Gilbert H. Roehrig

1929 – 1946

“Our next step was to launch a camp for the well-to-do boy who prevailingly patronized the private commercial camp. This meant launching the Association (the Y.M.C.A.) on a so-called private camp enterprise. To do this we had to have a better than ordinary equipment and a new and well-considered promotional policy… fees could be set at a figure large enough to make possible educational practices which took adequately into account individual differences in boys…

In setting our plans for this camp, our first conclusion was that its maximum growth should be definitely limited… ultimate capacity of 125 boys… through three different groupings… the three residence sections… were so located and laid out as to admit of a good deal of expansion and to guarantee a distinct corporate life for each section… The location of the buildings departed quite radically from the conventional camp layout… It was our conviction that administrative and management concerns played too large a part in determining camping methods and policies. We, therefore, decided in the location of our buildings to shift the emphasis… as would make for happiness in the camp life and the sense of freedom to the several age and interest groups. This we felt would be accomplished by a decentralization of our plant…

The North Woods Camp seeks to provide for boys a summer in which the boyhood impulses to explore and to create have satisfying expression…

North Woods is dedicated to the task
of finding for boys a more healthful balance between the unavoidable disciplines of life and the expression of the boys’ free spirit.

Recollections

Burns Roehrig

Carl Roehrig

Life at North Woods is so organized and led as to approximate the best features of a well-conducted family. Every effort is made to encourage spontaneity, nurture achievement, respect for individual differences, the attainment of excellence in some chosen field and exploration over a wide range of possible interests…