“Why do you want to stay around here all summer?” my mom insisted every summer. She had not attended camp, but she recognized it as a great place for young people to grow. She knew staying home would involve sleeping in, hanging out among the same friends, seeing the same sights, and dirtying her kitchen. She also suspected it would cement friendships with some rowdy, misguided characters. She was right. I was drawn to them. I skirted the edge of legal and illegal, moral and immoral, just to see what I could get away with. I was a follower. And I wanted to be popular. In the mid-seventies, as now, this is a dangerous obstacle to positive growth.

Camp provided a blessed relief. At the time, I simply credited the fun activities, beautiful setting, and genuine friendships. Now, I credit the intangible aspects of camp. By following a better crowd for 35 weeks over 5 years, incubated from the outside world in a healthy, positive environment, I found the person I wanted to be. I won very few awards or beads and rarely stepped into a leadership role, but I discovered many other positive qualities, and laid the foundation for my adult life.

I went into the world confident, focused, and determined. I graduated from college, earned a Masters in Business, a small aircraft pilot’s license, Certification in Public Accounting, 29 years of successful marriage, and two grown children.

I grow bleary eyed at the mere mention of camp. So, naturally, my daughter attended. The logistics proved difficult. We lived much further away than in my childhood days. But she managed to attend half-sessions over four non-consecutive summers. She also earned the beads and awards that I had not.

She is now in her twenties and a successful college student. The other day I asked, “Do you wish you had spent more time at camp?” “Yes,” she said, not missing a beat.

Looking back, I should have insisted she attend every year, for the full seven weeks. Not because she might have turned out badly, but because I wonder how much bigger her dreams could be.

So, why do you want to stay at home all summer? Find a way to make it happen. They say no one ever enters the pearly gates thinking, “Gosh, I wish I’d spent more time at work.” Go to camp. Send your kids, or be the camper. If your window of opportunity is here, don’t let it pass.

Leelanau taught me to never leave anything undone. To never settle for less than perfect. To never allow mediocrity to be acceptable. To never let your head hit the pillow until your work is done. Each day I take a trip up Port Oneida road and bring the lessons home with me to the rest of my life. Everyday, Leelanau contributes to my success.

Since Leelanau, I have led Outward Bound trips for troubled-teens directly out of jail, started a boarding school for kids with learning difficulties, launched a successful consulting company, and been actively involved in start-ups and venture-funded organizations. I have been featured in the Wall Street Journal and been interviewed dozens of times on international radio programs; I’ve taken a BPO Wireless company and doubled revenues in just over a year and at the age of 30, I’ve recently been named the COO of a multi-national telecommunications firm.

Every morning in the early morning hours before our office comes alive I look out over San Francisco from my office window and think: none of this is my doing. This is about Camp. This is about footsteps on the cabin porch. This is about day 3 of the flag-trip. This is about dips during pre-camp. The take-away from my success over the last decade is that my building-blocks of success are comprised of Lessons from Leelanau.

I first went to Camp as a CT in the summer of 1994. I was thrown into a community that thrived on integrity, challenge, openness, hard work, joy, and craftsmanship. Within days, guys like Peter Weaver, Perry Towle, Josh Sprague, BI Warrick, and Clark Shutt had taken me further down a path of self-examination and clarity of my true Self, than years of Sunday School or boarding school ever had. I was challenged to always do my best…and then do better. I lived the motto that you don’t let your head hit the pillow until the work is done. I breathed the truth that mediocrity is not acceptable. That summer was the best summer of my life and set the stage for years to come.

One of my proudest accomplishments was getting the 5 year pin from Clark. It was difficult to keep coming back to Camp each summer as a counselor. I had job offers and internships that I turned down to keep showing up for the summer. People in my life told me that I didn’t make enough money at Camp to make it worth while. I disagreed because the reward was not about money…it was about clarity, motivation, and Truth. Every year after camp I would be catapulted into a renewed level of success in my work and life. Milestone after milestone, I have never forgotten my roots.

Each day I am still driven by the idea to never leave anything undone. To never settle for less than perfect. To never allow mediocrity to be acceptable. To never let your head hit the pillow until your work is done. Each day I take a trip up Port Oneida road and bring the lessons on with me to the rest of my life.

Throughout our lives, we are constantly faced with choices of how to spend our time. I am so grateful that by listening to the one Mind, I was led to spend many wonderful summers as a camper and counselor at Camp Kohahna. It was there that I built a spiritual foundation for life, and where I learned how to glorify God in every single thing I do.

I frequently recognize how my camp experience has shaped everything I have done since. In fact, if I consider my current resume, which includes a bachelors degree, a masters degree, 12 years of experience working at a financial institution, internships, and leadership roles with nonprofit groups, I consider my camp experience the most important experience I have ever had. Camp has been the ultimate resume builder for me. I know that I would not have the same experiences to list if I had not attended Camp Kohahna, and I learned more from attending camp than any class, internship, or other training could even come close to offering.

It wasn't always easy to make the choice to come to camp--or so it seemed. At the point in my life when most of my peers were doing summer internships deemed crucial to lead to a good job, I prayed to know that I did not need to give up good (the camp experience) to get good (a good job), and to know that God already had the perfect plan for me. That summer, I was a counselor at camp. I started an internship a week after camp was over.

