Author: last post
Date: 06-10-04 19:47
Hi Roy, I'm not sure if people still look at this site/care about it, but I still want to clarify one final thing. I am glad for you that Horseshoe is opening and that you will be able to send your son there. If I had a son, I would want him to have the same wonderful experiences that I have had at my camp as well. However, campers who are now about to attend Horseshoe, whether you (or any Horseshoe alumn) understand this or not, have attended Kawaga and all of them had to go through long personal and troubling debates with themselves, their family and their friends as to whether or not they should switch. This was not an easy decision for any of them. If someone claims it was, they are lying. It seems to me that the many outside pressures (mentioned in some post above) forced many of these boys to switch. Many of these campers attended Kawaga for more than five years (one more year than Mark Mintz attended Horseshoe). Why is this significant? Because Jordan is not opening (or re-opening) Camp Horseshoe. He is establishing a "Camp Highland Park" masked in Kawaga/Ojibwa/Horseshoe traditions/programs and filled with a Kawaga staff and Kawaga campers and backed by a wonderful group of alumni who I beleive will, once they see the inner workings of camp, will be dissapointed with the results. How would you feel knowing that your camp has ruined dozens of friendships? I don't think that is what any kind of camp is about. If Jordan had hired a fresh staff and recruited new campers, the establishment of Horseshoe would have been considered moral and, maybe more important concerning the readers of this website, accpepted by those who attend/work at Kawaga. It's a very difficult thing to accept-- boys who were best friends for four, five, six years are now separated and will now always have this awkward animostiy towards the other's summer activites and will permanently worsen their friendships. I know. It has happened to me with people I thought would be life-long friends. This is going to be one of the last posts about this debate, because 1) the summer is about to begin and we will all be away and 2) the short-term problems that Horseshoe has caused for Kawaga will be a thing of the past since in the long run, Kawaga will be completely fine. But, for the campers and counselors that attend both camps now, they will alway carry an internal scar reminding them of this terrible incident. And, since many of you Horseshoe alumn don't probably know really what's going on between these two camps, just know that many of the counselors at Horseshoe do feel cheated by Jordan and have regrets about this summer. I wish that the opening of Horseshoe could have gone smoother. But, don't think that this controversy is to be blamed on those "brave" boys and men who believe in loyalty and weren't suckered into changing camps by Jordan. I wish that this summer was not tainted, for your sake and mine. I am proud of Kawaga's new director and wish he did not have to deal with this. I also would have been very happy for Jordan. I liked Jordan and, when he left Kawaga, knew that he would open a new camp and I did hope he would succeed. However, the ways in which he opened this camp were vengeful and has caused much harm. I am sorry for my combative tone, but I hope that, if you do not agree with me (which I don't excect) that you at least understand the viewpoint of those at Kawaga. I know this site is intended for Horseshoe alumn, so I will now leave you alone. I hope that eventually your camp will turn around and become a success.
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