Anthony is Back!

Anthony Narvaez came to camp as a General Counselor in 2011 with an open mind and few expectations.  However, he left 2 months later with new best friends and some of the greatest memories that will last him a lifetime.

Reflecting back at his time here, Anthony tells us that he had never been to a place like Timber Lake Camp before. “By the time I left at the end of the summer, my expectations were far exceeded.  I knew I would be impacting other peoples’ lives, but I never would have thought I could have had such a positive impact on the campers I spent time with throughout the summer.  To watch my campers grow in the 2 months that I was with them was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.  I truly believe that my campers left feeling a lot more confident about themselves as well as learning how to interact with each other.”

For someone who’s never been to sleep away camp, either as a camper or counselor, the transition can be life changing. Especially when you are away from home for 2 months to go to a place where you know no one.  However, life takes a lot of turns – sometimes for the good and sometimes for the worse.  At the end of the day, when you are at Timber Lake, the caliber of our staff and campers can make all the difference in a person’s life like it did for Anthony during the summer he was with us. “I didn’t realize I would have such an incredible group of supporters when I lost my mom in the middle of summer 2011.  They were so good to me and were the reason I was able to make it through.  Because of people like Danny Bell, Steve Bocian, and Jay, I was still able to have the summer of my life despite going through an extremely difficult time.”

Last summer, Anthony was unable to return to camp because he got accepted into Carnegie Mellon’s prestigious Public Policy and International Affairs Summer Institute: “Although I was not able to return to TLC, this was a fantastic opportunity and experience for me that I just couldn’t pass up.”

Despite thinking that 2011 would be his one and only summer at TLC, we are so thrilled to have Anthony back with us this summer!  He is truly a role model for our campers and we can all learn so much from him.  “It is going to feel really funny for me to be back with so many new faces. But I can’t wait to rekindle old friendships as well as making brand new ones too.  More importantly, I can’t wait to see my former campers! I hope they didn’t get too old and forget about me!  I missed Timber Lake so much last summer, and quite frankly, I can’t wait until I have kids of my own so that I too can send them to TLC!!!”

On behalf of ALL of the Timber Lake staff, we couldn’t be happier to have Anthony back with us!  (You can read more about Anthony HERE on Heidelberg University’s article on him that was published earlier this month.)