Camp Comms

Dear Moms and Dads,
I just wanted to introduce myself and let you know a few things about communication at Camp. My name is Tracy Bachmann. I am the person that you will be hearing from when you read our daily blog during camp. As a mom, I understand how important it is to feel connected! I’m in the office every day answering the phone, shepherding emails and making Camp Facebook updates. Communication is my passion!
A few things I’d like you to know:
• Feel free to call or email me any time. Do not hesitate to ask for an update on your camper – I’m happy to make inquiries and give you a report. I am in the office all morning long, and much of the afternoon. If we are not at the phone, leave a message and we will call you back shortly.
• We make frequent blog posts all week long reporting on the weather, fun stuff going on at Camp, what the boys are eating for lunch and MORE. It’s a great way to feel connected to your camper, as well as a great way to relive the memories once he’s home from Camp.
• Sign in to the gallery on the website.  We upload photos often. We try our best to get as many faces as possible on there, if you don’t see your child don’t worry.
• If you’d like to email your son, we are now using a new email system through your CampMinder account. We sent a lengthy email about how to set this up earlier this week. Please call if you have any questions.
• Like us on Facebook! We will be making daily posts there. Tell your friends and family! It’s a great way for them to stay connected with your camper, too!
• Follow us on Twitter @CampHighlands  and on Instagram too! (ok, full disclosure, I even have several Highlands Pinterest boards!
We so appreciate your son’s attendance at Camp Highlands. We try our best to keep you informed about what’s going on at Camp. If you have ideas about things you’d like us to report on, just let me know! I love hearing from parents, and am always available for a chat. If you have any concerns at all just give me a ring.
Sincerely,
Tracy B.
P.S. I’ll be sending my 10 year old, Stella Plum, off to four weeks of camp in July for her third summer. I completely understand the mix of excitement and apprehension about shipping a child off to camp. So, seriously, if you’re worried, please call me! I can run recon for you and let you know how that boy of yours is doing!

Hey guys! If you are like me, packing for camp is about the last thing you are thinking about right now. Too many end-of-year parties, graduations and cleaning out of backpacks for that business!
However…There are a few things that are really important right now.
#1. Camp Rx paperwork:
This is big. They need 30 days in order to fill, pack and mail your son’s prescription medication. If your child is going to need medication at camp (including vitamins) you are required to utilize this service. Please call us with questions. You must go to their website and complete their paperwork. **Please make sure you complete all steps specified, including emailing and/or faxing necessary information to them. Thank you! This is just one of the measures we take to ensure that everyone stays safe at camp.
#2. Travel!
We start to make travel preparations now. Please indicate on your forms how your son will be arriving at camp.
How do you fill out forms? It’s pretty easy! Just log into your account and click the “forms” link. Most forms are web-based, and those that aren’t you can just scan and upload directly to your son’s record.
We are getting so super duper excited to get 2015 underway, and we are thrilled you’ll be with us! We still have a few spots available, so if you haven’t already, enroll today!

Spring is here, and by our count we have 88 days until the first day of camp! That means it’s time to fill out all those forms online. If you get stuck on anything, just let us know and we can help. To access your forms you’ll need to log in through the “log-in” tab at the top of the homepage.
The travel form to and from Camp is of special importance. If you are traveling internationally, please call us to make arrangements. We would like to know if you are traveling by bus by May 31. Thank you for your help with this!
The Highlands Handbook is a very useful tool. You will want to download it here (or on the homepage) to have most of your questions answered. Additionally, the packing list is also on the home page.
Have you not filled out your enrollment form yet? That’s OK, but spots are filling quickly. Sign up today! We can’t wait to see you!

In Mike’s honor, we are proud to announce that Camp Highlands has partnered with the Illinois chapter of the American Camping Association to establish the Mike Bachmann Campership Fund.
Mike believed in the power of camp –­ he was a living example of how much it can shape a person’s life. Our hope is that through this fund, any child that wants to, may experience the power of camp. Through this fund our hope is that Mike’s impact will continue for generations to come.
Donations can be made to the American Camping Association of Illinois, c/o the Mike Bachmann Campership Fund, 5 South Wabash Avenue, Suite 1406, Chicago, IL 60603-3104. All donations are tax deductible.
We can’t thank you enough for the tremendous outpouring of love and support we have received. While we are terribly sad, we are also incredibly proud of the life and impact that he has had on all of you. What an amazing life.
 
