It's a Beautiful Day at Bear Island Lake

Dan O’Brien sheltered under a blue pop-up tent with Niki Geisler, avoiding the drizzle. They stood in a small clearing by a dirt road, a few miles north of Babbitt.

It had been a whirlwind spring leading up to that moment in June 2019. Dan, program director, and Niki, executive director, waited in their blue and green rain gear: exhausted, energized, and very, very ready.

It was time to open camp. Finally.

A car approached, tires crunching on the gravel. Taylor Fay’s face appeared behind the windshield – YMCA Camp Northern Lights’ first-ever summer camper.

“He rolled down the window and stuck his phone out to take our photo!” Dan laughed, recalling his reaction. “This is the energy we need!”

A Long Road to Family Camp #2

It had been a long haul to get to that point, a figurative extension of North Arm Road, beginning at YMCA Camp du Nord. The origin story for Family Camp #2 — YMCA Camp Northern Lights — has its start there, and winds through the Northwoods to a place all its own.

With its start in 1961, du Nord had grown exponentially over time, expanding its footprint and camper base. As the years went by, camp’s popularity outstripped its capacity. Nowhere was this more clear than during the lottery — camp’s one-day, early December summer registration marathon, built to create fairness and steeped in an amalgam of excitement, hope, expectation, and trepidation.

“You would get a call at some point in the day, you don’t know when it will be,” explained long-time du Norder, Mary Beth Casement. “You’re at Target or grocery shopping, no calendar with you. You get the call and they say, ‘when do you want to come?’

“Sometimes the phone call would last 30 minutes. … Sometimes you would get a call back and in the time between making your choice and hanging up the phone, someone else would have booked it before you, and you had to start the process over!”

Empirically speaking, camp had a real waitlist problem for years, and by 2017, twice as many people registered for the lottery as camp had available spaces in the summer. Stories like Mary Beth’s became common, with hundreds of families feeling left out of the family camp experience. It was about that time that then-Vice President of Camping Tom Kranz declared a new goal to YMCA of the North leadership, already proud of its seven overnight camps.

“It’s time to acquire Camp #8.”

Trials to Trails

Niki, executive director of Camp du Nord during that era, had already proved family campers were willing to try something new away from the North Arm. Experimental trials with limited family camp sessions at Northern Minnesota’s famous Gunflint Lodge, and also west of Grand Rapids on Boy Lake, attracted droves of erstwhile du Nord campers.

Confident a permanent, second family camp would thrive in the YMCA, Tom adopted a goal to find Camp #8 as his personal mission. Beginning in ’17, he toured resorts, camps and properties across Minnesota and Wisconsin, seeking the perfect space.

He found it on Bear Island Lake, between Babbitt and Ely, when two adjacent resorts went up for sale at the same time. He and Niki remember walking down the trail as it winds downhill past the cabin Cassiopeia and on toward the beach, thinking, “This is it! This is the place!”

Niki worked closely with Tom throughout the process, so much so, the quest for Family Camp #2 became her own. One day, she pulled Tom aside. “I can’t imagine doing all of this to prepare camp but not being there to lead.” Tom agreed, and the leadership was set.

From the very beginning, there was a commitment from those involved to intentionally create a space where everyone would belong and where equity and diversity would be celebrated.

“We had an opportunity and responsibility to ensure that equity and belonging were foundational principles of the camp,” Niki said.

When Tom visited potential camp sites, he was cognizant of the history of the land.

A team of volunteers and staff worked with the local tribal community at the Boise Forte Band of Chippewa to honor their legacy, committing to educate camper families about the history of the land before colonization. YMCA of the North closed on the sale of both properties in September 2018, and an incredible team of volunteers, staff, family campers, and donors got to work preparing program, cabins, and yes, trails.

The First Summer at a New Camp

Nine months later, Taylor arrived on the first day, as the first camper, and not by mistake.

A self-described Y guy through-and-through, Taylor met his wife Jasmine at Camp Menogyn where they were both campers and staff. His daughter is the fifth generation in his family to attend Camp Icaghowan, and his family also has experiences with camps St. Croix, Widjiwagan, and du Nord. He was serving as board chair for Camp Menogyn when he was asked to join the advisory board for the new family camp the Y was building, and when registration for the first summer of Camp Northern Lights opened, he knew that he wanted to be the first camper through the gate.

“What an amazing story to say that I was the first camper to arrive! But also, I wanted to make sure that moment was special for Niki and Dan.”

Taylor wasn’t the only one to do something special to mark the opening of camp.

Dan, who became executive director at Northern Lights in 2021, remembers sitting with Niki, listening to a voicemail from the Okee Dokee Brothers. Known for their Grammy-winning album, “Can You Canoe”, the band had crafted a Northern Lights-inspired, bespoke set of lyrics to their tune “Church of the Woods”, and sang it right into the phone.

“We had been multitasking and just going nonstop working on all the details, and when we listened to the song, we both stopped and got really quiet,” Dan shared. “Niki had tears in her eyes. We couldn’t wait to share it with everyone.”

That first summer had a special magic. There was a sense of togetherness and exploration.

The pandemic had a dramatic impact on camp’s second year, reinforcing what was becoming a serene experience. Camp culture really coalesced that summer, forming around that early intention to build a place authentically committed to equity, diversity, and inclusivity.

For Tseganesh Selameab, first board chair of Northern Lights, she was intrigued by the idea of creating a camp focused on equity, rather than trying to retrofit to decades of tradition. She talked about that summer of 2020, following the murder of George Floyd.

“The energy of the counselors raising money and creating the S.T.E.P.S. program. The way people showed up felt transformative. It felt like a beginning. It was an incredible week of camp and I remember leaving and saying ‘I think we did something.’”

“Camp is usually quiet, but the last night we had a dance party around the fire. The teens started it and they came and got the adults and the little kids. It was so loud and it felt like us,” Tseganesh said. “It didn’t feel like visiting someone’s house.”

Already, Celebrating the Fifth Anniversary

It took years of hard work for YMCA Northern Lights to go from an idea to an active camp. For Niki, it was just a few days into the first week of the first summer of camp for her to know that it was going to be a huge success.

“Everyone was gathered together, the lake was beyond them and the sun was setting,” said Niki of a moment when she stood atop the steps leading up from the Bear Island stage looking out over camp. “Anna Marie’s window was open selling ice cream. The sounds of laughter and camp songs and kids on the water trampoline filled the air.” She continued, “You do your best with what you know, but it’s still hard to believe what we were able to create.”

In the summer of 2023, Camp Northern Lights celebrated its fifth anniversary. Niki and Tom, along with their respective families were there as family campers.

For those who love Northern Lights most will point to camps’ commitment to belonging as its biggest attribute.

“We created a space where people belonged,” Tseganesh said. “It was like, this is your space as much as mine. That’s rare. Usually it is ‘you are welcome here, but it’s not your space.’ This was truly a community building experience. It was spectacular.”

There is a joy at Camp Northern Lights, a love of life that comes from togetherness, laughter, and the simple beauty of the great outdoors.

The Okee Dokee Brothers’ song rings out at camp’s closing gathering:

May we all be a family
And in the time we spend
May we keep on singing
And dancing to the end

As to Northern Lights’ popularity, well, camp is full, and on lottery day 2022, enough people registered to completely fill Camp Northern Lights … and Camp du Nord … and a third family camp, at least as big as the other two.