Welcoming overnight campers July 2021 (LeeAnn, Emma & Hanna left to right) In late February of 2021, I was reading the Upper Saranac Lake Association newsletter. At the bottom was an ad that Eagle Island had placed about hiring staff for the 2021 camp season. I was in the process of accepting a camp job for a sleepaway summer camp for children with ASD in Canada. But once I read the newsletter and read through the EIC website, I just knew this was where I was meant to be. My great-grandparents bought a house on Upper Saranac Lake in the 1960s. My mum was born and raised in Connecticut and ..read more

WOW! Eagle Island Camp was abuzz with activity this summer! We hosted overnight, day, and family campers, and a variety of weekend events for adults. What brought tears to my eyes during my time on the Island (documented here in photos) was seeing the campers IN ACTION! Collectively, we were able to truly restore overnight camp on Eagle Island. This success is because so many of you know the Island, love its natural beauty, and continue to carry fond memories and lessons learned—and, most importantly, believe in the Island’s future. A shared vision, and the generosity of countless donors, v ..read more

Alisha (front, left) and fellow Grove Counselors enjoying a day off in town. I’ve spent many summers being a camp counselor at other camps. Each place is special in its own way. However, EIC is one of a kind. I loved being a camp counselor at Eagle Island in 2021! One of the things that makes EIC special is its location. You’re on this big ol’ rock with thousands of years’ worth of pine needles. You always have a beautiful view of mountains, the water, and trees. It’s peaceful because it’s just you, your campers, your friends . . . and CAMP. Another thing that made EIC so special this past su ..read more

At Eagle Island Family Camp, Christina Blythe and her family discovered that “special place”—that spot you keep returning to for rest and relaxation and to unplug from the world for a while. Christina was in middle school—about to enter eighth grade—in the first summer of family camp. Among her early memories, she recalls a wasp hive encounter with her family while hiking (fortunately only a few stings) and how every evening, unless it was raining, the family watched the sunset from Mariner’s Rock without fail. Days were full of time spent at the waterfront in funyaks and the occasional trip ..read more

Three Eagle Island Camp alums, Chris Hildebrand, Mary Hesselgrave, and Erna Hoover, were interviewed about their recollections of the camp in its early decades, as part of Historic Saranac Lake’s Oral History Project. Historic Saranac Lake, based at the Saranac Laboratory Museum, was founded to preserve the rich local and architectural history in the Saranac Lake community. One of its activities is the Oral History Project, which seeks to interview members of the Saranac Lake community to share their stories for future generations. Also included with the Eagle Island interviews is one with Ju ..read more

Dear Dad, Kristen and I just got back from an absolutely wonderful long weekend at Eagle Island. Along with 28 other “campers” ranging in age from 32 to 78 years young, we spent four days enjoying traditional camp activities, catching up with old friends, and making new ones. We shared our platform tent near Main Camp with Karen, who, like Kristen, hadn’t been to the island as a camper, but fell in love with the place during Family Camp and wanted to come back.  The island certainly casts a spell. Various arts & crafts sessions were held on the Lodge porch overlooking the lake ..read more

In this post, the third in the series on how Eagle Island influenced careers and everyday life, former campers reflect on how the experience of spending time in nature and away from technology has had a lasting impact on their lives: “I started going to Eagle Island as a nine year old in 1996. I didn't know it at the time, but it ended up shaping much of my adult life and led me down a path that included teaching outdoor education for many years. Eagle Island was not only the place that I fell in love with sunsets, starry nights and the sound of rain on a canvas tent, but where I learned to p ..read more

It was the atmosphere of the island itself—the isolation from the outside world and time close to nature for a week—that brought Ilse Blythe, her husband and four children to Eagle Island Camp nearly every other summer from the first year in 1976 until 2008, the last year of summer camp. Each year, Ilse and her family enjoyed the feeling of release and freedom when the boat first set off from the mainland to bring them to the island. Ilse, a field director for the Girl Scout Council that ran the camp at the time, and her family were family camp veterans having attended another family camp befo ..read more

For the second post in the series on how Eagle Island influenced careers and everyday life, this post focuses on how life skills learned at camp have been drawn on in two different careers—one a career in medicine and the other a career in finance. “The Operating Room  bears a striking similarity to sailing. Some days you’re blessed with steady winds and blue skies. Other days are intense: one wrong move could mean a camper overboard or a capsized boat—or in the case of the OR, the loss of a life. In the tight quarters of the OR, maintenance of sterility requires vigilance and awareness ..read more

written by Allie Weill, EIC Alum & Volunteer When you’re a kid, a lot of people ask you what you want to be when you grow up. As you get older and become a teenager, people ask you this more often. It’s kind of wild, since at twelve or fifteen or even twenty, you may just be starting to figure out what you like and who you are. And for most of us those things will continue to change throughout our whole lives. I’m a scientist and science writer now, and I wonder sometimes what Eagle Island camper me would think of that. Of the things I said I wanted to be when I grew up, scientist wouldn’t ..read more