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.

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

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.

(editor’s note: Go Culver.com welcomes a new voice to the blog, Mr. Jeff Kenney, the Programming and Technology Coordinator at the Culver-Union Twp. Public Library in Culver, IN. jkenney will be contributing regular blog posts drawing from the library’s resources and dropping by the forums now and again.)

Part of my job as (among other things) unofficial “archivist” at the Culver-Union Twp. Public Library has been gathering and digitizing tons of Culver-related memorabilia. Some of you have probably found your way to the library’s history site, which has thousands of images and full-text writings about Culver history, both summer and winter school, and relating to the town, the lake, etc….fun stuff!

Mr. Flora kindly invited me to become a part of the community here at goculver.com, which is a fantastic site that’s inspired me to work on making the library’s site (which I edit and maintain) more interactive. So, I’ll be posting here from time to time with the occasional old picture, anecdote, link, news item, etc. …Read the rest of this entry…

Here’s today’s Staff Profile, from Lt. Runyan with the Butterflies:

Position: Butterfly 2 Cabin Counselor
College/Winter Employment: Mount Union College
Home Town: Hendersonville, Tn (college: Alliance Oh)
Nickname/s: Megs
Favorite Quote: “Don’t let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”
Last Good Book You Read: The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips Favorite Culver Dance Song: “Saturday Night” by Whigfield Favorite Shack Snack: Chip Wheelies
Favorite Spot on Campus: The 1st Class Ring
Best Part of Working at Culver: Getting to meet so many people!

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.

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.

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…

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

And here we are folks with the fourth and final part of Go Culver.com’s look at recent announcements for summer 2006. This time we’re looking at some changes afoot over at the Woodcraft Camp as well as some very good news for Upper Camp course offerings. As always, head on over to the CulverTalk Forums to discuss afterwards.

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