First, let me indicate the requests that cannot be accommodated. We are not able to move the lake closer to camp and the Forest Service will not allow us to install a ski lift to the waterfront. But we will look into ways to make the hike down and back to the water a little more enjoyable. Campers seemed evenly split on the amount of free time versus organized activities being too much or too little. Most common complaints dealt with food, food, and food. To be fair, even food wasn’t mentioned that many times. Siesta, early wake up, and cold showers were other items that appeared more than once. More ski times and more horses also appeared a few times.

Every body seems to like something different about camp. The campfires, friends, the counselors, Bass Lake, Gold Rush Day, cabin life, and time to just hang out were common themes.

All of the surveys will be read and discussed during staff training week so all of the staff gets a full flavor of camper’s needs and desires. We will continue to improve Skylake from your comments.

Next month I will provide a summary of the responses.

Yearbook is another example of the quality of his work.
Skylake has a basic structure for our staffing. We hire four JSTaff for both Boy’s Camp and Girl’s camps for each four-week session. Only former campers and usually only CILT graduates qualify for these limited and very sought after positions. We also hire 52 counselors. Counselors must be 18 years of age and be attending a four-year university. Although most of our counselors have completed at least one year of university study, we do hire around eight staff members who although admitted to college have just graduated from High School. These positions are again limited to former Skylake campers. Current campers that believe they would someday like to be on staff should remember that Skylake does not permit tattoos or body piercing, other than ears.

Skylake has also purchased another Tige Ski boat. This brings our fleet of boats now to three Tiges, the old ski barge, and the ever-popular picnic barge. The newest boat will be outfitted with the wakeboard towing boom along with the overhead rack system to keep all the equipment properly stored but with easy access.

Skylake will continue to upgrade the cabins. We will complete installation of all new floors and doors on the boy’s side of camp. The residing of cabins will continue with at least four more cabins being completed prior to this summer.

The kitchen will see the installation of new hood and ventilation system. This is a long overdue improvement that should reduce the temperature dramatically and make the working conditions much nicer. In addition, the expanded hood and circulation will permit us to install commercial fryers. This will provide the ability to produce a few of camper’s favorites like Macdonald’s quality French-fries, homemade tortilla chips, and real chicken nuggets. We will also be substantially upgrading our salad bar capability by installing two complete salad bars. Our goal is to have a better selection of daily items and to provide quicker access for more campers.

Skylake has obtained the use of a soccer field at the end of the Lake for most of the summer. Jon Moore, “Program Director Extraordinaire”, is a soccer coach when he is not working summers at Skylake. Jon will be heading up our soccer program this summer.

We will also be adding two more horses to our stable. This won’t be for more campers going on rides, but will provide for back up horses to be used when a horse just needs a day off for rest. To meet this need in the past occasionally we did not have enough horses for our daily ride requirements.

We are also looking into the possibilty of a SKYCAM. A 24 hour live camera at camp to be broadcast on-line. This would be more to get a feeling of camp than to see individuals at camp.