Foley Turned 100 – What a weekend!

Thank you so much to the over 500 people that attended. Your energy and love will sustain us for another 100 years. To those that were unable to attend and sent well wishes and shared memories – thank you, too! Below is a short recap of the weekends events. We will continue to share more as the fall goes on. Please also check our social media for lots more pictures and video! Click here if you would like to view the pictures taken by Henry Huey during the weekend.

Friday

With a live band (Dos Guys), taco truck, grilled burgers and hot dogs, 1960’s beer truck and plenty of laughter and fun, Friday nights welcome reception was a huge hit! Folks got their first look at the museum (with raving reviews) and settled in to the cabins for a night on those amazing camp beds. The weather cleared and we had an amazing sunset over Whitefish. Even parking went smoothly!

Saturday Morning and Early Afternoon

The day started with a Foley favorite Breakfast Tator Tot Hotdish, donuts and plenty of coffee and fruit. Of course we ended up with a perfect day for sailing, riflery, archery, swimming, kayaking, climbing and more. We were so pleasantly surprised by the number of people that took advantage of the camp activities.

At 11:30 am we dug up the time capsule that was buried in 1989. Everyone that was present on that day were invited to come help do the digging. 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.

Lunch was pulled pork and pulled chicken sandwiches, pasta salad and potato salad and more. It was so amazing to look out during all the meals and see people chatting with folks they hadn’t seen in decades or new people they met this weekend. Reflecting back on the weekend, we were so happy to see the generations of Foley Family blend together in to one giant group. We even celebrated a birthday and threw Jordan Anderson in to the lake!

Saturday’s Main Event

The entire group gathered in the late afternoon to officially ring in the 100 years. Marie started by acknowledging the extended Schmid Family, and having 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.

Following introductions, Marie spent time reflecting on the last 50 years that she has been at the helm and we were able to honor her retirement with a speech from her daughter, Kylie and her sons Peter and Kevin. It was difficult to put in to words what Marie’s leadership has meant to the over 25,000 kids that have come through the summer camp program since she began her career in the mid 70’s. The multiple standing ovations were a testament to her service. Read Kylie’s speech here.

We then took a few minutes to acknowledge some folks who spent 5 (joining the Bridge Crossing group) or 10 years (joining the Hall of Fame) at camp and wrote an essay entitled “What Camp Means to Me.” They each read a portion of their essay and they were pinned with the official camp pins for their years. Congratulations to Hall of Fame inductees: Katie (McGuire) Troia, Michelle (Rossmiller) Guckeen, Ted Kronschnabel, Martin Perez, Jack Munkeby, Lisa (Richardson) Munkeby, and Sarah (Hawken) Hale. Congratulations to Bridge Crossing inductees: Aaron Briggs, Megan Burnett, Carolyn Cahill, Angie Dalsin, Colleen Finn, Emily (Johnson) Heintzelman, Melissa (Johnson) Zeleny, Rachel (Linstroth) Maloney, and Tom Pflanz.

Finally, 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.”

Dinner and fun followed including a campfire that ended with taps lead by 88 year old, Jack Revord. We also showed the 100th Anniversary Video, that you can watch here.

Sunday

Following a beautiful mass said by alum Fr. Mike Arms, the crew enjoyed Soda Bread outside on the benches and hours worth of Minnesota goodbyes. We could not be more thrilled with reconnecting with so many and all the promises of “see you soon.” Thank you to everyone that attended!