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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Kinnelon's Camp Rickabear

Kinnelon Camper ready for Kinnelon's Camp RickabearSummer Camp at Kinnelon's Lake Rickabear - a Girls Scouts of Northern New Jersey day camp - begins today and camper Emma has been chomping at the bit. [You see her here on her first day of camp last year.] This is her third year attending camp at Lake Rickabear, a 40 acre spring-fed lake, and enjoying 332 acres of Kinnelon natural beauty. Life truly doesn't get much better for a kid!

[FYI - Lake Rickabear was the site of Lake Rickabear Club, a private recreational facility for professional men and their families per a 1955 and 56 entry in Google Timeline. I'm told it was also a corporate retreat facility, possibly for Curtiss-Wright? Readers, if you can help me fill in the gaps, please let me know in the comments. Thank you!]

In anticipation, Emma writes the following:

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Every summer I go to a fantastic Summer camp. This camp is called Rickabear. During the camp season there are three sleepovers. I go to each and every one. I like the counselors, lifeguards and specialists. My favorite counselor is Dani. We have a lot of fun together.

In the beginning of each week, we have a swim test. Last year, I started out as a bullfrog, then got retested and became an angelfish. After I passed angelfish, I became an iguana. This is the order of categories for swimming: bat, beaver, bullfrog, alligator, angelfish, iguana and sea serpent.
  • A bat needs a lot of training.
  • A beaver needs some help.
  • A bullfrog swims with a noodle and works on strokes.
  • An alligator swims sometimes with a noodle, but mostly swims without.
  • An angelfish starts going to the farther docks and does laps.
  • An iguana swims to the red dock and learns the butterfly stroke.
  • A sea serpent has mastered all of the strokes.
Depending on your swimming category, you get a different color swim cap. Bats, beavers and bullfrogs wear green. Alligators and angelfish wear a yellow swim cap.  Iguanas and sea serpents wear white. When you reach a yellow or white swim cap, you can go on a kayak.

There are other things that you might do during the day like Sports, Arts & Crafts and Boating. If you are ten and up you get to do archery. I am 9 and 3/4 to be exact. Miss Amanda helps out at Arts and Crafts. Melissa does Sports. Oh and then I forgot Miss Jess who does Nature Fun. Miss Lisa also does Nature. Then we have our nurse; I forget her name.

There are units you get assigned to. There is unit 1 through unit 12, then you go to the teen unit. The highest unit I've been in is Unit 6. My friend Kathleen also goes to Rickabear.

There are 8 or 9 different buses. I am on bus 6 - Minnie Mouse.

The head lifeguard's name is Meg; her partner is Trish. Sometimes we have drills. The drill is when we can't find any campers.

I have so much fun at camp all Summer long!





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If you'd like a visual taste of Kinnelon's Camp Rickabear, you might enjoy Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey's YouTube video.


I wish I were a kid again...

What were your favorite memories of Summers in Kinnelon? Let us know in the comments.

2 comments:

Mary Beth said...

Yes, that is correct it was once corporately owned by Curtiss-Wright (this was what we were told by the Northern NJ director when I attended an Eco-Trek 2 years ago). Wasn't it previously owned by the Ricker family (hence the name)?

I loved going to Girl Scout Camp. I attended for 5 nights after 5th grade (Camp Golden Knot) and 2 weeks after 6th grade (Camp Glen Spey).

At Camp Glen Spey, the swimming level determined which boat we were able to take out. Since I was already in the highest swimming group, I was able to take out the sailboat on the lake, very cool.

I even got in trouble at camp and had to do latrine duty for a week. I took a fellow camper on a 'short cut' through the woods. We didn't get lost because I have good inner navigation skills. But our counsellors figured out that we did not take the road. So we got in trouble for breaking one of the rules. I got in trouble for walking through the woods of Van Saun Park as a kid (my parents' house is a block away).

The inner hiker prevailed as an adult. You know what they say about Girl Scouts, right? Once a Girl Scout always a Girl Scout!

Have fun at Girl Scout Camp Emma. Thanks for sharing.

CB Whittemore said...

Mary Beth, thanks for confirming the camp's ownership. I love the idea that the Rickers owned it at some point...

BTW, your bouts of 'trouble' sure make for great stories. No wonder you are such a wonderful writer... and hiker!

Thanks for sharing. Emma is having a blast.

Best,
CB

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