend of camp in good shape.  We’re still all present and accounted for.  This is my third summer with the unit and every time someone comes down with an unreconcilable case of the “homesick blues” and has had to go home.  Not this time though.  We’ve had a few guys show some signs of missing home but getting them involved in activities and introducing them to other guys has helped immeasurably.

Our first drill took place a few days ago, and as expected it looked rough.  It will take a few times before people get in step and figure out how to march.  Luckily, we have a few times to give before first parade Tuesday evening.  People seem willing to learn however, which is good.  And our first class is starting to wake up and realize that they are in charge. Which is very good.

We’re having another drill tonight after dinner and then our first company meeting.  At the meeting we’re mostly going to go over the basic rules of camp, but we’ll also throw in a few fun curveballs to shake things up.

It’s PI TIME!

Hey there everyone! Sorry for the slowness on the updates, things have been hectic this week during staff training and its thrown me out of my “rhythm” for updating.

Staff training has been going on all week and this morning, campers will start officially registering for Culver Summer Camps 2006. Very exciting. Here are some fun facts I’ve heard this week:

• After a thorough search, Company One gained a Sr. Counselor on Thursday, Mr. Karamon, perhaps known by some as the Assistant Military Activities coordinator from summer 2005.
• Enrollment is way up this summer with approx. 1352 campers attending. Last summer involved roughly 1298 campers.
• 38% of this year’s Culver Summer Campers hail from outside the United States down from 40% last summer.  There are 26 internationals on staff this year.
• Aviation A and B have been combined this summer into one unit, “Aviation” and will join the Troop in all athletic competitions to compete against the naval companies as the “Air-Cav.” Aviation contains around 40 campers this year and Troop is up over 60 this summer (!) which means this new unit could be quite a force.
• The main upper camp SOP has seen substantial revision this summer as predicted on this very site. The TUXIS program has indeed been tied into rank for all upper campers. In order to gain any sort of rank promotion at the end of the summer, a camper must have earned his or her Tuxis.
• The Tuxis banner is also making a return to Upper Camp, going to the boys and girls units who showed the most participation in Tuxis each week.
• The girls are adding two new naval events to their competition each week, a wherry race (single pull) and a kayak race (double sprint). As these two “events” have long been a part of the Great Race it seemed only sensible to have the ladies race them throughout the summer to build of more experience.
• Boys intramural sailing will now include a 420 class sailing race on Tuesday’s.

Those are some of the interesting changes/developments we’ve been hearing about this week. We’ll keep you posted as things develop. Stay tuned. Our first camper just turned up in Naval 2!

Discuss

Just got off the phone with Mr. Knight a few minutes ago and Awesome One still needs a head counselor for this summer.  Are there any college graduates out there who would be interested?

I’ve been hearing various things that sounded promising and was scratching my head as to how this opening could still be there but apparently there have been a few people who have backed out even after signing contracts, which is unfortunate and understandably frustrating for Culver.

Anyway, the job would pay around $3000, staff training starts this Sunday the 18th of June but at this point I think Culver would be somewhat flexible with start time if there’s someone who’d be a good fit who is seriously interested.

So let’s put our heads together on this one.  Are there any brothers, friends, colleagues, alumni, parents, who might be interested in doing something like this during the summer?

If so have them call Culver at 1 574 842 7000 and ask for Coleman Knight.

Any takers from among the Go Culver community?  From our rabid alumni base?

Emily Bazelon considers the growing ranks of summer campers who are age 9 and under in a new piece on Slate today. She’s generally interested in whether or not it’s healthy to send a son or daughter off to camp at that age and also in the sort of parents who might do such a thing. Her conclusion, in part:

“Overnight camp isn’t for every 6-year-old, but for a hearty subset, a summer sleeping on the top bunk and making God’s eyes with fellow sprites can be heavenly. The reason more children this age don’t go is that the parents, not the kids, aren’t ready.”

Read it Here

While I agree with her assertion that there are probably a lot more six-year olds who are ready to go to an overnight summer camp than parents who are ready to send their six-year olds to an overnight summer camp I think you have to look at the length, activities, and supervision situation at each camp. They really do differ greatly. I can see a 6-year old having a great time at a 5-6 day overnight camp where he or she will be spending time with 2-3 counselors at all times. Woodcraft camp is six weeks long however. That’s a friggin’ long time for a kids that young (which is why they start ‘em a few years older right?).

That said, i think my dad probably started Woodcraft at age 8 (edit: 12 actually) and while I’ve certainly heard his memories of grousing about it all the time I don’t think he’s ever said anything that amounted to “I was homesick at Woodcraft” so perhaps I’m just giving out little guys too little credit.

