RIP Summer Camp
Camp Mishawaka was founded in 1910 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and its motto is “Safety, health, happiness.” Last month, my younger brother, Steve Purdum, who has run the camp for three decades, made the pained and reluctant decision that, for the first time in 110 years—through two world wars, the 1918 flu, tuberculosis, and polio—there was no clear way to guarantee safety, health, or happiness for his usual complement of 300 campers this summer, and not just because a raucous chorus of “Three Jolly Fishermen” might spray droplets of a deadly pathogen into the clear Northwoods air.
How do you play Capture the Flag and stay six feet apart? What happens if a harried college-age counselor forgets to clean a bow and arrow with sanitizing wipes after each use? How can 12-year-old girls mentor and (literally) hold the hands of their 9-year-old recommend)?
