Directors, Counselors, Staff

Camp Developed Independence–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Independence—we all long for that feeling that we can do it on our own. Camp was the perfect place to try out new activities, learn new skills, and to leave home and enter a safe, nurturing environment.

“I wasn’t a girlie girl,” said seventies camper Helen McLogan,” and I was a rule-follower. I think going to camp made me much more independent. I was afraid to go at first and was unwilling to branch out of my comfortable world, but I have a strong memory of loving to master the skills and levels at camp. And when I worked in the kitchen, it was good for me. I think I was hysterical at the closing ceremony that first summer, even though I had not wanted to go to camp. Two weeks up there was just perfect for me.”

“I think Camp Maqua was a classic camp and the responsibilities helped build my character. When I send my kids to camp, I want them to go to the kind without air conditioning, with mosquitoes, and I want them to enjoy rustic camping. There was a very different tone to the camp when the boys were there. I was a little sentimental about just having all girls.”

 Mary Beth Morton (1974-75) was off to General Motors Institute when she graduated. “I paid my own way and I was very independent. That experience at camp, I would have to say, helped me to become myself. At home, I just did not make waves, but I was biding my time. Somehow I had the insight to know I did not have to live like that. I became an engineer in the auto industry, which gave me a lot of security. Camp taught me that I was accepted and well regarded. It was an eye-opening time and it allowed me to become more confident.”

For fifties girl Jan Bateson (pictured above at the 2016 reunion with Marsha Immerman), camp gave her a sense of leaving home, but able to return with virtually nothing changed. “I found independence, bravery, and courage. It definitely influenced me. It reinforced my love of being outside with space to roam. To not know anybody at camp and to be okay, to be connected to other girls from other groups and different places after coming from the mostly Polish-German town of Salzburg was wonderful. I had never had a conversation with so many girls!”

Her love of camp also influenced her family and life. Jan’s family camped and canoed in Canada, she ran a Girl Scout troop, sent her daughters to Girl Scout camp, as well as becoming involved with kids in crisis in another camp.

“The whole experience solidified my values, “ said Nancy Neumyer (1975-78)- “I was a person of great faith and I place great value on family and children. It helped me to become a better Mom. I loved being surrounded by like-minded girls, which reinforced my values. It gave me a sense of independence. I enjoyed that time and was not easily homesick. I did have a summer with my sister there, but she was in a neighboring cabin, and there were always returnees. It was such a welcoming and nurturing place. It was a way for me to have something of my own since I was one of nine kids. I didn’t have to compete and the experience allowed me to be me. I was never jealous or competitive. There is a joke in my family that I raised myself.”

“I think camp helped me become more independent, “ said Debbie Hawkins, who camped in the sixties. “It was the first time away without my parents, except for nights at friend’s homes. I realized I could live by myself without my parents, and at that time it was a long time for a young person to be away. I just remember the deepness of the friendships I made at camp. I also remember my counselors Beanie and Frenchie. Beanie was funny as all get out.”

Sue West, back row in the middle, is seen below with her siblings at a family reunion in Maqua last summer and was a  counselor in Primitive camping. Her brother Bill West (second from left) owns the home directly to the right of the campfire pit. She was the second youngest of eight kids and started at Camp Maqua in 1975. Her Mom had died two years earlier and she had gone to live with some of her siblings at aged seventeen. “Camp impacted my character. It made me stronger, more independent. I was always amazed that I got the job. I always knew I wanted to be a Home Ec. teacher because I loved working with kids. I knew it from this experience. I grew up camping and would summer in Canada with cousins and with five kids between my husband and me–we have camped, backpacked and hiked because we love the outdoors.”

 

 

 

Camp Strengthened Young Women–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Ask Cindy Knapp, shown above, (1968-71)— there was no question that her time at Maqua influenced who she was as a person.  ‘I loved my summers there, treasure the memories and friendships that were formed, and am grateful to have had the opportunity. Maqua helped give me confidence and taught me a lot about leadership.  I had always wanted to be a teacher and I know some of that desire is from the modeling of teaching that I watched at Maqua.  We learned to be friendly, kind, loyal, curious, confident, respectful, responsible, trustworthy, fair, and strong.  That’s pretty good character building, if you ask me.”

“I became a teacher and there is no question that my camp experiences have influenced my career.  When I taught sixth grade for several years, it was a tradition to go to a nearby Y camp for three days.  I recreated a lot of the program, using my Maqua experience as a model.  (Prior to that, it was kind of just school in a different place and I was having none of that!). I always sang the old songs with my kids.   I have been teaching preschool for the last 12 years and the Maqua songs are especially fun with them!”

