We here at Camp Minikani are happy to see spring has finally arrived! The snow has melted, the temperatures are warming up, and the spring peepers, chorus frogs, and skunk cabbage have all made their spring arrivals known in our wetlands. As we eagerly await school groups coming out here again this spring, our environmental education department is wrapping up the in-school lessons we’ve been teaching over the past few months. We’ve been weekly visitors to Steffen Middle School, Richfield School, and Tippecanoe Elementary School over the past couple months. As part of these classes, the students have learned about their ecological footprint, composting, and environmental media. At Richfield School, the 7th graders raised awareness of various issues that were of concern to them. One group focused on food waste at lunch, and they created a video and presentation that addresses the issues and showed it to the students at the school. Another group organized an E-Cycling drive, where students, teachers, parents, and community members could bring in their old electronics and have them donated to organizations that will then give money to Richfield School in exchange. These students also wrote nature journals, took nature themed photography, and worked on their projects in their free time.

Steffen Middle School 7th graders have had an extensive program combining classes on eco footprints and composting. The students first took quizzes to determine how much of an impact they have on Planet Earth. After they discovered their impacts, they began learning about a way to reduce their impact, through composting. These classes focused on how long it takes for materials to decompose in both a landfill, and then in a compost pile. The difference for some materials really surprised the students. With our last visit there, the school will receive a large composter to use for composting their organic waste from lunches and any snacks the students might have. The 7th graders are pumped to take on the responsibility of maintaining their composting system at their school throughout the rest of the year. The students at Tippecanoe also took part in the same composting program. They built small composters made of two liter soda bottles, and then added organic waste to the composters that were kept in their classrooms over a few weeks. The students at Steffen added the compost from their own bottles to the large composter at their school and it will hopefully turn into nutrient rich soil in the next few months for them to use. We only have a few more weeks until the schools are out here every day…we’re excited to get going once again!

Throughout January and February, our Environmental Education department has been taking their show on the road to teach students about nature in their classrooms! The first school this winter to have a Minikani program added into their schedule was Merton Intermediate School, as we worked with their 5th graders once a week for five weeks, talking about their Ecological Footprints, and how they can reduce both their personal and school’s footprints. After the first class, it was clear the students were enjoying their new materials. They worked in groups to figure out how jeans are made, and how many resources go into everything from growing the cotton, to manufacturing, to putting the jeans on their bodies. Over the next two weeks, the students got to use a fantastic website that allowed them to calculate their own personal ecological footprint by inputting their daily activities and seeing how their actions had a direct impact on their local community, as well as the whole Earth community! Over the last few classes, the students made a personal goal for themselves about how they can reduce their impact in their daily lives. A few examples are: students setting a timer while taking a shower; when playing video games, they would play for an hour, then read, go outside, do homework, or play a non-electronic game with their family or friends for an hour or more; turn lights out when the sun is shining into their rooms; being more aware of recyclable materials.

They wrote these goals on small sheets, and kept them taped to their school desks, their lockers, or took them home and put them in a clearly visible place. Many students reported back with success in keeping up with their goals, while a few admitted to struggling, but they all did say they were at least doing something to help reduce their impact! The culmination of their five classes resulted in them creating clever slogans, ideas, and pictures to be included on signs that were posted around their school. These signs all had something to do with trying to help reduce their school’s ecological footprint. The students were very excited to see that even within just minutes of their signs being put up, other students and teachers in the halls were already stopping to check out what these new signs and posters were saying!! We look forward tremendously to seeing these same 5th graders come out to Camp Minikani in May for some outdoor exploration and fun!

A BIG shout out and thank you to students of our Minikani Equestrian Center who raised $13,490 towards the annual campaign.
One of our youngest student, age 8, raised over $1000 by sending a personal letter to friends and family throughout the US. We had several donations from out of state, including two donations from Japan!

We are so proud of the commitment shown by these youngsters to help others experience the benefits of camp.
In celebration the students and their parents are invited to a “bowling party” on February 17th. Congrats on the hard work!

Alex Philpin
Equestrian Director

Last month, Camp Minikani hosted the annual family event, Holiday Cookie House. Even though there may not have been more than a light dusting of snow on the ground at the time, the holiday cheer was flowing throughout the dining hall! With a fire roaring, the Christmas tree all lit up, and Santa dropping by during the busy season, families, kids, and the young at heart all enjoyed a tremendous time. Upon arrival, everybody was given the option of decorating cookies, gingerbread houses, and for many…both! We had over 40 different decorations available to use, and they were all put to good use! This time we had lots of first time Cookie House visitors and they expressed tremendous surprise and joy at the amount of decorations that we have available for the cookies and houses.

