Alumni Gong Testing 2009

Dear Alums,

Greetings from the beautiful desert in Tucson, Arizona. As we enjoy our nice winter weather down here, sunny and mid 60s, and gaze out at the Santa Catalina mountains, we know that, at this moment, the winter is very real up at camp. So far, camp has been blessed with a thick blanket of snow, and we are hoping for much more. Our caretaker, GREG FUS, has been sending us photos periodically of camp covered in snow, and it is a beautiful sight to see. The winter months are quiet at camp, but Greg stays very busy. More on that later.

Speaking of busy, it has been a hectic few months for us here in the wild world of camp directing. In the few weeks leading up to the holidays, Mike managed to visit kids in St. Louis, Denver, Louisville, Nashville, and Houston. You know you’ve been traveling a lot when the gate agent for American Airlines asks you how your enrollment is doing! Lots of traveling, and lots of great kids means we’re going to have another fantastic summer ahead. Some of our new kids are coming to us from folks like you. For instance, after many years without any Dallas kids, we’re now going to have a few thanks to a phone call from alumnus STEVE SCHACHTER. Exactly the same thing happened last winter with JIM HIKEN in Louisville, and last summer we had 4 great kids from there, including two Hiken boys. We’re very proud of the geographic diversity we have represented at camp. In 2007, we had campers from Phoenix and Tucson, AZ; Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA; Denver, CO; Wilton, CT; Boca Raton, Fl; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Indianappolis, IN; Louisiville, KY; Minneapolis and Red Wing, MN; St. Louis, MO; Williamstown, NJ; New York, NY; Cincinnati, OH; Tulsa, OK; Bryn Mawr, PA; Memphis and Nasvhille, TN; Houston, TX; Milwaukee and Clinton, WI. Not to mention our international flavor, bringing in kids from Chihuahua and Mexico City, Mexico, and we also had 2 boys join us all the way from Hong Kong, China! And we’re also very pleased with the number of 2nd generation kids we have now at camp. These are kids whose father also camped with us. A list of those names appears later in this newsletter. Read on!

The summer of 2007 was wild and crazy and was, by far, the dryest summer we can remember. The entire summer saw only 3 or 4 activity periods lost to “heavy dew” (it never rains at camp.) It didn’t take long for the athletic fields to show the stress and turn an inviting shade of brown. The lake also suffered a bit, and reached the lowest level we have seen in our many years up there. That’s why we get so excited when we hear about snow and rain hitting northern Wisconsin this winter, and hopefully much more this coming spring. Lake Towanda is thirsty, so we hope January, February, March and April showers bring May...showers too.

Of course, the warm dry weather was great for the kids, and they had a blast! The newly renovated Rec Hall came in so handy so often. It started on the very first day of camp....the only full day of rain all summer long. When the buses with the kids rolled in, it was a monsoon! So, we just pulled the buses up to the Rec Hall door, and unloaded in there. No sweat! Throughout the summer the newly re-invigorated radio station, KTIM, was rocking and rolling. As we had hoped, the kids were newly enthused about broadcasting and there were some great shows. One camper had a periodic show during Rest Period when he would spend an entire hour talking about fishing! Yes, he was from Wisconsin. Another of our older guys had a night time show called “Lights Out” when he would play some laid-back music and tell stories to help the younger guys fall asleep. But guess what we learned? Campers no longer bring radios to camp! They bring MP3s and iPods. So, after all this work and investment to build the new KTIM, we also had to run out and buy radios for every cabin. *sigh*.

Are ya wondering what’s in store for 2008? We’re glad you asked! Ongoing maintenance is...well...ongoing. More upgrades in the Lodge, in this case, rennovating one of the bathrooms with a nice ceramic tile floor. The same has happened already in the bathrooms in Arapaho and Shawnee cabins. Wolf cabin is sporting all-new windows all the way around, and we’ve added a bunch of windows in there, particularly on the lake side of the cabin. Some of the less obvious work Greg will be doing will include adding some custom cabinetry in the Manor offices, and in the Staff Snack Room in the Lodge. Perhaps the most notable and visible improvement will be our main baseball diamond. Baseball is, once again, huge at camp, and we’ve decided it was time to level the ballfield. So, we did just that...brought in some heavy machinery, and leveled the baseball field and replanted grass. No more Timber-hops on the infield! There are lots of excited kids about that. And this summer we will introduce a new instructional Volleyball program to our already huge selection of activities.

