Tommy, age 10Guess what? Camp is NOT 10 years old – the idea for it hatched over 30 years ago! Here’s how it developed:

In the early 1980s, I went off to North Star Camp in northern Wisconsin, a sleep away camp where my Uncle Jimmy had gone in the 1950s.

Back in those days, 10 year olds went to camp for eight weeks – and loved it!  But I didn’t love it the first year – my cabin mates threw my teddy bear in the rafters and played the song “Ebony and Ivory” every day – enough to drive anyone crazy!

I gave North Star another shot the next summer. It went great, and over my years as a camper, I made lots of friends, learned to paddle and sail, got muddy on bog walks, and fell in love with starry nights and music around a campfire.

Pretty early on I decided that one day I’d like to run my own camp. After 15 years of growing from camper, to staff, to camp administrator in Wisconsin, I finally listened to my long-time mentor Jack Weiner, and headed out west…

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