Forest Lake Family Camp

Top this summer off with a fun-filled adventure at Forest Lake Family Camp! Where days are filled with over 50 different individual and family traditional camp pastimes such as tennis, sailing, horseback riding, hiking and much, much more! If your thing is to kick back and relax, then enjoy early morning yoga and then spend the afternoon reading a book down at the beach by our private spring-fed lake. 

Space is limited so book your summer family vacation with us today! 

Fores Lake Family Camp 2011

With less than two months until our 87th camp season begins, we are in

The snow has melted!

the final stretch of pre-camp preparations! We would like to sincerely thank all those families who have already enrolled. As we look over our enrollment roster it is exciting to imagine all of the new relationships that will blossom between our new and returning campers. 

Warmly,

Gene and Lilly

P.S. Parents, our 2013 FLC Parent Handbook is now live  

An FLC Tradition To Stick To! 

It is time to bring out those Forest Lake Recognition Sticks and be reminded of memories from summers past! 

At the top of the stick is your color band. For our girl campers, are you a part of the Green or White Team? For all our boys, are you on the Red or Blue Team? Every camper's Recognition Stick honors their Color Team with 2 bands of color around the top of the stick. In the middle of those two bands is the name FLC and the year you started at camp. Underneath the bands of color are notches to show each summer you return. Will this summer be marked with a second or a fifth notch, or maybe you will be presented with your very first notch for the summer of 2012!  Below these notches your name is burned.

For old and new campers, we recognize effort, achievements and honors from the summer days with burned symbols of activities on the shaft of Recognition Sticks. Did you play in the inter camp baseball tournament, receive the Golden Horseshoe, go out on a fishing overnight or win the camp tennis tournament? Did you perform in the dance recital, were you honored as Camper of the Week or swim from the docks to Bass Rocks to New Beach and back? If so, you will find a wood burned image of a baseball bat, a horseshoe, a tennis racket, a fishing pole, a dancer, a swimmer or a star on your Recognition Stick. As years pass, these images may multiply.

Returning campers, do not forget to bring yours back at the start of camp. New campers, we look forward to sharing with you your first Forest Lake Recognition Stick! To all campers, what do you hope to work toward this summer in hopes of earning a new burn for summer 2012? Reach for the stars. We cannot wait to help you get there!!

Meet some of our staff- new and old

1) Hello my name is Katharine Mulderry and I'm from New Jersey. 

2) If I could be a superhero I'd be like Mystique from X-men.  She can change herself to look like anyone she wants.  I would have the power to look like anyone and I could use my power to morph into different outfits allowing me to wear the clothes I can't afford!

3) My favorite song changes about every two seconds, but right now it's "Call Me in the Afternoon" by Half Moon Run. I watch movies like it's my job so I can't really choose.  I have The Pink Panther almost memorized so I guess I'll say that!

4) I come back every summer to see all of my friends and to make new ones! I also come back becomes FLC gives me the chance to do things I wouldn't normally do like netball or archery or sharing a cabin with 10 other crazy, fun, amazing, insane girls.

5) This summer I'm most looking forward to leading activities, especially music. I always looked up to my counselors when I was a camper and had so much fun with them, so I'm hoping I can be just as cool and helpful to the campers of 2013. I'm looking forward to music periods because music is my passion and I hope to help kids find the musician within themselves. I'm also excited to be involved in the big Color War activities like Gold Rush or Counselor Hunt.

6) My favorite FLC memory is from my first year at camp. My friend Tati and I had been in a music period that day where we participated in a little bit of karaoke. Come time to shower we both still had "Benny and the Jets" stuck in our heads so we hopped in the showers and started singing as loud as we could. The other girls in our cabin, not so impressed by our singing, stole our towels and wouldn't give them back until we stopped. The girls office also had to stop by to see what all the noise was about. Such a fun night.

7) The words that best describe me are "crazy fun!"  

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1) My name is Scott Irwin. otherwise know as Skirwin, and I am from Delaware. 

2) If I had a super power I would want to be able to communicate with animals. I have always had a love for animals and think it would be awesome to be able to know what they are thinking and run with them through the woods. 