We are also preparing to launch our brand-new, completely re-designed website. The new camptimberlane.com is being designed and developed by former camper and CIT SAM ROSEN. Sam’s company, One Design Company, has some big-time clients, and we’re happy to be one of them. The new alumni section will include, among other things, an email directory so you can keep in touch with camp friends of old. The site will launch soon, so please check it out.

With their grandsons at camp, the temptation must have been great to cruise on over in their pontton boat, but HAROLD & SHARON HIKEN gave the boys some space, only spotting them at the social at Camp Agawak....as far as we know, anyway. They continue to spend their summers on Lake Towanda, and their winters enjoying the warmth of Florida. JIM HIKEN continues his practice as a radiologist in Louisville.
1960s - 1970s: BENNETT MILLER is making a comeback from some life-changing events. He has started a new business and is moving forward. BRUCE GOLLUB lives in Santa Fe and runs a family medicine practice. He is a proud new grandpa of a baby boy (perhaps a future camper?), and his other daughter will be getting married in the fall. HAROLD WAXMAN is a dentist in St. Louis, and travels with his boys Dillon and Daniel to Tucson and Utah for periodic family vacations. STUART TURNANSKY’s son Matt had a Bar Mitzvah this past January. Stuart spent a little time with HH in Milwaukee this past summer.

1960s - 1970s: BENNETT MILLER is making a comeback from some life-changing events. He has started a new business and is moving forward. BRUCE GOLLUB lives in Santa Fe and runs a family medicine practice. He is a proud new grandpa of a baby boy (perhaps a future camper?), and his other daughter will be getting married in the fall. HAROLD WAXMAN is a dentist in St. Louis, and travels with his boys Dillon and Daniel to Tucson and Utah for periodic family vacations. STUART TURNANSKY’s son Matt had a Bar Mitzvah this past January. Stuart spent a little time with HH in Milwaukee this past summer.

1970s - 1980s: STUART SPEER lives in Houston with his 2 sons, his eldest who is over 6 feet tall, plays year ‘round baseball, and has a smokin’ fastball. MARTIN LYNCH moved from Boulder, CO to Los Gatos, CA where he has a new position as the Executive Vice President of Operations at 2Wire (www.2wire.com). FRED HELLER writes “ I live in the Boston area (Belmont) and work in M&A for a software firm, Nuance. Have not started sailing again since the move from CT, but the Timber sailing experience stays with me; less so my duties as a clown in the TimberBats.” JAN SWEET lives in Madison, where he is an urban planner, architecht, and ecologist. BILLY FRIED continues as the owner/director of Camp Agawak, as well as his civic leadership roles in the greater Minocqua metropolitan area. JON “PUD” HELLER is still involved in medical sales. selling and servicing the state’s largest nursing home chain and a many others with the nation’s largest institutional pharmacy organization http://omnicare.com. BOB “GAZZOO” GASSEL is keeping up the good work on his camp-related website, www.tushball.com. BRIAN “WILLY” WILLIAMS is the VP of Development at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. He writes, “I have a very cool 16 day trip lined up for friends of The Children’s Museum to Egypt in late March and early April 2008. We’re led by an Egyptologist who is friends of the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt and who gets us some behind the scenes tours of tombs that are otherwise closed to the public, etc.” Brian has teamed up with Bob Gassel to try and raise money for the Camp For All Kids Scholarship program that Timberlane supports. Joining in the cause also is MIKE PIERCE. Mike lives in Milwaukee in the winter months, and still spends his summers in the North Woods on the staff at Agawak. These 3 fine folks believe our alumni can help finance a camp summer for 3 underprivileged campers. If you’d like to find more about their effort, please logon to www.tushball.com. Thanks. ROB SARRA lives in the Chicago area and is getting married this year. TOM CALLAHAN and Mardi are still together after 25 years and have a daughter. Tom is still doing TV lighting and they have started a new business called “Up North Image”, which is custom and personalized art enhanced photos printed on wood. PHIL STILLERMAN is married and living in Indianpaolis, where he spends time with many Timberlane alumni. On a sadder note, MATT & JON HEALY’s sister, Ellen, was killed in an accident in Boulder, CO in late October. Matt & Jon are both doing okay in coping with their loss.