Faces & PlCES
No whining, only fun, allowed at Gaylord family’s summer camp
Yup, no whining tops the rules for admission to this family camp run by Carl and Claudia Wetzel, both 68, Gaylord. Each summer the Wetzels open the doors of their five-bedroom Arts and Crafts style house across from the Gaylord City Park to their granddaughters. The girls come for a week-long camp that’s all about fun, bonding and spending quality time together.
It all started in the summer of 1999, when Kim Wetzel of Mendota Heights sent her kids to stay with their grandparents for a week. Their cousins from Page, Nebraska, 350 miles away, joined them and the camp opened. Five campers, some still in diapers, came that first year. Today eight attend, ranging in age from 7 to 15.
After that first year of changing too many diapers, Carl Wetzel added his second rule: Campers must be out of diapers.
Since then, the Wetzels have gotten this camp thing down to a science. Each year they print up camp t-shirts and stock up on disposable cameras to hand out to the kids. Claudia Wetzel plans a menu of kid-friendly foods. “Not a whole lot of healthy stuff,” she laughed. “They get enough of that at home.”
A daily activities schedule is posted on a board. The Wetzel’s youngest son, Steve, joined the staff several years ago as activities director. His girlfriend, Jinneen Ross, signed on as counselor.
Each day starts at 8 a.m., no one out of her room before then. Grandpa’s rule.
Before breakfast, the Wetzel clan gathers in the side yard for yoga, which hasn’t always been enthusiastically received. “They have to participate,” Carl Wetzel said. Another rule.
Breakfast follows. Then the kids are usually off to the Gaylord pool for swimming lessons, a favorite activity for Julia Wetzel-Edstrom. But, added the 9-year-old, “I like everything (about camp).”
Like any good camp, rooms are inspected daily. “They stand at attention,” Carl Wetzel said. “Whoever has the cleanest room gets 25 cents, sometimes more. The rooms are nice and clean. But I don’t know what their suitcases look like.”
Mixed in with the daily camp routine is plenty of time for baseball at the park, hopscotch, riding scooters and more. Ten-year-old Lily Wetzel-Edstrom loves hanging out with her Nebraska cousins, playing outdoor games like “Gaylord Goolio.” In this made-up game, the kids dash from tree to tree, trying to be the first team to reach a fire pit. For those rainy days that keep the kids indoors, the Wetzels have set up a TV and computers in their basement.
“The days are pretty full,” Carl Wetzel said.
One of the days campers open a street-side stand and sell several varieties of freshly-baked cookies, brownies and lemonade. They canvas the neighborhood, handing out business cards promoting the sale. The food stand is part of camp tradition, as is an all-day field trip to shop in nearby Mankato. Grandpa and Grandma dole out $10 to each girl to spend at the mall or bookstore. “It’s interesting to see what the kids buy,” Wetzel said. Stuff like lip gloss, clothes, toys and books, always books. After shopping and a ride on the mall merry-go-round, the family dines out, kids’ choice.
“We’re hoping they will have some good memories,” Wetzel said.
Those memories include nightly bonfires, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and making smores, sometimes too many smores. Several campers got sick one year from consuming too many.
Then there was the memorable first year of camp and the day the grandkids locked themselves inside a bedroom. With Grandpa off at work and no way into the room, Grandma Wetzel resorted to calling the police. They took the door off the hinges and freed the trapped campers.
Even after that unnerving incident, Claudia Wetzel said, “I just so look forward to it (camp). It’s just a fun, fun experience.”
Last summer the fun multiplied when campers presented their first-ever theatrical production. Carl Wetzel remembers the joy of overhearing his granddaughters rehearsing their lines after they had gone to bed. The kids wrote the mystery. Uncle Steve Wetzel, a university film instructor, directed. A parade around the block capped the celebration.
Even after lights are out, the good times continue for the girls, Julia, Lily, Addie, Carlie, Claire, Ruth, Abby and Breana. “We can still talk and whisper,” giggled Julia Wetzel-Edstrom. She shares a room with her sister Lily and 10-year-old cousin Addie Wetzel.
“They have some good memories of coming to Grandpa and Grandma’s house and have time to spend quality time with their cousins,” Carl Wetzel said. “You certainly get to know them a lot better.
“Claudia and I never really knew any of our grandparents. So it’s nice for the grandkids to get to know their grandparents,” Wetzel added. When their only grandson, 3-year-old Max Wetzel, gets a bit older, he’ll come too for a special week with his grandparents, without the girls.
And, like his sisters and cousins, Max must adhere to the first basic rule for admission—no whiners allowed at Camp Wetzanowyna.