We Can't Get Through Life Alone
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With the combination of the weak economy, and strong high school coaches arm-twisting their players to attend “voluntary” work outs, enrollment for summer camps is down nationwide about 10- to 15-percent. But if the choice is between team workouts and summer camp, this former high school hockey coach is telling you it’s a no-brainer: send your kid to summer camp.
Let me explain.
I didn’t want to go to summer camp.
I spent my summers growing up at our family cottage on Torch Lake, near Traverse City. The idea of going to Camp Hayo-Went-Ha – a YMCA camp on the lake – simply wasn’t for me. I liked playing baseball, riding bikes and going to hockey school with my best friend. I figured the kids who went to Hayo-Went-Ha either couldn’t play baseball, or didn’t have many friends.
But by my sixteenth birthday, thanks to the introduction of the curveball, I couldn’t play baseball either. Far sadder, my best friend had been killed in a car accident.
With nothing else to do, I finally went to Camp Hayo-Went-Ha. To my surprise, I discovered the kids there were tougher than most of my hockey teammates. And they got to go on exotic trips, hiking in Rockies and sailing off Nova Scotia.
The 640-acre camp has the rustic, tidy look of the "Swiss Family Robinson" movie set, but camp sessions play out more like episodes of “Fantasy Island.” The anxious newcomers arrive hoping this special place will help them find what they’ve been missing.
The man who choreographed those life-changing experiences for me and 10,000 other brave souls stepped down 11 years ago. Pat Rode, now 80, worked hard to give bored kids some adventure, forgotten kids some attention and just about everyone -- campers and counselors alike -- a sense of belonging.
Rode based camp on his belief that we can’t get through life alone, but there are plenty of people willing to help. Rode learned this the hard way. As a child Rode was sickly, his father was often gone, and his mother was buried on his 12th birthday. "But," he told me, "so many people went out of their way to help me that, well, you've got to give back."
He did. In addition to giving his time and energy, Rode gave former campers money to pay for rent, college tuition, plane tickets and even bail. All but one has paid him back. Rode believes in second chances.
At camp I learned how important it is to be needed. When a young camper lost his mother in a car accident, I could only tell him what it felt like when my best friend died. I was surprised this helped him -- and even more surprised how much this helped me.
That’s why, when my brother was searching for direction 27 years ago, I suggested he join the camp staff.
“Absolutely changed my life,” he says today. Being responsible for the kids made him think about what's really important. It made him realize his abilities. And he made lifelong friendships there.
That's what summer camp did for him.
After camp, my brother climbed Mt. Ranier, earned his bachelor’s degree and launched his career. And when he got married, Pat Rode was there.
When Rode announced in 1998 that it would be his last summer running the camp, his old campers and counselors flooded his office with letters, calls and visits. At his final farewell ceremony, a dozen alums flew in just to thank him.As always, Rode lit his candle and those of his staff members, who then lit their campers' candles, too, until the once dark hall was bright enough to see the tears on the faces of Pat Rode's campers, his counselors, and even the old camp director himself.
Then everyone blew out their candles, returning the big room to its original darkness, and listened to Pat Rode say goodbye. My brother draped his right arm around his wife, and his left arm around me. After all those years, I still felt part of something special – and I still do.
That’s what summer camp did for me.
Copyright © 2009, Michigan Radio
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnubacon
OK, so I owe you a buck. Well, let's just call it a Warsteiner, since I'll probably never have to pay up. Call my name in the bar at Metzger's any football Saturday and I promise to buy if I'm there. Go blue, class of '72.
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Jeff,
It's a deal!
-JUB
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John, what happened? Nobody wanted to continue with the camp; it closed for good?
Not that I'm that old, but when Plymouth and Canton were more farm land than bedroom communities, there was an old gentleman with a huge farm. Unfortunately, I don't remember the exact location and I only knew him as Mr. Martz. He turned running his farm into a summer camp experience. In addition to fun, lots of good lessons were learned there.
--Chris
I wonder if Jim Carty will find a way to attack this article as well?
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Chris,
Good news: The camp is going as strong as ever, at almost full capacity despite the economy and over-eager high school football coaches. Dave Martin, a protege of Pat Rode's, is now in charge and doing a great job.
And I'm confident Jim Carty would agree with this one, as we usually agree on most things -- if not all. We had a fine follow up through personal email, with him inviting me out for a beer. All's fair in love, war and blogging -- and all's well that ends well.
-JUB
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My day is brighter; thank you I lighted a candle - power outage - HOT in Alabama.
MG Pocock is reading my copy of E.O.Wilson's Creation_He will send it to you when he is finished, One of the great descriptions of creatures - that of the Wolverine ==caught my eye.---G&G's friend
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Hello John,
I must say this is one of the most elitest essays I have ever read. A cottage at Torch Lake....I was happy for my folks rental for two weeks at Silver Lake in Washtenaw County. It was a great escape from our house by the tracks in Detroit. And it was a lot more than a lot of folks could do. You going to camp at what cost....my folks could not have paid for a day school program. I like your work, but you have no idea about the "normal" life in America.
Jerry Grohowski
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Jerry,
Thank you for your praise.
Your charge of elitism, however, is based on several unwarranted assumptions. Our family's place on Torch Lake -- 100 feet of lake front -- my grandfather bought in the 1950s for a total of $4000 -- right next to the winterized home of Bill Keillor ("Uncle Bill," to us) a lifetime lineman at Buick. Even with inflation, $4000 in the fifties would be a steal compared to what lots at Torch Lake cost today. You certainly didn't have to be rich to get a place there at the time.
We built two small cabins on that plot, cheap at a few thousand dollars because they are not winterized.
As for Camp Hayo-Went-Ha, it is a YMCA camp -- not a country club. At the time I enrolled, a four week session cost about $400 -- roughly a quarter of what it cost to attend baseball or hockey camps. Or even less, because Hayo-Went-Ha quietly gives many scholarships every year, as all YMCA camps do.
After a year as a counselor-in-training, I worked for 10 weeks as a camp counselor, earning about $600 for the summer.
Other glamorous jobs have included Republic Airlines bagboy, teacher (at $9,000/year), coach, Banana Republic clerk, waiter, carpenter and roofer -- the latter thanks to enrolling in our high school's homebuilding program.
While I make no claims of a hard-scrabble life, I like to think, Jerry, that these experiences, and many others, have not left me ignorant of what normal life in America is.
As always, thanks for reading.
-JUB
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Professor Bacon,
I just wanted to thank you for this story, having spent four wonderful summers as a camper at Hayo-Went-Ha growing up. I can think of few places I'd rather be in the summer than by Torch Lake, taking trips to the Porcupine Mountains, playing roofball, working my way through the ropes course, or taking an early-morning Polar Bear swim in Torch Lake.
Fortunately, I never had to deal with something as serious as a fellow camper losing a parent while I was there, but I certainly have taken many of the lessons I learned there and brought them back to Ann Arbor with me. This was a great read, and a welcome change from the stories you normally find in a newspaper or sports blog.
Thanks again for this story, and hopefully I'll catch you on campus in the fall.
--Ace
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Much thanks, Ace. Seems like anybody who's been to Camp Hayo-Went-Ha remembers it as fondly as we do. I only had three summers there --as a camper, counselor in training and counselor -- but obviously, I'll never forget the impact it had on me.
And I agree: nice to take a break from sports once in a while.
-JUB
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