The event is not only a great family tradition here at Minikani, but it also is a fundraising event for our summer camp. The money we raise through the event goes directly into our Annual Campaign, which helps every kid experience the life changing power of summer camp. During this event, we raised $551.80 for summer camper scholarships! A big THANK YOU to everybody who came out to Cookie House this past weekend, and we hope you will be joining us for Camp Minikani’s Holiday Cookie House in 2013!

As Executive Director at YMCA Camp Minikani, my days are filled with lots of wonderful moments; meeting campers and their families throughout the year, watching campers meet and exceed the goals they have set for themselves during the summer, sharing the excitement when outstanding young people are accepted into the Leadership Training program, visiting with alumni who site camp as “the formative experience” in their lives. Each of these interactions is a true joy and I know that I am blessed to come to work and love what I do every day!

But the days that go down in my memory as most special, the moments that I can clearly see even years after they occur, are the times when we are able to say, “YES.” to a family in need. In June, I was leaving a meeting in Shorewood, walking down the sidewalk wearing my Minikani staff shirt on my way back to my car. A woman and her children were walking by on the sidewalk and I smiled and said hello to them. As soon as they passed me the woman turned back around and said, “Camp Minikani??” I said, “Yes, I work there—are you a camp family?” She shouted to her kids, “Camp Minikani!! This lady is going to help you come to camp!” She proceeded to tell me that her children were coming to camp this year for the first time with the help of a scholarship. She had a stroke last year and was the sole breadwinner in her house as her husband was laid off. Her daughter is coming to day camp and her son is coming to overnight camp. “Thank you for the miracle!” she said. She said she had worked with Katy and Kelly in the office and, “They are just miracle workers. I can’t believe my kids are going to Minikani!” She gave me a big hug and her eyes were filled with tears. I talked to the kids for a little bit about what they are looking forward to at camp (archery and swimming!) and told them I would look forward to seeing them at check in.

As I walked back to my car, I was pretty choked up. I smiled as I realized (again) what an amazing job I have, what an amazing privilege it is to be able to give the gift of camp to such wonderful families and how lucky we are to be involved with a program that provides miracles.

Many of you helped us to be able to say “Yes” this summer, by donating to the annual campaign for scholarships through Project 212. Thank you for your involvement in helping us raise funds for scholarships. As we near the end of our campaign for 2012, we have raised just over $75,000 needed to meet our goal of $105,000.

If you have not yet had the chance, I would like to ask you to consider supporting the YMCA Camp Minikani Annual Campaign for camp scholarships. The costs are roughly $100 a day or $700 for a week of camp. If you can help send a camper for one day, that’s wonderful. Two days or maybe a week? Even better. As you know, the YMCA is a non-profit, so your contributions are tax deductible, and eligible for matching contributions from many employers.

Making a contribution is easy, you may send me an email at jfeltz@ymcamke.org directly with the amount you would like to donate and when you would like to be invoiced, a check may be sent or dropped off at camp or you may donate online as well. The link takes you to our Minikani site and you can click through the Milwaukee YMCA giving page and select “Camp Minikani” in the designation box.

I know there are a lot of great causes needing support, especially this time of year. Thank you for considering a year-end gift to YMCA Camp Minikani.

ARE YOU IN!?

It has been a successful fall EE season! Golda Meir was our last school group of the year, and they took us out with a bang. These 4th graders had a blast practicing their Wisconsin lumberjacking skills, learning outdoor survival with shelter and fire building, and getting to know the woods of Minikani in forest ecology. They also participate in several nighttime adventures including a night hike and Star Lab, in which they looked at constellations in our inflatable planetarium and then went outside to take a look at the same constellations in the night sky. We also had the pleasure of belaying the 6th graders of John Long Middle School and Tamarack Waldorf School on our high ropes and rock wall this month.

At the end of October we worked with Milwaukee Montessori 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders. These little kiddos explored all over camp and did some hands on learning about bats, erosion, and lumberjacking. They also bundled up to take a rather chilly wagon ride behind our tractor around camp, but they loved it! Oak Creek Middle School came to camp for a couple days of rock wall, high ropes, and low ropes. Merton Middle School also came out for a day to test their knowledge of groundwater, watersheds, and orienteering. They even tested their debating skills in Environmental Debate. They had quite a day and ended it with cider, cookies, and a huge thunderstorm.
It’s been an excellent fall full of environmental teaching, rock climbing, nature hiking, composting, campfire song singing, and lots of laughing. Although the fall just ended, we’re already looking forward to the spring season and getting ready for the next group of students to experience camp with their classmates. Happy Winter!