Any of our Woodcraft camp staff or alumni have anything to say about the youngest kids at Culver? What’s the camper/staff ratio these days by the way? Discuss.

The Tuxis Program has long been a crucial part of Culver Summer Camps, providing every Culver Upper Camper the opportunity to earn a medal to wear with his or her dress A by completing a series of merit-badge style accomplishments as set forth by their Culver Summer Camps Tuxis Director. Third classmen may earn their bronze tuxis medal, second classmen have their silver to work towards, while first classmen set their sights on the gold tuxis. Each of these medals is progressively more difficult to earn with the understanding that moving up in rank at Culver means you have to perform at a higher level.

But how hard is it to earn you Tuxis medal? And how have the Tuxis standards fared over the years? Should there be more testing involved? less testing? more sports? less? What about those pesky Tuxis essays people work on, or their Tuxis collages.

I’m curious to hear what you think about the general level of challenge to the TUXIS program. In fact I’m starting a new poll on the front page about it, so weigh in with a vote there and your comments in the thread in Main Guard.

Finally to adress the questions about changing Tuxis standards I present to you an honest goodness 1920 Silver Tuxis Sheet that I tracked down using our new Ebay section just last week. What do you think of the point requirements? Any of them stand out? Let’s take a look…

…Read the rest of this entry…

The “Get Amped for Camp Online Reunion” will indeed kick off in a few hours at 9pm EST. To cut down on the number of anonymous guests sitting in on it the forums will be going “members only” starting at 8:45pm EST. Guest access to them will return at midnight tonight EST.

If you can’t remember your log in information click here to get a new password or here to make a new profile.

See you in a bit!

Here are links to the main boarding school review sites with Culver Military Academy and Culver Girls Academy reviews and opinions (as well as Culver Summer Camps!).

Some of these review sites are more sophisticated than others but if you’re a parent or camper looking to voice your opinion online about Culver or wanting to read thoughts and perspectives about Culver Academy and whether it’s the right place to send your son or daughter, look no further:

• Epinions Reviews of Culver Summer Camps - These are pretty interesting and quite thorough in places.
• Culver Academy on Boarding School Review - This is your best bet. Boarding school review is extremely well-designed and thorough. Their Culver page includes some nice pictures and a video as well.
• Culver Military Academy and Girls Academy on GreatSchools.net - More good info though I’m not as big a fan as I am of the Boarding School review site.

Enjoy. Remember you can always create a profile on Go Culver.com and post in our forums to learn more, talk to Culver people, and post your thoughts.

Related links:

Scholarship Finder | Harvard Student College Essay Reviews | Find Money For School

As part of the festivities taking place on the board tomorrow night (click here to learn more) we’ll be unveiling some really tremendous vintage Culver documents that have recently come into my possession.  I don’t want to spill too many beans before I go live with them but let me say that a certain someone has been winning some Ebay auctions recently…one of these is a real screamer that you’ll all love…

Looking forward to tomorrow night!

RSVP for the reunion here. Think of some ideas for what we can talk about too!

As the date draws nearer for camp to start this summer, I know that I — and my nearly 3-year-old son, if he only knew it! — am looking forward to Sunday afternoon parades starting….as well as Saturday night Council Fires, seeing the Ledbetter out on the water more often, the Moonlight Serenade, the sailboats on the lake each afternoon…Culver in the summer!

Presented here is an early 1960s postcard from the collection of Pete Trone, who himself was involved in Culver Summer Camps for years, has some great stories, and is one of our great local resources as a fount of historical knowledge. As always, click to enlarge the image. The Woodcraft camp, of course, had not long been re-created on the east side of SR 117 (East Shore Drive), where today it remains, and the cabins in this photo look new and shiny to me!

Browsing around our Summer Camp photos to find this one, another one caught my attention, relating also to the Black Horse Troop, or at least to horsemanship, so I’m throwing it in here. I don’t know the specific origin of this photo, but it comes from the collection of beloved, longtime Culver barber (retired) Verl Shaffer, and depicts a very early scene of the “rougher, tougher” days of Troop, when campers marched all day at times, camped in the field at night, carried canons by horseback, etc., etc. It would be interesting to know exactly where they’re riding in this picture, and exactly when, but I found this an interesting photo…

Had a happy moment just today when Culver resident Sandra Wakefield (who is also head of our Friends of the Library organization) dropped off a bag of old Academy Roll Call yearbooks from the 1950s. To be exact, 1953, 54, 56, 57, and 58! I realize these are winter school books, but they were so beautifully photographed and give such a good peek into the students and campus of the day, they’re wonderful to see. They’re also a real treasure, from my point of view, as I know they’re collectable and rare. We MIGHT own one or two earlier Roll Call’s in our history collection, but they don’t tend to come our way very often, so this is great. Sandy’s husband, Rudy, worked for years for the Culver Press (located then in what is today’s Town Hall building on Plymouth Sreet in Culver), which did much of the Academy’s printing in those days, so occasionally we get some nice donations to our collection from Sandy and Rudy.

