North Star Camp by the Numbers: A Wisconsin Boys Camp
Starting the camp search can feel overwhelming. Every camp promises a warm, welcoming community where kids make friends and try new activities, and by the third website, those words have stopped registering. Numbers are harder to fake. If you’re trying to decide whether a boys summer camp is right for your son, these are the figures I’d want in front of me if I were in your seat.
215 boys, 125 staff: more attention for every boy
Each session, North Star has 215 campers and 125 staff members: 67 cabin counselors, plus out-of-cabin staff in program, the health center, the kitchen, maintenance and more. That’s fewer than 2 campers for every adult, all summer long, which is the craziest ratio I know of anywhere in childcare. In practice, it means the counselor running your son’s activity has time to coach him, not just supervise him. It also means a problem gets noticed while it’s still small, because someone is always close enough to see it.
96% come back for a second summer: the number that matters most
If you read only one number on this page, make it this one. Parents choose a camp for that first summer. Whether a boy comes back is mostly his vote, and 96% of our first-year campers vote the same way.
5 summers, on average: from new kid to role model
The average North Star camper spends 5 summers with us. That’s long enough for a boy to arrive as one of the youngest in a Junior Village cabin and leave as one of the older campers the new boys look up to, with the same lake, the same traditions and many of the same people around him the whole way.
No more than 2 boys from the same school in a cabin: where new friendships start
We cap it at 2 on purpose. A boy who arrives with four classmates tends to spend the summer with those four classmates. A boy who arrives with one, or none, has to introduce himself, and that’s where the best friendships at camp begin. It also means the boy in the next bunk is as likely to be from another state, or another country, as from your own zip code.
26 states, 5 countries: a friend in every city
Our campers come from 26 states and 5 countries, and what matters about that isn’t the map. Friendships built on a cabin canoe trip, watching the sunset over the Council Ring or cheering in the Lodge at dinner are a different kind of bond. With friends across the country and beyond, your son grows up with people to visit, travel with and stay close to for the rest of his life. Most adults spend years wishing they had friends in more places, and our campers start collecting them at 9.
120 acres, 2.5 miles of shoreline: room to roam
North Star sits on 120 acres near Hayward, Wisconsin, with 2.5 miles of shoreline on Spider Lake. That’s enough room for the waterfront, the fields, the climbing wall and the riflery range to feel like separate places, and enough woods between them that a boy raised in a city learns what quiet sounds like.
Founded in 1945: decades of tradition, friendship and memories
We start each summer with a friendship fire, a tradition dating back to our very first Friday night in 1945. In the more than 8 decades of camping, thousands of boys have called North Star home. When a camper walks through the North Star arches for the first time, he adds his story to theirs.
3 sets of directors in 83 summers: consistency you can trust
Lou and Renee Rosenblum founded North Star in 1945. Sue and Robert Lebby took over camp in 1979. After more than 10 years as a camper and counselor, I became director in 2011. In more than 80 years, North Star has had only 3 sets of directors. That continuity matters for a practical reason. When you send your son here, you aren’t handing him to a seasonal operation that may look different next year. You’re gaining a partner in raising him, someone who will know him at 9 and still know him at 15.
June 14 to August 6, 2027: mark your calendar
Enrollment is now open for our 83rd summer. First Session runs June 14 to July 10, and Second Session runs July 11 to August 6. We’d love your son to be part of it.
Numbers can tell you a lot about a camp, but they can’t tell you what North Star would mean for your son. That takes a conversation. Schedule a Virtual Home Visit, and let’s find out together.
Carry On,
Andy