Mike Bachmann, 1940-2014 as printed in the Chicago Tribune
The world is a better place because of the contributions of Mike Bachmann.
Born in Salem, Illinois on July 17, 1940, Mike died suddenly of a heart attack in Montreal, Canada on September 7, 2014.
Mike figured he was destined to run the family furniture store. But his summers at Camp Highlands for Boys in Sayner, Wisconsin changed all that. Starting when he was 10 years old, Mike attended Camp Highlands every summer for the rest of his life. When he was a student at Grinnell College, he decided that he wanted a life of camp – so he became a teacher, which would afford him his summers off, which would allow him to pursue his dream of running Camp Highlands.
It was at Highlands that he met the love of his life, Sharon Nothdurft, who was at camp because her father was a counselor there. They were married June 14, 1964 and just this past summer celebrated their 50^th anniversary.
Together they lived in Western Springs, where Mike went on to work at a number of fantastic schools; Ideal Elementary, Spring Avenue, Avery-Coonley, and finally the College of DuPage, where he was chair of the education department.
Mike was an active leader at the Theater of Western Springs and the First Congregational Church of Western Springs.
He and Sharon have three children, who now have children of their own. Tim and Carol Bachmann live in San Anselmo, California with their son, Lukas; Laura and Jose Cubillos live in Park City, Utah with their children, Mateo and Esperanza; and Andy and Tracy Bachmann live in Gainesville, Florida with their children, Judah, Stella and Remy. He was an incredible father and outstanding grandfather, never one to deny a chocolate chip cookie or a motorboat ride. Mike also has a brother, John Bachmann, who lives in Charleston, South Carolina.
Mike’s lasting legacy though his directorship of Camp Highlands is an incredible thing to behold. Loving tributes from Highlands friends around the world have strewn in, declaring Mike Bachmann to being one of the most influential, considerate, generous and worthwhile men the world has ever known – just what he was.
We are deeply saddened that he took the left turn to heaven instead of the right to Nova Scotia. He will always be loved and missed, and his spirit will live on through others and Camp Highlands for Boys.
We have established a campership fund in his name so that any kid who wants to can experience the magic of camp. Donations can be made to the American Camping Association of Illinois, c/o the Mike Bachmann Campership Fund, 5 South Wabash Avenue, Suite 1406, Chicago, IL 60603-3104. All donations are tax deductible.
A memorial service and reception will be held this Saturday, September 13^th at 1 p.m., at the First Congregational Church of Western Springs, Illinois: 1106 Chestnut Street, Western Springs, IL.

God, make of me a worthwhile man.
Give me the strength to stand for right,
When other folks have left the fight.
Give me the courage of the man who knows that
If he will, he can.
Teach me to see, in every face the good,
The kind, and not the base.
Make me sincere in word and deed.
Blot out from me all shame and greed.
Help me to guard my troubled soul
By constant, active self control.
Clean up my thoughts, my speech, my play
And keep me pure from day to day.
Oh make of me a worthwhile man.
My dad first came to Camp Highlands in 1950. And it was at Camp Highlands where he returned every summer of his life – save one – when an untimely illness kept him away.
He always knew that Camp Highlands was where he wanted to be.
That’s why in 1963 he convinced some of the owners of Camp Highlands to sell him shares. He became the youngest member of the board of directors (at 23 years old) and over time he became the majority shareholder, and primary owner and director of camp. Camp has been his life vision and dream; and he has lived the dream like none other. You will not find a finer, more worthwhile man than Mike Bachmann.
His marriage to my mother was a match made in heaven (if you, like I, understand heaven to be a place on Plum lake). Thanks to my grandfather’s desire to be a staff man at Highlands, his daughters all ended up coming along for the ride as well. My mother has been at Highlands since she was three. She, too, has always found the magic in the place. Together they ran Camp Highlands and oversaw all operations, until he brought me on as his assistant director back in 1999. Over time he passed more and more of the decision-making and leadership of camp over to me and Tracy. He was always there to guide any decisions we made – but his advice always came after he would ask me, “Well, what would you do?”
He has been our strong foundation and the one to whom we all looked to see what an ideal example of a Highlands man could be.
It was my father who brought our Worthwhile Man prayer to camp; and it is my father who I think of as the perfect example of the man outlined in that beautiful prayer.
He has been not just a wonderful father and grandfather to our family; he has been one to many of yours as well. And he will be missed.
It is with a heavy, heavy heart that I share the sad news that our Highlands Man has passed away. Mike Bachmann, the most worthwhile Highlands man I know has left this earthly plain and now resides in the star-lit skies, smiling down on us from heaven.
The earth is a lesser place for his passing.
He died quickly of a heart attack yesterday, September 7, 2014. He and my mother were en route to yet another great adventure.
There will be a memorial service at the First Congregational Church of Western Springs, Illinois at 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 13^th, with a reception to follow. We appreciate all your thoughts and prayers during this sad time.

