This summer marks my 15th summer at Camp Agawak– ten as a camper and counselor, then 40 years later I returned to resurrect Agalog, the camp magazine that died in the early 1980s. I credit Agalog for my literary start that planted the seeds for a long career as a journalist and author.

          Beyond my continuing passion for writing in the woods, a craft I now teach at Agawak, I credit my many years at camp for building essential life skills that have formed the backbone of my adult character, of fostering a spirit of adventure, of being able to deal.

          I thank my late parents every day for making the choice when I was 8 to send me to sleepaway camp, though I remember the tears in my mother’s eyes when our train took off from Chicago. YES! We took an overnight train in 1963, this with no cell phones, to Woodruff, Wisconsin to be greeted by counselors who started as strangers and grew to be powerful and enduring forces in our lives.

          Whether your children are new to Agawak or veteran campers, lessons learned in our beautiful lake and our fields and in the cabins, summer after summer, are lessons that will serve them well throughout the many stages of their lives.

          As I look back on a long association with Agawak the big three takeaway traits for me are ambition, perseverance and resilience.

          An Agawak girl comes to camp with a set of ambitions to reach new goals, whether it be to see her Blue or White team win Capture the Flag, to climb to the top of Tango Tower or to try the Lake Swim. She pushes herself to heights she never dreamed she could climb, supported by her friends and staff members.

          Perseverance is the key to achieving desired goals, and Agawak girls learns quickly that nothing comes easy. Failure is a great lesson as a path toward achievement, and with passion and focus and continued hard work, they see that perseverance pays off.

          Each day as a young camper, we relished in the success felt after trying and trying and finally achieving, be it the sweetness of mastering a new dive after countless belly flops, of hitting a bull’s eye in archery after rounds of missing the target altogether, of huffing through hilly portages with canoes. Those early challenges we face as campers help transform kids into persistent adults who keep working hard, with focused eyes on the prize, until we get what they want!

          Finally, comes the quality of resilience, defined in the dictionary as “toughness -- the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.” Mary calls it GRIT. And, as our camp director and fearless leader for 30 years she certainly embodies this quality as she pushes all of us onward -- FULL SPEED AHEAD!

          When I gather with my camp friends, now women in our 50s and 60s, we compare notes on how tough we are when facing challenges and in navigating our lives. As children, we were dwarfed by the big skies and towering pines of Minocqua, Wisconsin. Yet, we emerged at summer’s end feeling like robust giants, girls with grit and the confidence to believe “I can do anything.”

          Since I returned five summers ago my greatest joy is watching your girls exhibit the ambition, perseverance and resilience that will send them soaring throughout their lives.

Full Speed Ahead,

Iris