In 2004 I was invited to be a member of Team USA’s Paralympic equestrian team’s support staff in Athens Greece. Of course, I jumped at the chance…who wouldn’t want a fully subsidized trip to Greece for 2 weeks??

In 2012 (and 2008) I was again invited and again jumped at the chance, although this time, the incentive was less about flying off to a different country and more about being a part of an amazing group of elite athletes and trying to get the visibility and recognition on a national scale that they deserve.
The Paralympics is hosted in the same country as the Olympics a week after their closing ceremony. The games are well known throughout Europe and other parts of the world, but not so much here in the USA, which is amazing to those of us involved with Team USA and also the other nations around the world who compete.

Being involved in para-dressage, there is a lot of planning and hard work involved just to get the team to the venue. This year we flew 4 horses, all of their tack and equipment plus 4 riders, their grooms and several other support staff to London to compete in what was to become the best Paralympic games to date.
As soon as we touched down at Heathrow, we were all treated like celebrities. Being met by games volunteers and fast tracked through the passport control, baggage claim and immigrations.
The venue at Greenwich Park was truly amazing with all stabling, arenas and every other building raised off the “sacred” turf on stilt platforms. With over 100 horses and 5 arenas, this was no easy feat!

Due to competition schedule, I was unable to attend the opening ceremonies.
Competition was over 5 days with each rider competing in an individual, a team and freestyle test. The British have led the way in para dressage since its inception, but this year, the rest of the world was knocking on their door and the predicted clean medal sweep was not achieved.
We finished 7th as a team, the highest placing to date for team USA at any Paralympics and just missed a bronze medal with several 4th places in the individual and freestyle competitions.

There is always a great sadness at the end of the competition. The barns are stripped of flags; the equipment packed up; the horses hand walked instead of being ridden and of course saying goodbye to friends of old and new ones made often brings tears!
One consolation this year was being able to attend the closing ceremonies after the horses had flown home. Support staff were allowed to walk into the arena with the athletes which is an amazing experience. I sat next to the cauldron and had a front row view of everything from Rhianna, who was one of the live artists performing, to the raising of the Brazilian flag and the extinguishing of the flame.
Truly an unbelievable experience from beginning to end!
I urge everyone to become familiar with the Paralympic movement…..I am quite sure that you will be amazed and inspired by these athletes also!

www.teamusa.org/US-Paralympics

Regards,
Alex Philpin
Equestrian Director-Camp Minikani

For the past several weeks, Minikani year round lesson students have been competing every other Friday in our annual Minikani Equestrian Center Fall Series.

Students ranging in age from 6yrs old to 60+yrs of age have been battling to win and place in 4 different levels of dressage (fixed patterns at walk, trot and canter) and jumping (course of 4 – 8 stadium jumps) in six separate competitions. Awards are presented up to 6th place, but more importantly, points are awarded up to 8th place for each separate division at every competition. The points are then totaled up at the final jumping show, and the Champions and Reserve Champions are announced and awarded a travelling trophy which they get to keep for 1 year and also a plaque which is theirs to keep for life.

Our final Championship show is Saturday November 17th from 10.00am – 5.00pm. Concessions will be served throughout the day with all proceeds going to the Annual Campaign. All are welcome to come and join in the fun!

Holy cow, what a fall! The EE team has been hard at work belaying students on the rock wall and at high ropes, facilitating team challenges in low ropes, attempting to teach the best techniques for NOT tipping over a canoe, and appreciating the beautiful fall colors. But it’s not all fun and games. Many schools have been lucky enough to learn about the environment and the world around them in one of the best possible classrooms…Camp Minikani! Just this week Burleigh Elementary 5th graders got to spend three days at camp and participate in an environmental debate, learn orienteering and GPS, hear stories of Greek and Native American astronomy in our Star Lab, and test their knowledge of what natural processes are responsible for shaping the earth’s surface in Sculpting the Earth. These budding environmentalists were pumped to get out of the classroom and get their hands dirty, and when it came time to say goodbye, they all wanted to stay!
Burleigh hasn’t been the only school to come spend some time with us this fall. We’ve seen some old faces and some new including Steffan 7th grade, Pilgrim Park Middle School, Kewaskum6th grade, Dixon 5th grade, Slinger 4th grade, Messmer 11th and 12th grade, and so many more! We’ve also had the privilege of working with college groups from Marquette and UWM. This wide variety of groups keeps us on our toes and also provides for some unforgettable memories. Like that time Central 6th grade won their food waste challenge and got to push Eli into Amy Belle Lake! The fact that it was October made it even better. There’s about a month left of the fall season, and we’re hoping Eli gets pushed into the lake at least one more time.
Off to do some late fall boating!
The EE team