Tally Cone (1960-65) became a teacher and had always wanted to teach the younger kids, but after her Mastes degree, she taught math to middle school kids. “Maybe, I ended up being drawn to the age that I actually was at camp. I love middle school kids. One day, they are wanting a sticker on their work, and the next they are crying over a break-up of a boyfriend or girlfriend.”

She and her husband retired early, after raising two daughters. Both girls went to camp, but they never camped as a family. Instead, as teachers, they were able to take the summers off and visit the U.S. “Now when I see a birch tree or even smell “S’Mores” or a campfire, I think of Camp Maqua.”

Carol  Wahl used her camp counseling experience for years on her resume, until her resume filled up with the many jobs she had. Many of her years have been spent in education as a science teacher for adjudicated teens. “I use the lab as hands-on for the kids as much as possible, and many have returned to say it was their favorite class. When I was at camp and saw the bad behaviors in the girls, I made sure I taught mine better. Camp was a wonderful experience for campers and counselors. I still have rocks from camp painted with “Camp Maqua 1974” and a piece of driftwood somewhere.”

“When I think of camp, I think of home,” said Sharon Williams, a counselor in the seventies. “It was my summer home. We were just a group of people working together having a great time. We were open and accepting of each other. You came into your own at eighteen and nineteen and there were many changes and time to develop. Those times really helped to shape and reaffirm my career choice in physical education. My first job in teaching was junior high level in Plymouth Middle School.”

Pat  O’Tool l (1944-52) loved arts and crafts and went on to become an art teacher, convinced that the arts she learned to enjoy at camp influenced her career choice. “The leadership and supervision and forever directing something as a kid influenced me to teach, To this day, she still teaches art and still remembers the postcard from Camp Maqua featuring the girls in front of the craft hut.”

When Sue Michelson (1963-73) was not at camp, she was babysitting or volunteering with children at home—always involved in the community in some way. Her camping days and love of children helped to make the career choice of becoming a K-12 principal. As a teacher, responsible for children and talking to parents, her roots with writing reports as a camp director gave her great experience.“Camp Maqua was so influential in my life“ Part of the reason I went to Michigan State was due to many of my counselor friends going there. Half of us went to Michigan and the other half to Western. It was more than a summer experience. It was a huge part of my life. I had always wanted to be a teacher, and I looked up to those counselors.

Others were influenced to attend a certain college, Betsy Falvey, (1968-75) said, “I do feel like camp influenced my choice of college. I chose a small college and I was active in my sorority and my major was history, but my minor was in music. Everyone was singing and playing guitars at camp, including me, so I was in a band in college. I think I am the only one I know with a liberal arts degree that has made it work in my life.”

“I think camp guided me into teaching,” said Carolyn Stanton (below) (1947+). “ I was a waitress at Camp Sherwood and Huntingdon later, so I liked camps. I ended up as a reading specialist and got my Masters in the eighties. I had good values already, but camp strengthened them.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp Influenced Many Lives—

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

 

With so many girls gaining many experiences, each unique to their personalities, their home life, their own skills and interest, it is not surprising how many different answers came to the question, “How did Camp Maqua influence your life?”

Jan Schrieber (left)(1962-70), now a Psychologist in San Francisco, was the creator of the Camp Maqua Alumni page on Facebook in 2010, following the death of her mother. She was extremely close to her Mom, who she described as creative, funny and truly wonderful. “I started thinking about the things that made ME! How much of life has passed now and that was just a nugget of experience, but I stayed connected to many of those girls.”

What began as a page with about six members has grown to 250 members in the eight-year period and has been a tremendous networking forum for those who treasured their times at camp. It has also been a feeder platform for obtaining the history for the book “Camp Maqua” and the blogs on www.girlsofcampmaqua.com

“I’m an oncology nurse now and manage a research department,” said Debi Gottlieb (!968+). “I cannot imagine that going to camp did not affect me in my life. It was a place where girls could be themselves and get to know other girls without their parents,  and the usual rules. It was just a fun place to be!”

Camp transported Nancy Weber away from home in the sixties and influenced her future career. “I was the youngest child of older parents. By the time I was ten, my brother was in high school and my sister was in college. I look back and realize camp made me comfortable with my eccentricities. You can take me anywhere and I fit in. Whether it is camping, raising coonhounds, or with the gentry, I cherish that I can fit in.  It didn’t show up at camp but did later—my comfort with myself. And fifty years later, I can still fold a flag perfectly!”