3) My favorite movie is Boondock Saints.  It is a story of brothers who fight against odds to bring down a criminal syndicate in their city.  My favorite camper-friendly movie is Space Jam, where Michael Jordan and the Loony-Toons stand up against evil space monsters.  My favorite song is Wagon Wheel - Old Crow Medicine Show.  It reminds me of a simple life, and helps me get away from the hectic life of being in college.

4) I return to FLC every summer because it has been one of the few constants that I have had in my life and there is not any other place that I feel more comfortable and at home. FLC meant so much to me during my childhood and I would like to do my part in helping it mean just as much to the campers.

5) In the summer ahead, I am looking most forward to reconnecting with the veteran campers while working to become a role model for both veteran and new campers. Of course, the thing I am looking forward to most is being completely silly for the enjoyment of others. (CAN'T WAIT FOR MESS HALL SONGS AND CAMPFIRE!!!) 

6) I am most excited to be involved in SCIENCE this summer!!!! Being an educator in training, I am excited to be able to connect an academic field to the environment of living in the outdoors. I would like to give the campers a chance to understand their surroundings and build their own love for the outdoors and the science that is involved in it.

7) My favorite memory is not so much a specific memory but a feeling I get every time I arrive at camp for the first time each summer. Jon Bockelmann (an old administrator at FLC when I was a camper) used to say this to the campers at the beginning of every first campfire of the session and it has rung true with me since. I spend all year thinking about FLC and returning the next summer. The whole drive up I feel anxious and excited. I turn onto the camp road and my heart jumps into my throat. I know what waits ahead but it feels as though I will never make it up that last hill. When my tires hit the dirt road, I look ahead and see the yellow farmhouse (the Combs' house). At that moment, all joys, fears, hope and faults disappear and there is only one word in my head and one feeling in my heart. Home! 

8) The three words that best describe me are Family, Hard-work, and determination.   

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1) My name is Olivia Ridge and I am from Minnesota.

2) If you could be a superhero with super powers, I would want to be able to stop my leftovers from going bad in the fridge. Flying would be nice too though!

3) My favorite song and movie? Halo by Beyoncé and Die Hard.

4) I chose FLC over other camps because it gives the full camp experience and encourages their staff to be creative. FLC values outdoor recreation as a source of growth and fulfillment for children and provides the perfect environment for developing that love of the outdoors. Also, FLC was the only camp that was impressed by my stated "kazoo skills."

5) This summer I am looking forward to being part of the FLC community, encouraging and connecting with campers, the mountains, the campfires, growing as a teacher and leader, and of course, being outside. 

I cannot wait to canoe, kayak and swim. I also hope to enjoy and learn from other activities and join arts and crafts, field sports, rambunctious singing and overnight trips!   

FLC honors the passing of an iconic figure

through establishing the

The Ollie Van Cise Campership Fund

As a community, Forest Lake was deeply saddened when we learned of Ollie's passing on March 8, 2013.

Ollie was a highly respected member of the FLC staff for an uninterrupted tenure of thirty years. He first arrived at Forest Lake as a tennis counselor but soon became the head counselor of the junior camp where he became an institution and touched the lives of hundreds of campers and young staff. Nearly every alumnus from the 50s, 60's, and 70's who re-visits FLC asks about Ollie.

Ollie is always remembered for his bugle playing, his puns, his backboard-like tennis ability, and his rendition of the "Golden Argosy". Perhaps, more important, was the role model that he provided to all he worked with - the kindness, the fairness, the reliability, and the decency. Ollie was very tuned in to the needs of young boys and structured a junior program that will always be remembered.  

Ollie's career, apart from FLC, was as a social studies teacher and guidance counselor in the Chatham (NJ) school system. He was an avid sports fan and a voracious reader. Ollie and his wife, Tally, who also worked at FLC, lived in Basking Ridge, NJ where they raised their two children, Glenn and Lynn. Upon retirement, Ollie and Tally moved to Bend, Oregon to be closer to both their children. 

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In response to this great loss, Forest Lake Camp has decided to establish a camper scholarship fund in Ollie's name. We have partnered up with the American Camping Association, which will allow us to accept tax-deductible contributions. We feel strongly that The Ollie Van Cise Campership Fund will assist in helping many future families experience the magic of an FLC summer, which Ollie helped shape over his 30 year tenure. 

  

 

    Gene and Lilly Devlin and our FLC Staff