With much sadness in our hearts, we would like to share the news that Camp Highlands Director, Mike Bachmann, passed away today, September 7, 2014.
We appreciate all of your love and support at this time as we try and wrap our minds around this loss. He affected the lives of so many – as a husband, father, grandfather, teacher, camp director and friend. He will be so missed.
A memorial service will likely be Saturday, September 13, at the First Congregational Church of Western Springs, however, we are still working out the details and will update this post as we know more.
How lucky we all were to have known Mike. Truly a Worthwhile man.

The packages and letter has tapered off and that can only mean one thing. Summer is nearly over. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get my kids back. I’m lucky. I get to see Judah on occasion, but our middle child is in her fourth week at girls’ camp and I’m about to burst. It feels a little like the night before Christmas when I was eight, only it’s been going on since Sunday. I can barely stand it! Three more days and our band will be back together. I know you guys are excited to get your kiddos back, too. While these last few days of camp have been the warmest and best of the summer, I know campers are ready to be back with their families.
But the fun isn’t over yet! Our Highlands boys enjoyed an archery competition with Red Pine Camp this afternoon while the rest of the campers enjoyed one of the last days of activities. Tonight is our 2014 second term Stunt Show. We’d call it a talent show, but that would be false advertising. Somehow even I got roped into a skit. Tomorrow we’ll have a football tournament, a tennis tournament and a baseball game and more. We are going to squeeze every last minute of FUN out of this summer!
These last few days are filled with activities and tradition. Thursday evening the boys will receive recognition for their efforts at camp as their name and ACs earned are read off. Boys will add their twig to the Friendship of Fire symbolizing a connection of all Highlands men that went before. It’s a special night, and in my opinion, it’s the most magical night of the summer.
Friday is the last day of camp fun. For you moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles and friends, you’ll need to know that activities will start at 3 p.m after rest hour is over, followed by a picnic supper and the final awards and ceremony. We call it a wrap when taps blows for the very last time this summer around 8:45 p.m.
And on that note…
I ❤ CH // tracy b.

It’s official. We’re in our last week here at Camp. It’s a series of “lasts” now. The last turkey supper (my waistline will be happy about that), the last Sunday Night Sing, the last Sunday Assembly.
Andy and Ross went out with a bang today during Assembly. Our discussion was about vulnerability and failure. Wait, what? Aren’t we here to make your boys into strong young men? Failure?
Yes.

We talked about how through failure and perseverance comes experience and ultimately success. It teaches us GRIT. Falling down on skis over and over again can be frustrating. Judah B. shared how he’s been going for his “drop a ski” Achievement Credit (AC) for two years. He did it last week, and this week he easily got his “deep-water slalom AC.” Success­–after a lot of falling down. Charlie Z. shared his experiences in baseball this summer working on a particularly difficult AC. Ross would hit the highest fly ball possible and Charlie had to catch it. It took him try after try to do it. Lots of failure there. But guess what? He did it.
So often we think that if we fall down we’ve failed. In our culture of Facebook bragging and Instagram showoffing we don’t want to admit when things don’t go quite right. But your boys heard it loud and clear today. Fail! Do it often! Get back up! Try again! Andy even made us chant it: “Don’t give up, don’t give up. You can do it. Try again.” (I’m paraphrasing, but it was something along those lines!)
Your guys are out running around today, making the most of their last few days at Highlands. Tomorrow will be the last regular day of camp. Tuesday is Division Day, Wednesday will bring us the stunt show, Thursday the Kerchief Ceremony and Friday… well, you know, Friday’s the end. Saturday morning by 9 a.m. camp will quiet.
We get let down easy, though! We don’t have to go right back to it, thankfully, as Friends and Family Camp starts on Saturday evening!
And on that note…
I ❤ CH // tracy b.
Things you’ll need to know for these coming days:
Friday’s festivities: Please arrive at 3 p.m. for some end of term fun. The picnic supper is on Junior Hill at 6 p.m. followed by the banquet ceremonies in the dining room and wrapping up about 8:30.
If your child is traveling by car you may take him home that night, or you may pick him up in the morning at 9 a.m.
If your child is traveling by bus, he’ll be on his way by 9 a.m. on Saturday morning. The bus will arrive in Madison at the Pinecone Shell at 1 p.m. The bus reaches Rockford at 2:15 p.m. and then depending on traffic is scheduled to arrive at O’Hare
Airport about 3:30 p.m. Once boys are dropped off at the airport the bus travels over to the O’Hare Oasis and should arrive between 3:45 and 4:00 p.m.

Today I ventured into no-woman’s land. That’s to say, I ate lunch in boy’s camp. [Side note, did you know that women were not allowed past the infirmary until 1966? That’s a whole other blog post!] And OH, how much fun did I have?!
First of all, lunch was incredible. Pork loin cooked to perfection (thank you Lois), mashed potatoes, apple sauce, broccoli, bread and pumpkin cake for desert. I *tried* to avoid the cake, but Lordy, it was just too good.
The bugle calls the waiters to lunch ten minutes early. They line up in the kitchen, trays of food in hand, and once the rest of camp is in the dining room, the waiters process in.
Smallest to tallest.

