Dear Campers and Parents,

The entire staff arrived yesterday, and during the next week we will all be engaged in a very comprehensive orientation program designed to make each staff member more aware of the type of program will be having at camp this season, each boy that he will be working with, our philosophy, and the staff members will also be working to help get camp in shape for your boys. We have made many improvements and camp looks just beautiful at this time. Our new riding ring has almost been completed, and we cleared 5 acres behind our original riding area. It was a grinding job and I started by having an old-time logger cut tress and leave just the stumps--then some of our staff members took 20 tons of trees and brush and burnt them in the center of the new field---then in came our bulldozer and began to push up the stumps of wood and push them behind the trees guarding our new ring area--he made sure to hide the stumps, and finally he leveled all the ground, and when he was done, we moved in and dug post holes, put in our posts, and built you a wonderful second riding ring. We are now able to teach different levels of riders at the same time, and this should help improve our program.

Our new cabin is up and it’s beautiful and overlooks the lake--the plumbing is in and today we’ll put in the beds and shelves for our campers. Our radio station is now running and we awaken to our FM station or AM station playing great music...Speaking of music--listen to this announcement---Yesterday, I went shopping and I picked up a gorgeous OLD TIME JUKEBOX...We’re putting it in the rec hall and we’ll have it available for all our socials as well as other occasions. That means that we need--45 R.P.M. records---Any camper who owns 45 R.P.M. RECORDS and would like to make them available for our jukebox or our RADIO STATION to play when you are a disc jockey, is to make sure and bring them with you to camp, and we’ll play them and give them back to you at the end of your camp stay. We have a commercial ICE CUBE MACHINE that will now give us plenty of ice cubes during the meals, and it will make sure that we have cold water available at meal time. We've just bought $500 of new photo equipment and Fred Bierman, our photo counselor, has promised us the best photography program that we’ve ever had.

CAMP TIMBERLANE PURCHASES NEW 105 H.P. Motor for SKI PROGRAM. --With our Timberbat ski show booked for 8 shows this summer, we felt that it was time to replace our 100 H.P. motor, so we’ve installed a brand new 105 H.P. motor and today, we’ll be slowly breaking it into shape. It should provide lots of great skiing. Say, I wonder if you realize that we have almost 78% of our old staff back again. --This makes getting camp started so much easier, and as I look at our staff members, I see that the fruits of our farm system in which boys begin their leadership training after the 8th grade and working as Partial P.A.’s then Full Program Aides, then C.I.T.’s , and eventually Junior Counselors and later as Senior Counselors is the heart of our staff program. As previously mentioned, we have some staff people from England and South Africa this summer at Timberlane.

All campers who plan to take TENNIS are to make sure that each of you brings up at least ONE OR TWO CANS OF TENNIS BALLS. Please don’t forget to follow through on this request. That’s it for some of the news and those campers coming up second session, you’ll hear from us again shortly. For the boys coming up June 25th, the following page contains special information for each of you.

PLANE DEPARTURES--Each boy coming up by plane should have received his plane ticket, baggage bags in which you put down your return address on one side and mark it -FROM -and your address --and the other side should be stamped with the Camp TImberlane name and address. An itinerary listing the time of departure etc. should be enclosed in the envelope containing your ticket. If your son is on a full fare, he should bring his youth card along with him to the airport. No youth card is needed on a half fare. Baggage is to accompany each boy to the airport and we’ll have a representative waiting when you check in and when your flight arrives at Chicago, staff members will be waiting for them and we’ll all go up to camp. The Chicago plane will go as far as Rhinelander, and the boys will then board chartered buses and go directly to camp. You are each allowed two pieces of luggage and there may be an additional charge for extra luggage. Hand luggage can be taken directly aboard the plane.

BUS DEPARTURES--The bus, as previously mentioned, will start from the O'Hare Oasis (North Ramp) at 9:00 A.M. on Sunday morning June 25th and then will move along to the Lake Forest Oasis (North Ramp) at 9:15 A.M and will then go to Milwaukee and will pick up the Milwaukee contingent at Cahill Square opposite the Whitefish Bay High School, 1200 E. Fairmount at 10:30 and will then travel and pick up our Sheboygan, Appleton, and Green Bay contingent along the route. Food for both the bus and plane groups will be handled by our staff people.

DUPLICATE BAGGAGE KEYS-- If you want to send us a duplicate set of baggage keys, please get them in shortly.

PERSONAL OBJECTIVE SHEETS AND HEALTH FORMS--In order for us to do a more comprehensive job in discussing each of your boys with his staff members, we should have the personal objective sheet in at this time and please get your health form in today.

BILLING--Please send in your payment today if you haven’t done so today.

WHAT TO EXPECT--The moment your boys get to camp, we’ll assign them to their cabin groups, give them a tour of camp, and get them settled into new activities as soon as possible. We’ll take a cabin picture the 1st full day of camp, test the boys for swimming ability, riding ability (if they plan to take the program), scuba test if they want to try out for it, and we’ll also check out their canoeing ability if they are deep water swimmers. You’ll get a letter and a picture of your son from his cabin counselors within a couple of days after his arrival at camp, and we’ll try to write you once every two weeks after his arrival at camp. Your sons will write at least twice weekly. I will personally send you a most detailed letter each week trying to fill you in on the program that we either have held or are planning hold during the past and future week and it will make you actually feel that you are with us at camp.

We have gotten off to a great start in getting camp ready for your sons, and I feel that we have the finest staff that we’ve ever had assembled at Timberlane. Your sons must do their part when they come to camp, and I’m sure that they will have the finest summer of their lives.

Best Regards,
Harold Hiken-Director
Camp Timberlane for Boys