Life At Blue Lake | Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (2024)

Recreation and Free Time

Blue Lake provides a highly structured instructional day for students. During daily recreation and free time, students participate in recreational offerings, hang out with friends, visit the pools, rest in their cabin, or practice. Students are encouraged to participate in recreational activities with other campers and staff, such as basketball, beach volleyball, ga-ga ball, ping-pong, swimming, water games, soccer, kickball, ultimate Frisbee, spike ball, or 9-square in the air. Activities are always supervised by staff members, who often can’t help but join in the fun.

The Happy Camper

Located in Central Park, the camp store offers a wide assortment of snacks, ice cream, and refreshments as well as souvenirs, gifts, uniform items, and basic camp supplies. The Happy Camper is a favorite daily destination for many within the camp community. Visit shop.bluelake.org to order for on-camp delivery directly to your camper’s cabin.

The Musical Instrument Museum

While at camp, many students will visit the Musical Instrument Museum to learn the history of their own instruments. Home of one of the largest collections of antique instruments in the Midwest, you never know what sounds you’ll hear in the museum. We even have a calliope which makes an appearance on campus now and then.

Evening Events

Every evening after dinner, campers enjoy a scheduled event or activity. Evenings include a wide range of arts events such as concerts, recitals, master classes, seminars, or workshops; or camp fun with staff including cabin skits, talent shows, unit activities, pizza parties, campfires, and more.

On the Air

The broadcast studios of Blue Lake Public Radio, WBLV 90.3 in Muskegon and WBLU 88.9 in Grand Rapids, are located on the campus of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and serve as a voice of the arts with a focus on classical, jazz, and NPR programming. Campers have the opportunity to attend live broadcasts at William Stewart Memorial Music Shell, and those who take the Radio Broadcast minor get a hands-on learning experience inside the studios with our experienced announcers. Blue Lake Public Radio also streams online at bluelake.org/radio, and our radio app is available for download for Apple and Android devices. Tune in!

The Middle Sunday schedule consists of a regular instructional day full of classes, meals, recreational activities, an evening event, and a brief time for visiting campers. Visitors are limited to parents, grandparents, and other immediate family members. See below for more information on visiting campers.

Visiting Campers

In a camp setting such as Blue Lake, students have the opportunity to learn and grow as individuals, and the time away from family fosters independence and individuality in a structured, educational setting. Because of these reasons, the majority of families and parents choose not to visit during the camp session. However, if family circ*mstances dictate that visiting is absolutely necessary, we require that it be limited to the Middle Sunday, in conjunction with our camp schedule. A camper may be signed out from their unit between 4:30pm – 5:30pm and must return by 9:00pm.

Interfaith Service

On the Middle Sunday of each session, Blue Lake offers an optional interfaith reflection service for the camp community. The 40-minute service is universal in nature, featuring readings, music, and time for quiet, personal reflection. Parents who wish for their campers to attend a specific type of worship service off-camp are responsible for making arrangements.

On Final Sunday, campers have breakfast with their cabin and return to their housing units to prepare for check-out and final presentations. Families receive a designated check-out time sometime between 9:00am – 1:00pm, based upon their student’s artistic ensemble. An optional lunch is available for a small charge for campers, families, and guests in air-conditioned Marek Hall North from 11:00am – 2:00pm

Your Cabin

Central Camp campers stay in bunk beds in a large, rustic, one-room cabin with approximately ten new friends and one cabin counselor. Six cabins form a unit, which is supervised by a Unit Director. Cabins share community restroom facilities with shared sink spaces and individual shower and toilet stalls. Camp Bernstein (Junior Camp) cabins are large, rustic one-room cabins that have single-user bathrooms within the cabin. Campfire rings, picnic tables, and recreation equipment are located within each unit. Cabins are inspected for cleanliness each day by Unit Directors. The cleanest cabin of the unit receives a special honor on their last day at camp.

Your Counselor

Blue Lake’s counseling staff is comprised primarily of college students majoring in a variety of fields in the arts, performance, or education. Most are upperclassmen, some are graduate students, and many have been Blue Lake campers before. The counseling staff supervise campers throughout the day, including all meals, recreation, free-time, and evening activities. They also assist faculty with class time supervision and plan group activities for students. Staff members strive 24 hours a day to make each camper’s experience fun, safe, worthwhile, and memorable.

Meals in Marek North

Campers take meals with their cabin mates and share in clean-up duties. Dining consists of well-balanced cafeteria-style meals served three times daily, served by a professional food service staff. In addition to hot entrees and side dishes with vegetarian options available, an assortment of fresh vegetables, proteins, fruit, and breads are offered at each meal. Please see Health Services and Accommodations for more information on managing dietary restrictions at camp.

Mail

We encourage family and friends to send letters or care packages to campers. Receiving mail while at camp is a great morale booster, and dozens of parcels arrive daily throughout the summer. Blue Lake recommends that you allow at least four working days for mail to reach your camper. Mail is delivered the same day that it arrives.

Hey, You in the Blue!

All Blue Lakers wear the camp uniform, which helps to create a sense of unity within our camp community. The official uniform shirt is a light blue cotton/polyester knit polo; the official camp uniform pullover is a navy blue v-neck sweater. Uniform shirts and sweaters may be pre-ordered after campers are registered or purchased from the camp store only. The remainder of the uniform (navy blue bottoms, socks, shoes) is provided by the camper. Detailed information is provided upon enrollment.

Laundry

Blue Lake counseling staff launders campers’ uniform items at least five times a session. This includes polos, blue bottoms, sweaters, and uniform sweatshirts. Students are expected to bring enough socks, underwear, towels, and other personal items to last the entire session.