It was this internship that directly led to a job offer I accepted upon graduation, and that took me from Ohio to Louisiana. I remember sitting across the table from my future boss discussing my "start date." I had already committed to be a counselor at Kohahna that summer. She asked me to cancel those plans and start in June, immediately after graduation. I told her tha t I had made a commitment that I not only wanted to keep, but that I felt was important to keep. She understood, and I started the job after camp was over. I am certain that I brought better skills to the new job with a summer of camp behind me. This move led to a fulfilling career and a family. After moving, I was "re-introduced" to a Leelanau alum from New Orleans, who is now my husband.

During many job performance reviews over the years the positive feedback I have received has often included something that can't always be articulated in the usual business terminology--comments like, "the office wouldn't be the same without you" or "nothing ever upsets you." Whenever I receive this type of feedback I never take it personally, but instead express gratitude for the Kohahna spirit that was shared with me, and that I am now sharing with others.

Spring workouts had started and the theme for the year was a verse taken from the Bible “Be prepared in season and out”. (II Timothy4:2 ESV) To our team this was a commitment to each
other to continue to improve ourselves for the upcoming season.

I was heading into my last season of football and expectations were high. We had a good senior class returning and this final year would be the climax of my four year career.

After some intense spring practices, I was left with the tough decision whether to continue my football training regiment at home or head to camp for what might also be my final year. Would camp prepare me for the upcoming season?

After some debate in my head, I packed my trunk and headed to camp for another summer on Pyramid Point. This might not have seemed like the logical choice but I never doubted my decision knowing that I had more to give at camp than anywhere else. As it turned out about 4 other players from that year’s team also made the choice to attend camp.

Going into that summer I did not know how I was going to improve as an athlete however I was confident that I would grow as a person.

We had an incredible camp season that year, our best ever. Workouts that summer were not spent doing the traditional activities. Instead stamina was gained by Saturday night soccer games, water polo at the shallows, Pyramid Point hikes, and sand dune treks. During each camp activity I kept my teammates in mind and used it as motivation to push myself further.

I remember one council fire night there was a camper who was bothered by an ankle injury. The boy had decided he could not make the long and steep walk up council fire hill. Another teammate and I used this as an opportunity to push ourselves and show this camper how much he was loved. We took turns hiking up council fire hill with this boy clinging on our backs. We arrived at council fire in a boiling sweat to the cheers and exaltation of the rest of camp.

Shortly after camp ended, football season started and I found my needed skill set hightened with absolutely no regression or stagnation in my play. The dedication, commitment and teamwork developed at camp left me in a better place to accept my responsibilities on the football field.

That season our team had its most productive year winning games and breaking records. The team and many of the players gained national recognition and honors. Every player that went to camp that year was prepared mentally and physically for that season. It was so noticeable that the Head Coach inquired about our training and said he wished he could send the entire team to camp the following year.

As I reflect back on that year I realize that we are never asked to sacrifice one good activity for another. We can not miss an opportunity or suffer for unselfish giving. Camp Leelanau provides some of the best structure for growth. This growth never leaves us where it found us and prepares us for what lies ahead.

Never underestimate the power of a summer at camp!

I was asked recently what camp had done for me, and why it was important.

I went to Camp Kohahna the summer before my 8th grade year. I had a bit of trepidation being dropped off at camp for the first time. After all, it would have been a fine summer being at home by the pool, hanging out with friends, or even attending day camps (which I’d attended before). However, this summer was to be a life-changing one! At camp, I met people who were living true Christian Science, and who were so COOL! (There were wonderful people in my Georgia hometown, but only a handful of fellow Christian Scientists.) There was such love expressed at camp that everyone, regardless of background, geography, family, or school was swept up in the spirit of unconditional, unlimited love and potential. I was dropped off for 3 weeks that first summer. I ended up staying the entire 7 weeks because I loved it so.

In that summer and the four that followed I had the opportunity to learn how to sail, canoe, horseback ride, camp out, and really and truly live Christian Science among my peers. My parents said I was a nicer person when I returned each year, and every spring I evidently told them, “It’s time for me to go back to camp. ” (I guess I was ready for the pick-me-up, and probably a good attitude adjustment.) Camp allowed me to learn new things, make new friends, and be at the top of my game. This is not something one has to strive for at camp. The atmosphere is such that you cannot be anything but happy, courageous, thoughtful, joyful, unselfish, kind, poised, strong, and gentle. This is “living Christian Science” at its best! I always loved the camp shows, full of laughter, singing, dancing, and theater. At camp, you can be anything you want to be. You can pick up a new interest (I had never camped until I went to camp!), you can pick up a new personality! You can pick up interests from those you meet. I could meete up with a camp friend anytime now, and be right at ease.

I love the idea too, that the friends you make at camp are now all around the world. I even went to college in Michigan because I had happy memories of summers in Northern Michigan! I wish I could tell every family how special and important Camp Kohahna is. It builds a fantastic basis from which to live the rest of the year when not at camp! The values, the support, the love, the feeling that you (and everyone) are limitless and full of potential for good, these are all wonderful things that camp impart.

I live in a large city where everyone is swept up in “where are you going to camp this summer?” However, when the time comes, my husband and I are excited to send our children to Camps Kohahna and Leelanau. What a wonderful opportunity to have them be in a different part of the country and a beautiful setting, learning and living Christian Science, experiencing all of the fabulous activities with wonderful counselors, meeting new friends, learning to get along and live with various people, singing, laughing, learning, growing….Wow! And come on - where else could you ski, windsurf, canoe, horseback ride, have camp-outs, make jewelry, be in shows, bike ride, have excellent meals prepared for you, be around people who love you and want to see you succeed for such a low, low price? Priceless!!