House In The Wood 
Camp & Retreat Center

Come see what we do with 70 children and 30 staff for a two week session

Our Mission

We provide a positive outdoor camp experience for children and families who would not otherwise be able to afford it. We offer alternatives and options to the urban lifestyles many of our campers are familiar with in Chicago. Some of our children make life-changing decisions as early as age 12. We help them make positive life choices by exposing them to what is available to them.

Counselor’s Daily Schedule

• 7:00 - Rise and Shine/Cabin Cleanup
• 7:45 - Flag Raising/Breakfast
• 8:45 - Activity 1
• 9:45 - Morning Activity
• 11:30 - Singing/Lunch
• 12:30 - Free Swim
• 1:45 - Hobby Time
• 2:30 - Snack
• 3:30 - Activity 3
• 4:30 - Activity 4
• 5:15 - Quiet Time
• 6:00 - Flag Lowering/Supper/Camp Cleanup
• 7:15 - Free Time
• 7:45 - Night Activity
• 9:00 - Snack/Tuck In
• 10:00 - Nighthawks on Duty
• 12:00 - All staff in sleeping quarters

More About Our Summer Programs

Cabin/Camp Cleanup...
Everyone at camp has the responsibility to keep the camp clean, tidy and in good repair. Campers and their counselors clean their cabins and an all-camp area daily. Other staff cleans their rooms and a staff-used area daily. It works! We get many compliments about the cleanliness of our facilities. And more importantly, it enables us to save money on housekeeping labor so we can subsidize more children for camp.

Flag Raising/Lowering...
Each day we raise two flags (American, Wisconsin, United Nations, World or other country), do an appropriate activity and give verbal gifts to each other. Staff do not have to participate in the flag ceremony, but are expected to set a good example of silent respect.

Activities 1 - 4...
Campers participate in 45 minute activity periods in Nature, Swim Lessons, Boating (sailing, canoeing, rowboats, paddleboats or pontoon boat), Team Sports, Arts (including performing and visual arts) and Cabin Choice by cabin groups. There is a 15 minute prep period between each activity.

Morning Activity...
All camp games like Capture the Flag and Wells Fargo are played at this time. Program groups (PG) are on. A program group is made up of half of the cabin counselors and half of the program counselors. The other half has off.

Hobbytime...
Cabin Counselors (CC's on) offer activities like hiking, arts and crafts, rap sessions, sports, games, and nature activities. Campers individually choose where they want to go.

Free Swim...
Campers can choose to swim and play in the water or visit with friends on the grass during this time. Program Counselors (PC's) on.

Free Time...
Campers can choose their own activities. Basketball, other sports, tire swing, and hanging out are favorite activities.

Quiet Time...
This is a time for campers to “chill out” in their cabins. Cabin counselors often offer such options as board games, cards and lacing.

Night Activity...
This all camp period offers “quieter” activities like Arts and Crafts Fair, Television Games, Fractured Fairytales, drama activities, and International night. Plus all of the usual special evening programs like Variety Show, Campfires, Hound and Hare, and Movie Night. PG or all staff do this.

Tuck In...
Showers, evening snack, stories, cabin sharing time and journal writing happen here. This is time spent putting children to bed and making them feel safe and secure as part of the camp family.

Nighthawks...
This is a rotating duty. Basically, you keep a watchful eye of campers as they sleep, and deal with any problems.

Staff in Sleeping Quarters...
Staff is expected to go to their housing so that camp can be locked up for the night and nighthawk can go off duty.

Kitchen Aide’s Daily Schedule

• 7:00 - Breakfast Prep
• 8:00 - Breakfast Serving
• Breakfast Cleanup
• Kitchen Cleanup/Grocery Orders
• Lunch Prep
• 11:45 - Lunch Serving
• Lunch Cleanup
• Kitchen Cleanup List
• 2:00 -Two Aides OFF, One Aide ON
• 2:30 - Snack Serving
• 4:00 Supper Prep—All ON
• 6:00 - Supper Serving
• Supper Cleanup
• Final Kitchen Cleanup - Off when finished with kitchen cleanup list
• 12:00 - All staff in sleeping quarters

About Our Camp Children

Although we are getting an increasing number of children from financially stable families, the children who come to House in the Wood are mostly from families living at or below the national poverty level. This means inadequate food, clothing, heat, electricity and medical care. It may also mean parents forced to leave their children unattended while they work at low paying job(s) or visit social service offices for help.

Our children live in neighborhoods that some have described as war zones. Although it is not a daily occurrence, rival gang wars do take place on the streets. "Normal" to most of our children is shooting during daylight on the city streets, a relative or family friend who has died a violent death, and a significant amount of their neighbors being actively involved in gangs.