And I have to tell you guys, I got choked up. I watched the smallest boy, a young man that I don’t know much at all, walk past me – carefully, wobbly, balancing the tray of food for his cabin. Next, the Colt division, slightly more confident. Then the Labrador puppies of camp, the Juniors (their bodies haven’t quite caught up to their feet, you know?!) sort of gallop past. And finally our oldest waiter. Senior, Davis Altorfer, *fourth generation* Highlands man and a boy I’ve known since he was *this big*, strolled through the door, confidently wielding his tray, looking around, laughing. It was like I saw the face of *my* son pass quickly by, through the ages to ultimately end up six feet tall, with a goofy bandana around his head (but totally rocking it, you know?!). You don’t know when these moments are going to sneak up on you, but man-oh-man. It got me today.
All weepiness aside, there are incredible moments in that dining room, hidden away from us lady-folk, specially reserved for campers and staff men. Moments like when Kent Taylor was recognized by Kent Overbey for climbing the stone fireplace blindfolded and then teaching a class to graduate Adventure/Ropes. Like when the boys that got stuck in the kitchen just before announcements reappeared from the kitchen and everyone clapped for them! (So funny!) Like when Andy blessed the mysterious aroma of the garlic bread (what?!). We all know that breaking bread with people is sacred, but I’d offer that at Camp, these meals are extra special.
The boys haven’t realized it yet, but they’re changed beings after this third week. As we ease into the last week, it’ll sneak up on them. And they’ll be processing the changes that have taken place this summer all year long. Camp just gets under your skin that way.
This summer. This life! It MOVES, folks. Here we are ten days out from the end of our 111th summer. I don’t want it to stop! We have so much further to hike! So many more balls to throw. So many more times to jump into Plum. But it’s looming out there.
For now, I’ll sit lakeside, talk to my future Senior campers in the boating bay and discover the mystery of garlic bread. I’m not ready to pack up yet!
And on that note…
I ❤ CH // tracy b.

Whew!! What a weekend! Have you had a chance to look through the gallery? Yesterday was a gorgeous day. Hot and sunny. It may have been the best day all summer! The Steeplechase, Senior Carnival and Games on the Hill were EPIC. Call me crazy, but it’s a day like yesterday that really makes camp feel like a big family. We are bonded after participating in decades-old traditions. One hundred and eleven. Now that’s a birthday, you guys. We did our very best to celebrate in style!

Today it seems like someone must have known that we were tired and gave us a cool, quiet and intermittently rainy day. The kind of day that makes turkey dinner taste especially good!
During Sunday Assembly, we got to take a look at some old medium-format photos of camp from *way* back in the day. Andy walked us through a little history of the first few summers at camp, when the boys simply felled trees and cleared the space for what is now Junior Hill (not sure what that activity would have been named. Lumberjacking?). You might find the history of camp interesting, too, and if you haven’t already, take a look at the Highlands Archives for all sorts of fascinating stories about former campers and staff members.
After our brief history lesson Shaun Trenholm offered a reflection on the art of saying “thank you” in a letter. Shaun’s words remind me how lucky we are to know each other here at Camp and how each one of us has something unique and important to offer to the group. Shaun’s legacy at Highlands is legendary. He started Highlands as a camper in 1968 and then started coming back as a counselor in 1984. I’ve not met many people that illustrate the Highlands Honor Camper Qualities so well. THANK YOU Shaun for all that you do for Highlands!
After the noon meal, we enjoyed an extended rest hour. Then boys enjoyed open activities this afternoon. The best thing about Sunday, though, is Sing. The fun just keeps on coming!
We are looking forward to the week ahead. Week three of four, my favorite week at camp. The boys know each other now, and real friendships have developed. Many guys have been on their trip. They have attended all the activities and had the opportunity to experience trial and failure and then…success! I am incredibly happy that *my* kid has the time and space to work on dropping a ski. He’s been at it for two whole summers, and he got very close on Friday. He’ll get assigned to skiing this week, and he’ll turn up at free-time and I bet he is slaloming by this Friday. That’s the true gift of four weeks at Camp. Time and space to figure out what you are good at, and what you would like to improve upon.
These boys amaze me. From the Cub that’s learning to repel in Adventure, to the Senior that’s hiking 100 miles across Isle Royale – I’m inspired by them. I’m inspired by our counselors that have the patience to teach and coach them. I’m inspired by the opportunities for leadership our older campers have.
Your boys will have four (or maybe seven) weeks to play, grow, learn, stretch and lead. And Camp has had 111 years to play, grow, learn, stretch and lead.
How lucky we are.
And on that note…
I ❤ CH // tracy b.