Testimonials from Alumni
"Keewaydin is an island that time has forgotten and it has become the custodian of ancient practices and devices long since discarded elsewhere. The inherently simple, flexible tumpline is one of those devices. At Keewaydin it is one of the most essential tripping tools." — The Keewaydin Way: A Portrait 1893-1983, Brian Back.
Keewaydin is lucky to have very loyal alumni. Many of our alum's credit Keewaydin with a solid grounding in their formative teenage years. Read some of the comments, memories, & stories alum have shared with us.
Frank Wood, K'99: Keewaydin was the best thing that has ever happened to me. I loved to hear the "war stories" of those who came before me. Most importantly, though, the camp experience taught me to push all physical and mental boundaries and when one succeeds it's the greatest feeling on earth.
John Scanlon, K'65: One of the best experiences of my life!!!
Carroll Stribling, St. Louis, Mo.: I was looking at your web page and recalled that my son, William Stribling and I had come to something of a revelation about a year ago when recalling our experiences at Keewaydin. When I was in my second year at Keewaydin in Temagami Section C, we won both the cooking and camping competition. At that time, which was in the middle 50's, we were told that no other section had ever won both. When my son was in either Waubeno or Temagami in 1985 ( I believe) his section repeated the feat. He was told at the time that only one other section had done so in the history of the camp. Of course, it did not occur to him to look it up and discover that I was in that section. It was only last year that he and I got around to comparing notes and realized this fact. I am pleased that Keewaydin is still offering the type of wilderness experience that it always has. It was there that I learned my first lessons in self-reliance. Having to get those packs across the portage or that canoe up into that headwind without any help and then having to look within yourself for satisfaction at the accomplishment, as everybody else had just finished doing the same thing and weren't about to heap praise on you, set the experience apart from anything else that I encountered in my formative years. My friends point me to Outward Bound and remark that they wish something like this had been around before. I smile and tell them that this experience has been available for 100 years at Keewaydin.
Tom Weber, K'60: I was thirteen skinny and bookish when I started that summer. I didn't tell my friends much about my plans because canoe camp wasn't cool. Cool would have been playing tennis and going to parties. But when the summer was over I was tan muscled free and happy. I remember goading a young counselor to jump off a 30-foot cliff as his great-grandfather Teddy Roosevelt would have done. He did and I did. Later he got back at me with a "bear scare". I don't think there was a challenge I didn't take. We often fell to talking about the existence of God for some reason amid the simple exertion of paddling and portaging and the splendor of the North.
Doug Brown, K'74: I'll never forget the look on my mother's face when she first saw me upon my return from camp. (a bus stop somewhere in MA.) My clothes had that unmistakable petina that gets developed over a summer at Keewaydin, my voice was changing, and my shoulders were, well, shoulders. The next thing I knew I was in the restroom getting my face scrubbed with a paper towel. She toughened-up however as I am quite certain my brothers Dixon K'76 and Dan K'77 didn't endure similar treatment.
Edward E. Hopkins, Hudson Bay '89: It was not MY idea to go to Keewaydin. But after a local recruiting visit by Major Reimers arranged by my parents, possibly to get rid of me for the summer, complete with slideshow I was convinced that not only would I attend but that I would master the ultimate final objective the elusive "Hudson Bay Trip." After hating it the first time I took a few years off but it was impossible - the trip gradually became a magnetic force in my young life and there was no way to stop it. Not even the Holy Grail could keep young Ed Hopkins from achieving his final objective. Even Major Reimers tried to talk me into being a junior guide after my Section B trip under guide Joe Skovron, the Marine guide best known for his axe. Who else would carry a five-pound axe named Max? Max the axe fed us and warmed us. But, no, I was in it for the Bay. There was no changing my mind you guys lured me into it and all I wanted was the Bay. The funniest thing about it that after 7 years of patience learning to cook, camp, canoe rapids, carry loads over land, catch tasty freshwater Walleye in clean untouched pristine and unpolluted lakes was that we never technically made it there! The year before there had been a fire and the town, which on our maps was on Hudson Bay, actually was moved 20 miles inland and thus 20 miles away was the closest we ever got!
Tom Lathrop, K'60-'62, K'64(Guide), K'66(Guide): I like your website. The photos bring back lots of memories - kind of like the t-shirt I saw in an outdoor store a couple of years ago with a silk-screen of Section "A's" canoes on the front. Congratulations on allowing girls to share in a wonderful wilderness experience.