The point is: there are some old Roll Calls in addition to other neat Culver history items (like Summer School catalogs and the like) here at the library, and any of you who are in Culver this summer (or any time!) are welcome and encouraged to drop by and spend some time in our history area browsing the collection. You’re free to bring a scanner or digital camera, too, if you’d like to digitize a favorite image or two.

Incidentally, I’ll be doing a presentation here at the library this month on Culver history: “Daniel McDonald, the Railroad, and the Origins of Culver as We Know It” on Saturday, June 24 at 10am for the Antiquarian and Historical Society of Culver’s annual meeting. The meeting and my talk — which includes a Power Point full of photos — is open to everyone, and there should be coffee and refreshments. So drop by and take a listen, come up and say hi, have some coffee and relax! And hey, think about siging up as a member of the Antiquarian Society…they’re a great group that does a lot of good relating to Culver history…

DISCUSS IN FORUMS

With just over 2 weeks to go before Culver Summer 2006 kicks off I’m taking down the ropes and throwing open the doors to a new discussion forum, the Parents Forum.

This discussion board offers a place for Culver Summer Camps parents to meet other parents and to learn more about Culver by talking to them as well as Culver Alumni, Staff, and perhaps even a few campers. I’ve posted a short welcome message in there already along with some links that parents might find useful.

So for all those parents out there with children at Culver Summer Camps or who have ever had children attend Culver Summer Camps, you now have your very own place to interact informally with counselors, other parents and alumni. I hope you find this a useful service.

For all you campers out there, tell your parents about this forum. Tell them they can use it to get in touch with your counselors without having to pick up the phone for example. Point ‘em to Go Culver.
The Parents Forum Index | Discuss Ideas for the Parents Forum

Here’s a shot from one of the most exciting soccer games I saw back in 2004. I believe regulation time ended with the score tied up at 2. N1 earned a victory on the very last penalty kick in the shootout that followed…great game!

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The Great Race, Communications Relay, Pegasus Drill, and Final Ball won’t be the only things going on during the last week of camp this summer for Culver Military Academy Summer campers, staff, and parents. They, along with select Woodcrafters and Specialty campers, will also be asked to fill out a new survey commissioned by the Culver Summer Schools Alumni Assocation in order to guage the effectiveness of Culver’s current marketing efforts, processes, and curriculum.

The surveys are being funded by the CSSAA, produced and conducted by Indianapolis-based Loyalty Research Center, and will be overseen by the CSSAA Program and Student Life Committee. The questions posed to campers, staff, and parents will be a little different for each group and parents will have the option of filling it out online.

According to Stan Mefford (CSSAA board member WC‘71 NB‘74, the surveys are meant to “see how good of a job Culver is doing with its summer programs” and will be examined very closely by the Culver Educational Foundation, CSSAA, and the Culver Summer Schools and Camps Administration. “The CSSAA board believes that it is important to see what our customers see, to understand why people come to Culver and who they are demographically,” says Mefford.

Though the impact of the information gleaned from these surveys may not be felt for some time Mefford says the results will eventually be used “to understand the perception, market more precisely, and to improve the summer programs.” According to him “the CSSAA board believes that Culver’s summer program has no equal throughout the country” and has commissioned this survey to understand how Culver can continue in its excellence in their summer programs.

What do you think about this? Leave a comment.

Flyerjimi_kephart started a very interesting thread last week (which I almost completely missed) about Culver’s aviation situation this summer.

The gist: Culver Academy will accomodate returning first class aviators with at least 15 hours of flight time who are interested in contracting with another flight school nearby during their 6 weeks at Culver. They will provide travel to and from the airfield and will also allow participating aviators the flexibilitiy they need in their morning schedules to get in these flight hours.

Check out the thread here, with Tony Mayfield’s initial letter to all returning aviators and correspondence between Flyerjimi_kephart and Eagle Aircraft representatives. This is great news. Congratulations to everyone who helped make this happen.

You can read previous pieces and threads about finding alternative aviation accomodations for this summer here, here, and here and can read about last summer’s plane crash incident here and a much earlier letter about aviation from Mr. Mayfield here. Good work everyone!

Jump in on this discussion

From 2005 I believe. I have to say I really like how color guard is “audition only” now. When I was a second classmen back in 1997 I was placed on Regimental Color Guard for final rank having never actually ever served on color guard before. Though I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the nifty Regimental Aguilette I have to say I wasn’t all that proficient at carrying the American Flag…!

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