Group photos at camp are as old as camp itself!

What year do you think this was taken?  Come back on Monday and find out!

Wildlife is abundant year round at camp, but one of the best seasons to see a lot is the winter. The snow coupled with the absence of leaves on trees makes it (somewhat ironically) come to life for the observer.

The bird feeders are packed all day long with many different types of birds like Cardinals, Woodpeckers, Nuthatch’s, Blue Jays and the odd squirrel (not a bird) hogging the food. Bald Eagles are frequently seen fishing on the Tippecanoe from the back deck of River Lodge. White Tailed Deer can be seen in large numbers crossing main field and through the lake village loop.

Some of our favorites to see though are the River Otters who scurry and swim around the river banks from time to time. Many folks are surprised to hear that we see Otters around here, but they are doing really quite well in this area after their reintroduction to the Tippecanoe in the mid 90’s. Their slinky silhouette and playful behavior make them an unmistakable sight to see.

Being aware of and understanding the wildlife around us is the first step to living alongside it in a responsible manner. It’s a privilege for us to be able to teach people along these lines during their visit.

Hope you enjoy some of the pictures we’ve been able to get as we are out and about.

Registration for Camp Tecumseh Homecoming 2009 is here!  This Labor Day weekend we are going to celebrate 85 years of friends and fun at Camp Tecumseh.  If you can’t come the entire weekend, that’s okay too: you can come and join us on Saturday only!

As we have been mentioning here on the Camp Tecumseh News page for a while, a new book and a new video about Camp Tecumseh history will premiere as part of this weekend.  We are also going to play some classic camp games and have a great Hoe Down dinner.  Most importantly, we are going to re-connect with some camp friends we might have not seen in years.   This event will be for you whether you went to a camp session 75 years ago, you attended an Indiana Guides weekend with your Dad, you came with your school in 5th grade, or your first summer as a camper was in 2009, if you love Camp Tecumseh this event is going to be for you.

There is a Facebook event set up for Homecoming 2009, and don’t forget while you are there to become a fan of YMCA Camp Tecumseh.  If you want to contribute a story to the book, please don’t forget to visit our Camp Tecumseh Stories page and send it to us!

As promised in the latest edition of the Tales, here’s more camp trivia for you to test your Camp knowledge against your family and friends! Will you be able to retain your title of “Camp Guru” for another month?

· In what year did the CAC open? Can you name the 7 storefronts that make up it’s “Old Western Street”façade? The Creative Arts Center (CAC) was built in 1995. The seven exterior facades include: the Photographer, Pottery Shop, The Tecumseh Playhouse, the Jail, Tippecanoe Art Gallery, the Hotel, and the Basket Maker’s Shop.

· Throughout the year, Camp hosts a number of Specialty Camps. Which of these is the oldest? Started with the beginning of Camp Tecumseh, 4-H Camp has been occurring at Camp since 1924.

· Today, Camp is equipped with six storm shelters, but before they were built where did campers and staff go when inclement weather occurred? Until the basement Bradshaw Room in River Lodge was built in 1986, providing Camp’s first tornado shelter, campers and staff used to crowd into a space located underneath the swimming pool when inclement weather occurred.

· On average, how many bales of hay do Camp’s equestrian herd consume in a year? Camp’s horses consume around 6,000 bales of hay each year!

· In 1924, the State YMCA held a name-the-camp contest in which Jack Fisher submitted the name “Camp Tecumseh”. What was Jack’s prize? Jack Fisher won a free, two-week camping experience at the new camp on the Tippecanoe River. He chose the name for several reasons including that Tecumseh was known for several highly esteemed character qualities: leadership, courage, compassion, and vision.

In conjunction with the 85th Homecoming over Labor Day weekend 2009, a wonderful new book of Camp Tecumseh stories and pictures is being created. Because Camp Tecumseh has meant so much in the lives of thousands of people, we want to try to capture some of those important stories, and especially what people have learned from their Camp Tecumseh experiences. If you would like to submit a story of one of your Camp experiences and what it taught you, click here and go to stories.camptecumseh.org. Perhaps you learned about true friendship, sportsmanship, getting along with others, not misjudging others by first impressions, etc. It is really up to you. Since the 85th Homecoming will celebrate Camp’s 1924 to 2009 eighty-five year heritage, we will have 85 stories. The book will also have great pictures and other notes of importance. Wouldn’t it be great to have your story in the book! It would make a great life-long treasure. Give it a go.

In celebration of camp’s 1924 to 2009 heritage, a wonderful ‘85th Homecoming’ will be happening this Labor Day Weekend. Many preparations are being made for this celebration. One plan is to create a book of 85 stories from campers and staff. We want to know what lessons you’ve learned from Camp Tecumseh and how it has changed the way you live your lives. How will we get these 85 stories? We’ll get them from people who have experienced Camp Tecumseh first hand! We have set up a new page on our website called “Tell Us Your Story” and we want to hear from you! It’s sort of like that old saying “Everything I ever needed to know in life I learned in kindergarten.” Now it’s “Everything I needed to know about life I learned At Camp Tecumseh!”

We also have some other big historical projects in the works for our 85th anniversary. We are currently in need of films, photographs, and other media from of the early days of Camp Tecumseh. We are hoping that you or maybe your grandparents or great uncle have some great vintage Camp Tecumseh images in your attics that you will let us borrow! Right now we are planning a documentary of the history of Camp Tecumseh YMCA, and most of our early films are from the 1950s, more than 25 years after camp’s founding in 1924. We would like to borrow any film you have from those early days so we can make a digital copy for this project and so we can keep it in our camp archives. Historic photos are great too, especially pictures from before 1975. Again, we will make digital copies so you can keep the originals.

Our 85th year is going to be a blast! We hope to be seeing some of your stories and your film really soon!

Link: Camp Tecumseh’s “Tell Us Your Story” page