Day set aside to clean up Camp Torenta

Courtesy Photo The 2006 preschool Summer Explorers enjoy a picnic lunch.

Cadillac — Raise your hands if you have memories of summer camp at Camp Torenta.

This year, Camp Torenta will celebrate its 100-year anniversary. And that means there are thousands of alumni with old photographs and stories to share.

“Get your elbows off the table Susie Smith. Get your elbows off the table Susie Smith. For we’ve seen you do it twice, and it isn’t very nice. Get your elbows off the table Susie Smith. Round the mess hall you must go, you must go, you must go (to the tune of London Bridges).

Every mealtime, campers who forgot their manners were ridiculed with song. The punishment was to run around the dining hall, a rite so popular that kids put their elbows on the table in hopes of getting caught.

Even better, who remembers ghost stories around campfires, Puckwagee, stock car races at the fair grounds on Friday nights and overnight canoe trips?

Camp Torenta Steering Committee chairman Randy Myers is hoping that memories like the ones above will be posted, along with old photographs, on a new Web site to celebrate the camp’s centennial celebration.

To become a Friend of Camp Torenta and register as a former camper, visit: contactus@camptorenta.info.

This site should be up and running by mid-May.

The site will also contain information about the 10-year celebration, which will be held Saturday, August 18.

mardijo@chartermi.net | 775-NEWS (6397)

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The Friends of Camp Torenta Centennial Reunion will be held on Saturday, Aug. 18 at the campgrounds. To register as a former camper and learn more about the party, visit: contactus@camptorenta.info

Note: This site should be available within two weeks.

The Camp Torenta steering committee is also asking campers to share their old photographs and stories on the Web site.