Aurora University Lake Geneva Campus

A camp like the ones you see in the movies… from the brown and white cabins to the shade-​lending trees dotting the grounds to the dining hall full of families and foodfight instigating kids and the greeter, Tom, who after about 40 years as Greeter still speaks in a charming Scottish accent and smiles as you spoon up your mashed potatoes… from the arts and crafts buildilng where tye-​dyed t-​shirts are forever hanging out to dry and the waterfront where kids swim, sail, flip canoes and kayaks (I used to be the one to haul them back in, waterlogged and apologetic…) and work on their tans… to the music that floats from the huge tent in the summer out over Lake Geneva during Music by the Lake concerts. This place is magical. I worked at this camp for four summers and I think I’ll always be nostalgic for those years. In all my time there, I’ve never met a camper who was ready to go when their week was up. Even the kid who sliced his foot open at the waterfront on a zebra mussel and had to get stitches — he was back down at the dock the next day, asking me to look the other way while he did a backflip into the lake (against the rules, but whatever…)
Camp rocks.
Unfortunately, Aurora University (an actual college in Illinois) bought it out about five years ago and is now in the process of phasing out all the summer camping groups which makes me incredibly sad. The «camp» will now be known primarily as a «college» where people can get masters degrees in things like education and music and recreation. Which is fine and all. Just one of those things you wish could last forever.