By Guest Writer, Mark Benjamin (camper 1968-71, staff 1976-82)
How one creative idea during Camp Needlepoint became a Camp St. Croix tradition that has delighted campers for nearly 50 years
As featured in Letters from Camp Magazine – Fall 2026.
The Bonzo Block
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Some camp traditions become so woven into the fabric of camp life that it’s hard to imagine they ever had a beginning.
At YMCA Camp St. Croix, the Bonzo Block is one of them.
For nearly five decades, campers have gathered each morning to hear the latest clue in the camp-wide treasure hunt, launching a daily adventure filled with teamwork, curiosity, and excitement. But before it became a beloved camp tradition, the Bonzo Block was simply one staff member’s creative solution to a challenge.
In this firsthand account, Mark “Benji” Benjamin shares how a simple idea became one of Camp St. Croix’s most enduring traditions.
A Challenge Waiting for an Idea
There are many stories about the Bonzo Block. Not all of them are true.
I should know; I’m the one who created it.
In 1979, I was the program coordinator for Camp Needlepoint, a specialty camp for children with diabetes held at Camp St. Croix. Three times each day, campers needed to stop for blood sugar testing.
The testing itself wasn’t the challenge. It was the waiting.
The kids were bored. The counselors were bored. As program coordinator, it fell to me to come up with something, anything, that would keep everyone’s minds occupied.
I remembered the excitement surrounding the St. Paul Winter Carnival medallion hunt. Every morning, people would open the newspaper to read the latest clue, then race off with maps, shovels, and metal detectors in hopes of finding the hidden treasure before anyone else.
I wondered if camp needed its own version.
The Birth of the Bonzo Block
I wandered out to the camp scrap pile and found a small block of wood, about half an inch thick and four inches square.
With a Magic Marker, I wrote “Bonzo Block” on one side and drew a smiling cartoon face on the other with the words, “You Bonzo!”
That evening, I hid it somewhere in camp.
The next morning in the dining hall, I announced the first Bonzo Block Hunt and read a four-line rhyming clue before taping it to the wall. Each day brought another clue, becoming a little more specific as cabin groups gathered around to copy every word into notebooks.
The prize announcement became part of the fun.
“And whichever cabin finds the Bonzo Block,” I’ d say, “...each camper in that cabin will receive...”[long dramatic pause] “ ...a mys-TEEREUS prize!”
Before long, the entire dining hall shouted the final words with me.
The mysterious prize? A room temperature can of Holiday Grape Soda.
But the real reward was earning bragging rights.
Campers and staff proudly show off their Bonzo find!
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Treasure Fever Takes Hold
What began as a way to fill time during blood sugar testing quickly became one of camp’s most anticipated activities.
Treasure fever spread across camp.
Entire afternoons became devoted to searching. Counselors brought dictionaries and thesauruses to help decipher clues. One counselor would regularly report where his cabin had searched that day while carefully studying my facial expressions, hoping I’ d accidentally reveal the Bonzo Block’s hiding place.
Eventually, one lucky cabin would find it before dinner. After the meal, I ’ d announce the winners, point toward the cheering cabin, and remind them to collect their mysterious prize.
Then came my favorite part.
I would walk over to the wall of clues, grab my Magic Marker, and begin randomly circling words and drawing lines between them.
“Isn’ t it obvious?” I’ d shout. “I mean, you fools! It’s staring you right in the face!”
There was no secret pattern.
I was making it up as I went along.
The campers would groan, laugh, and boo, and I loved every minute of it.
A Tradition That Endured
Looking back, I never imagined that a simple activity created to pass the time would become a longstanding Camp St. Croix tradition.
Mike Bussey, who was Camp St. Croix’s executive director at the time, remembers the excitement well. Cabin groups would burst from the dining hall convinced they had finally solved the latest clue, racing across camp in search of the Bonzo Block. According to Mike, the hunt became “an instant sensation.”
Nearly five decades later, the tradition is still going strong.
I’ve even discovered that versions of the Bonzo Block have found their way to camps across the country and beyond.
It’s remarkable to think that something born out of a few quiet moments waiting for blood sugar tests has created generations of laughter, teamwork, friendly competition, and unforgettable camp memories.
The Treasure Hunt That Traveled
Bonzo Block is more than a treasure hunt — it is a reminder of how camp traditions are born and why they endure. Behind every song, game, and ritual that campers eagerly anticipate is someone who had an idea, took a chance, and created something worth sharing.
At YMCA Camp du Nord, Bonzo Block has taken on a delightful shape of its own. Every day at noon, the counselors shout, “Bonzo, Bonzo, Bonzo!” in a crescendo, followed by “BLOCK!” thundering back from the kids waiting for the rhyming clue.
The tradition at du Nord led directly to the birth of YMCA Camp Northern Lights’ Bore and Alis (Borealis) clues.
47 years after its first clues were read at Camp St. Croix, Bonzo Block continues to spark the same sense of anticipation, teamwork, and wonder for new generations of campers across the Y of the North camps. Its longevity is a testament to the power of camp itself: a place where simple ideas become lasting traditions, where each generation builds on the one before it, and where the memories created today may become the stories that campers are still joyously recounting decades from now.
Northern Lights campers proudly show off “Bore”, found after just a few clues.
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