Our children come from so many different home settings that it is impossible to generalize. Some come from solid home lives--parents who properly discipline and care for their children within their means. Others come from neglected or abusive situations. Some have parents who are abusers of drugs and alcohol or parents who are too young and inexperienced to have good parenting skills. Others have parents who are models of care and concern for their children.

Regardless of the individual parent's skill, they are all struggling to bring up their children in an increasingly hostile environment where prices for the basic necessities of life are increasing at the same time that aid programs are being slashed. The stresses of parenting are dramatically increasing and yet the extended family is continuing to split up and move away so they are unavailable to help.

Our children are mainly from the Chicago area. Their parents come into the Settlement to sign them up for camp. A small number of our children come from the court system--court ordered to go to camp for a respite from their home life. Some are referred through American Camping Association. Others are brothers and sisters of campers referred to camp previously.

Our Settlement campers are on a sliding fee scale based on parent income and expenses. Parents pay anywhere from 30 dollars to 480 dollars for a two week camp session. Campers from other areas of the city are sent to camp free through Title 20--an innovative way to use children's public aid dollars.

Our Settlement Emergency Services Director, talks more about the children, their parents and their daily problems during staff training.

The Story of House In The Wood

In 1910 a group of boys built a small wagon on two wheels which they used to haul camping equipment on their weekend trips into the country. On one of these trips, after a long walk from Noble and Augusta, they found themselves in what now is known as Forest Glen. They stopped at a small farm house and asked the farmer if they could pitch their tent in his pasture. Permission was granted.

That night, around their campfire, the boys decided to do some prospecting for land on which to build a permanent camp. Many weekends were spent tramping long miles along the north branch of the Chicago River. They always returned to their starting point unable to find a suitable spot.

After four weeks, the boys again approached the farmer to ask him if they could rent the pasture land, for they wanted to build a permanent house the following spring. The farmer rented the land for a dollar a year.

The boys approached their friends and businessmen in the Settlement community for lumber, paint, nails and other equipment necessary to erect the first building. Work was started early in the spring and finished in time to open camp in June. The building consisted of a living room, a fireplace and a dormitory for 10 people above the living room that could be reached by a rope ladder. There was a lean-to kitchen below with an adjoining cellar.

Nine nationalities were represented by the original builders, who decided to call it "The House in the Wood" and dedicated it to peace among the nations. The name was taken from the Peace Palace at the Hague in Holland, which is also dedicated to world peace. The original camp site was used until 1926. With the widening of River Road and heavy traffic, it proved to be an increasingly dangerous camp site.

The Forest Preserve District of Cook County offered the Settlement a very beautiful spot located on the bank of the Des Plaines River at Milwaukee Avenue and River Road. Early the next spring, members of the Men's Department and Senior Boys of the Settlement went to camp every weekend and started to build and remodel the new camp site. In July, the camp opened to 100 members.

After World War II, the city rapidly expanded along Milwaukee Avenue. More automobiles were on the highway, and the influx of people on the highway made it almost impossible to conduct a real camp program.

The Head Resident of the Settlement and a committee of the North Shore Junior Board decided to purchase a camp. In 1951, we acquired the camp on Lake Delavan in Wisconsin, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago. The new camp consisted of two dormitories, a large dining hall, a small hospital and guest cottage. And for the first time in House in the Wood history, 1200 feet of shoreline, allowing camp to develop swimming and boating programs.

So now, the camp operates year-round, serving children, teens, families and seniors. We also operate an adult retreat center September through June. They provide program and we provide food and lodgings.

Now that I have the Job…What Can I Expect?

As you approach a job in camping, the single most important thing you're probably going to realize is that it will be like nothing you've ever experienced before. To help give you a taste of summer camp, the following list outlines some of the things you can expect...

• have fun
• make some of your best friends ever
• be exhausted - and beyond exhausted at times
• feel good about the work you've done
• learn a lot about others and yourself
• find out just how strong your sense of humor really is
• be frustrated at times
• learn that the actual amount of money you earn could never adequately pay you for all you do
• to work hard, and to work very hard
• do some of the most embarrassing things you've ever done, and to have a great time doing them
• gain more experience than you bargained for
• finding it hard to believe that nine weeks could go so fast and last so long at the same time
• crying when its time to say goodbye
• having little free time
• getting camp fever next spring
• having a somewhat different outlook on life and yourself
• spending September missing everyone like crazy
• meeting people very similar and very different from yourself
• testing your vulnerability, creativity, sensitivity and patience
• being in conflict, and to having to deal with it
• following the rules - even if you disagree - because you're a role model. If you don't, the campers won't.
• loving getting mail
• doing things you never thought you could
• making a difference in peoples' lives
• making mistakes
• working with people less and more dedicated than you
• becoming less shy
• implementing camp philosophy
• asking questions - even dumb ones - and getting straight answers
• asking for help - everyone needs it sometimes
• learning to pick up after yourself and others