100 Years celebrated… What a weekend!

Foley had quite the achievement 2 weeks ago…

Didn’t you hear? It was our 100th Anniversary! Over 500 people gathered here at Camp for a weekend full of festivities and celebration. For a full break down of the weekend you can head to our website here. In this blog entry I (Ally Daily) wanted to focus on highlights and tell you about some of the most special moments from the weekend…

Friday Registration

The first major thing to happen was everyone had to arrive! It was surreal, having all these different alumni from several different decades arrive in waves throughout Friday evening. One alumnus, Bill Dolan, arrived at Foley proudly exclaiming how he remembered living in Mic Mac 2 (now known as Sacajawea, a girls only cabin!), and wanted to see if it still looked the same. Jane Magnuson, a camper in 85-87, reunited with camp friends she had not seen in 30 years, the group had rented cabin Ishtakaba and made matching hats! And even campers from this past 2024 summer squealed in joy when they found friends they had not seen for a few weeks. I personally got to reunite with a friend from my Tekawitha cabin, after an epic hug we fell right back into our friendship like no time had past. Alumni John Daily, camper from 2004-2014, described it like this, “Friday evening was one of my favorite moments of the weekend because it was just so cool to be in a huge group of people and have an immediate conversation topic, you couldn’t walk 5 feet without running into somebody you wanted to talk to.”

The Camp Museum

The Foley Museum had its official opening in June for our 100th year staff, but it was very exciting to officially open it for our Alumni! The Museum is a testament to Marie and Alli’s commitment to preserve the history of this amazing camp we all love. I would say they went above and beyond. You just have to step foot in the building to see all the hard work and dedication that went into creating this space. Some of the great things you can see on display in the museum are;

• Father Foley’s vestments
• Letters from Father Foley to Marie’s grandparents reporting on Bob Schmid as a camper
• The First official Father Foley’s Camp for Boy sign
• Photobooks dating from the 30s to present day
• Award patches and pins that predate our current award ribbon system
• The very first Camp Foley waterbottle
• and so much more!
  

  A view the Museum from the inside, including our t-shirt quilt

Saturday Time Capsule Unearthing

At 11:30 am on Saturday, we dug up the time capsule that was buried in 1989. We encouraged every alum who had been present on that day in 1989, to come and help dig it up. We were surprised at how deep we had buried it! With a little bit of finesse and some muscles, we were able to take it out of the hole – it was in great shape! It was brought to the front to be opened at the formal ceremony later Saturday afternoon. Once opened everyone loved finding what they wrote, seeing the pieces of the boats and old shirts and craft projects and more. Besides a little bit of a smell, we were very impressed with what we saw in the bucket.

A few words from Marie and Alli

The entire group gathered in the late afternoon to officially acknowledge the 100th year of Foley. The ceremony was kicked off by Marie, she started by acknowledging her children and the extended Schmid Family. Her 3 year old granddaughter Lois Beltz undoubtedly stole the show with a cheeky wave to the crowd atop her father’s shoulders. Then in Founder’s Day tradition, Marie had everyone stand for the decades they attended. We were lucky enough to have two gentleman, Jack Revord and Bob Christensen from the 1940’s in attendance. We had every decade represented from the 1940s all the way through to the present. Marie continued on to talk about her decades at Foley and what being the director meant to her. We watched as Marie handed the keys to Foley over to Alli as the new head of the Foley Family. It was exciting to hear Alli’s vision for the future. Alli stated: “And I know change can also be very difficult. So speaking directly to the campers and future staff in this crowd – I want to make sure you hear it directly from me that I will work tirelessly to make sure your camp experience is as meaningful as all the experiences that came before you. That you have an advocate in your corner. I can also promise you I won’t be perfect. I will fail from time to time, I know you will too,  but I want you to know that there is someone here willing to do the work to make sure you feel loved and connected while you are here at camp. Camp needs to be about more than fun. And I promise to always remember that for you.”

Saturday Night Songs

Now Saturday night is when the tears and emotional moments took a pause and we had some camp fire fun! I got to lead a late night campfire with my brother John, we have been on staff several times together but this was a Foley first! Alumni and campers gathered together at the fire pit at Osawaka, made s’mores and most importantly led songs! John and I were there to keep the flow going and started out with some classics like Ratlin’ Bog. Alumni were recruited during the first half to revisit songs they had been famous for singing while in camp as staff. Thank you to Matt Carney for leading German Orchestra, a tricky song even if you’re prepped, and Carney was given about 10 minutes notice before his big moment. Alum Chris O’Malley led his fantastic rendition of Princess Pat and then the ball really got rolling. Alum started coming up like an open mic night, singing favorites from their camping days. After singing Old Lady Leary, the song about the Chicago fire, several alum from the 80s jumped up and were furious that we did not sing the song backwards and promptly taught us all the “correct” version. Several alum from the 80s then came up to share songs camp had not heard in years, including A” boy and a girl in a canoe” and “the Washer Woman”. Campfire ended with the traditional singing of Taps lead by 88 year old, Jack Revord. He still remembered when it was played on the bugle each night to signal to campers it was time for bed.

A Sunday Goodbye

Just like Friday evening arrival, Sunday morning also had something in the air. It wasn’t anticipation like Friday but a sense of things coming to an end. After a Mass presented by Father Mike Arms, a past Foley counselor, we had a soda bread breakfast. After breakfast is when the goodbyes began. Tears were shed and hugs were shared, no one wanted it to be over quite yet. People said goodbye to old friends, and new ones met over Friday and Saturday. Many promises were exchanged of “we will see you soon” and many quoted the famous line from the song Linger “This is goodnight and not goodbye”. We sincerely hope this weekend inspired people to make more connections with their Foley family. Another big thank you to everyone who attended and donated and volunteered, we appreciate you beyond words, and as Jordan Anderson, former assistant director, coined in his tribute to Alli and Marie, “To the next 100!”