This web site - previously for "Camp Wasewagan" - was created by volunteers of Camp Fire USA Foothills Council to help market and promote Camp Wasewagan in late 2001. Thank you to all of our visitors for making the site and our beloved Camp Wasewagan so successful. Until the time of this posting, this Camp Wasewagan web site was the #1 site in Google for a camp retreat in the San Bernardino Mountains, and the #2 web site for a camp retreat in the
Southern California mountains!
Camp Wasewagan - operating since 1933 - has been part of the Camp Fire experience since 1936. Unfortunately, Camp Fire USA Foothills Council and Camp Wasewagan have had cash flow problems for a number of years. The Council was unable to recover following a tremendous reduction in funding from United Way - one time the Council's primary source of income. The Council failed to successfully reinvent itself and its programs in a financially feasible way. Though a more positive outcome was desired by Camp Fire members and volunteers, Camp Fire USA- the national organization - revoked the charter of Camp Fire USA Foothills Council, preventing the Council from running further programs or from obtaining further funding necessary for the Council to operate. Camp Fire USA mandated that Camp Wasewagan be sold to pay debts including unpaid charter fees to Camp Fire USA. Accordingly, Camp Wasewagan was sold in November of 2004. Camp Wasewagan was not retained as a Camp Fire camp.
Camp Wasewagan is now Crazzy's Wasewagan Camp and Retreat. The Camp remains open and will continue to run a summer camp as well as other potential camps and retreats throughout the year.
It was an incredible personal disappointment to see Camp Wasewagan being sold. However, the Camp is operated by a great steward - Crazzy Craig Johnson - who has already demonstrated that he shares the Council's vision for Camp Wasewagan - and has built on it! Armed with the Council's recently approved 5-Year Plan (U.S. Forest Service), the new owner has already invested a tremendous amount of money and effort into the upgrading of facilities at Camp Wasewagan. Further improvements are continuing to be made. These improvements truly make today's Camp Wasewagan better than ever!
This web site is not associated with Camp Fire USA Foothills Council, Camp Fire USA, or Crazzy's Wasewagan Camp and Retreat. From the time of this posting, letters and phone calls regarding messages, program inquiries, rental inquiries, direction requests and other communications shall no longer be forwarded to Crazzy's Wasewagan Camp and Retreat, nor to Camp Fire USA. If you need to contact any of these entities, please contact them directly. This site shall not be responsible for any such information.
Camp Wasewagan Alumni
A Note from Tajar...
Wo He Lo! Alumni of Camp Wasewagan are special people. Having shared in creating The Wasewagan Experience for almost 70 years, they share a special bond with each other and with Camp Wasewagan. In the future, this site will be used solely to post information for the benefit of alumni of historic Camp Wasewagan, and to serve as a resource for bringing Camp Wasewagan alumni together!
If you were a camper or staff member at Camp Wasewagan, or if you have been a friend of the Camp, we would love to hear from you. Please drop us a line. Make sure that we have your mailing address, e-mail address and phone number. Let us know what you are doing, and what impact Camp Wasewagan
had on your life!
Wo He Lo!
Tajar
Please stay in touch so that we can keep Tajar's distinguished group of
Camp Wasewagan alumni together!
Upcoming Events
Family Camp (potential)
June 20-23, 2005
(need to know level of interest by April 15th!)
Scheduled
Wasewagan Alumni Reunion
September 16-18, 2005
For more information, please contact
Helen Cloer at (626)305-0029!
Thank You's!
As a nonprofit volunteer, I am very much aware of and appreciate the tremendous amount of effort that I have seen over the years expended in support of Camp Wasewagan and of Camp Fire USA Foothills Council. Accordingly, I would like to extend the following:
- A very special personal "Thank You" to all of the Camp Fire USA Foothills Council: to the energetic youth members - you are the future!; to their patient parents; to the dedicated "all-star" club leaders; to the unselfish Council volunteers, to the ever-committed and generous Wasewagan Alumni (individually and collectively), to the supportive friends, and to the contributing staff (sorry - no room to thank noncontributing staff here)! Thank you to everyone that gave so much heart, energy and money so that Camp Wasewagan and Camp Fire USA Foothills Council might live and continue to provide new opportunities for our youth!
- I wish to extend a personal "thank you" to Dick Baron for his efforts on creating and maintaining the Camp Fire USA Foothills Council web site and the camp rental inquiry form, which has linked to and supported this web site from its inception. His efforts were part of an incredibly successful marketing campaign for Camp Wasewagan - a campaign that was unparalleled in the history of the Camp. The results of these efforts were likely the envy of numerous camps from throughout the Southern California region through the time of this posting!
- I would like to thank Helen and Tom Cloer for the never-ending dedication, loyalty and contributions that I have seen them make to Camp Wasewagan and to Camp Fire USA Foothills Council! Such lifetime commitment is extraordinary. It was appropriate that Helen was recognized by the Southern California Association for Philanthropy with a Volunteer Recognition Award in 1998. Even that comes nowhere close to the "Thank You" the Cloer's deserve from everyone that has been served by or has been associated with Camp Wasewagan, Camp Fire USA Foothills Council and Camp Fire USA!
- I would like to thank Linda Egebjerg. I never favored the selling of Camp Wasewagan. However Camp Fire USA mandated the sale of Camp Wasewagan, and neither Camp Fire USA nor local Camp Fire Councils were interested in acquiring the Camp. Thus Camp Wasewagan was to be sold. I understand the situation that Linda was thrown into by Camp Fire USA. I applaud her efforts to find a suitable steward for Camp Wasewagan, and to deal with Camp Fire USA! Camp Fire USA should very much appreciate Linda's efforts as well. As best as I can tell, Linda is (and has been for some time) the only active director of the Council board of directors, which was appointed by Camp Fire USA in 2002. As Council President, Linda continues to be active in the winding-down of business by Camp Fire USA Foothills Council and by Camp Wasewagan. She is serving in a truly thankless position by anyone's definition! For this everyone should say "Thanks!"
They say that Camp Fire builds character. In Camp Fire USA Foothills Council I have seen some of the most remarkable people (I cannot say this enough) - the youth, the club leaders, the Council volunteers, the Wasewagan Alumni and the contributing staff! As a volunteer, I personally respect, admire, and appreciate what everyone has given for the benefit of today's youth, and for the benefit of our community-at-large! Once again - "Thank You!" And though I do not wish to see any of these wonderful individuals leave Southern California, I believe that they have a lot to contribute to a youth organization in Kansas City!
Wo He Lo!
Steven Bucksbaum
Copyright 2005 - S. L. Bucksbaum, All Rights Reserved.