“I have memories of my sister’s time at camp, and I knew all the songs before I went to camp, but it was a different time and a different experience. I have a degree in teaching and counseling and I am now a public speaker, but I sang songs to my kids when I was teaching that made me a hit.”

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Camp As A Confidence Builder–

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

Whether it was gaining confidence, being nurtured for the first time, or learning new skills in activities unknown to young girls before their arrival at camp, Maqua always had a reputation for their incredible staff leadership from the top down.

“Camp was all about confidence in terms of getting along with people,” said Elaine Engibous (left). (1961-63) “I always wanted to go over my birthday because everyone sang to you and you were a very important person on that day— not just a” run of the mill” camper on your birthday, but special. The camping experience was the opening of an exciting time, where I never hesitated to take advantage of some new adventure. I learned to share. I learned that counselors knew what careers they wanted to do—architects, nurses, and it was all okay and you could do anything you wanted to. There were incredible personalities to follow—Beanie, and the counselors.”

“You know, years later I went to Girl’s State and the Lt. Governor’s wife got up to speak about how important politics were. She told us to hold hands with each other and that we would probably never see each other again. At Maqua, we were all treated well and at the wishing boat ceremony, never did we say out loud as we held hands that we would not see each other again. We would write and hope we might see each other and we might think it, but at Girl’s State, they already had us divided!”

For Susan Prieskorn (1966-72), all the exposure to new things at camp developed her confidence in her new skills. “I loved the swimming, camping outdoors, being able to cook outside and develop athleticism in an era when girls were doing more than cheerleading! It was cool to be athletic.”

Her sister Cara, (1966-71) paid little attention to the horses, as she had one at home, but “class-wise, I always loved archery, riflery, swimming, and all the waterfront activities. I know that when you did distance swimming, the miles would be posted on the board by the waterfront. I would swim for an hour and post a mile, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a mile. I worked hard for my sharpshooter badge. I still swim and shoot as an adult and I think camp taught me some practical things like how to start a fire, use an ax and identify poison ivy leaves.”

Connie Cruey (left) loved the camaraderie of the sleeping cabins in the fifties that helped her form new friendships away from her existing friends in other cabins. She loved being involved in everything from horseback riding to swimming. Her goal was to make it to the raft and she succeeded. She ended up working at camps in college, teaching others to swim, while she worked on her degree in Physical Education at C.M.U. To this day, she still does laps in the pool three days a week.”

Camp Maqua was a very positive leadership experience for Kathy Hall (1966-71). She retired from marketing, but during her career in non-profits working in the community, she felt that camp helped her develop her spirit and drive. “I liked giving back,” said Kathy, who earned the Athena award and many other international leadership awards, including the YWCA. “Maqua was a happy camp, which was a mind-altering experience for me.”

“Everybody I talked to about camp thought it was special,” said Audrey Graff (below) (1948). “It was life-changing and Maqua was not an ordinary camp. I was a counselor in college at another camp, but it was not the same experience.  There was something intangible about Maqua—a feeling of community and interrelationships.”

 

 

 

Camp Developed Leaders–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Camp Maqua developed some amazing leaders, not only on the camp grounds but later in life. Women in leadership roles influenced young girls at camp, whether they were aware or not. The young girls looked up to the counselors, who were in college attaining degrees in fields that women of the past dare not dream about as a career.

Cheryl  Short was twelve years old in 1964 and the second oldest in a family of seven in Bay City when she first attended Camp Maqua. A self-described driven and in charge person, Cheryl said she was always the giver and not the taker. “I was a nurturer. A lot of the values and qualities that were instilled in us at camp, I already had. I was not shy either. It was one week out of one year in my life. I already knew who I was as a child. I just enjoyed that time just being a kid, being free to be me for a whole week with no dishes, no chores, and no responsibilities.”

“When I became a Mom, we worked to get our kids into the special camps they wanted to attend, so they could share those values. It was one part of my life I wanted my son and daughter to share,” said Cheryl. “ I was President of the “Special Days” Cancer Camp and now sit on the board. I have been involved for many years. Those times reminded me of my camp experience and it was fun to see kids who had cancer having fun because I don’t remember ever really being a kid.”

Cheryl’s position is one with large responsibilities now—President of McLaren Bay Special Care, with a great many initials behind her name!

