Mystic Lake YMCA Camp

One other comment about the letters, my daughter sent me two letters. One I got right away and the other came after she got home from camp. My son wrote one but his counselor forgot to send it. So I guess it happens but I certainly don’t think it’s intentional.

My 11-​year old did not have a good experience at Mystic Lake Camp. And that can happen — it’s a no-​fault situation. But it turns out they had a disruptive bunch of campers that were bullying other kids, and the camp didn’t have an effective way of dealing with it, apparently. And they wouldn’t let my son contact me to let me know he was unhappy and wanted to go home until the weekend, by which time he’d been desperately homesick for a whole week. They continued to minimize his feelings and tried to put me off until I insisted on going to pick him up early. I think his own words are quite eloquent (this letter home was postmarked the day after we picked him up – camp apparently didn’t mail it for FIVE days after he wrote it): «Dear Beloved Family, I miss you!!! I don’t like it here. Only senior boys can do ropes. The people here are rude and uncivilized and allmost [sic] all of them are annoying. The food is kind of gross. They make you smile for the pictures. The bathrooms are grosse [sic]. I want to come home. The challanges [sic] are dumb. I just HATE it here! I cryed [sic] 3 times because I wanted to come home. Please respond or come pick me up.»