In 1967 Lin Harris had just graduated from college and sent out twelve postcards looking for jobs. Eleven of them replied. With credentials in water safety instruction, she was just what Dorthe Balaskas needed for Camp Maqua, plus Dorthe was curious who would apply for a job by postcard.

Her Mom died when she was fourteen in 1957, and she had attended Indian Beach Camp in Grand Traverse Bay. It changed her life and she said her heart was there. That camp allowed her to see strong women in leadership positions running the camp. Even as a swimming instructor at the “Y” in Flint, she realized that women were not given the same opportunities, despite the fact that she felt like she was doing something positive teaching women a skill.

“Up until then, girls were just teachers or airline stewardesses or nurses. Women were not given the opportunity. I did not have many women role models until then. I realized I could do anything I wanted to.”

She and a friend took 14 girls on a primitive trip to Manitou Island. Jennifer McLogan and Laurie Cullen were two of the girls from Maqua that were on that trip. Lin was amazed later to find out many of the girls on that trip became doctors.

Lin taught physical education in high school, mainly swimming. “Maqua meant the whole world to some people and provided opportunities they may not have had. It also filled in empty spaces for staff and campers alike.”

Karen Selby’s friend Rene Baker was the daughter of her father’s law partner in Bay City and had camped at Maqua for a few years. Rene’s Mom had invited Karen and her Mom, who had been on the board, to attend the camp rally or jamboree at the “Y” when she was about twelve or thirteen in the early seventies. “I was interested since Rene was my older and more mischievous friend, so I thought it would be fun.”

Karen then returned as a counselor and spent the last three years (1976-1978) as an arts counselor with some huge changes taking place at the camp. Unbeknownst to her, she spent the last year of her camping days in a camp that would close that last summer, as she donned her pale blue shirt to distinguish herself from the campers.

“As a human being, going to camp began to teach me the value of service and the understanding that I had many opportunities and how many I had been given. Those were invaluable things. It also taught me to be self-assured and confident in my competence. It taught me to be willing to walk out on a limb and to have faith in what I was doing—that failure was alright and that I was not made by my failures. It was up to me to decide what to do with my failures. Part of being able to go so far in my profession (Ph.D. Professor at U of D Mercy in research, literacy, and education) was pushing the envelope. I didn’t wait to be given permission to succeed and that if I failed, I was not my failure.”

“My teaching style was cemented as a camp staffer. I am still today who I was when I arrived at camp. I have trust and faith in my students and their ability to bring their brilliance to the table. I recognize it in others and myself.”

 

 

 

 

 

Camp Developed Professional Women–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Three women with three different experiences were shaped and influenced by their camping years at Maqua. Each one continued their careers as leaders and attributed many of their skills and successes to experiences at camp.

Carol Hulett, pictured left, was the “Camp Health Director” (or nurse) during the time when it was impossible to find a nurse. After her junior and senior years at Albion College, where she majored in Biology, Carol trained under the American Camping Association and came to Maqua for summers 1973 and 1974, where she ‘learned to be a nurse at camp. Carol always knew she wanted to be a doctor and had a private practice as an Orthopedic Surgeon in Mt. Clemens until 2008.

Carol’s view of camp remains to this day one of well-adjusted, homogenous and mostly white middle class. There had been kids from difficult homes who had problems, but most were happy and enjoyed taking advantage of the activities that camp offered. She had been a camper since the age of eight and had been in camp every year until she was twenty-one.

The only child of second marriage, she felt even though her family had been influential in her values and character, camp was more influential.“I was the youngest in the family and the “bossy brat” at home, but at camp it was okay to be a tomboy and be understood for who I was. In terms of the outdoors, I still canoe and if I have the opportunity, I am outside.”

Kim  Moore, pictured below right with Sheryl Biesman, was nine or ten years old in 1967 or 1968 when she attended Camp Maqua for the first time and went every summer until she turned fifteen when she ended her “career” there as a kitchen aid. Kim helped start a Charter School (DaVinci Institute in Jackson, Mich.), which is a non-traditional school that serves an at-risk population, as there is a prison there with many transitional families. “It is the hardest job I have ever loved, as it is attached to a high school and I started the K-8 section and was principal and now a curriculum coordinator, but those little things from Maqua helped me. Just weaving the plastic lanyards in the craft hut meant I could do that with my students here and I can trace relationship building back to Maqua. The sense of community, being open to meeting new people, and building relationships that I learned at camp have all been put to good use here.”

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