Camp Deerhorn

★★★★★Alexander Stamos (Alex)

As a person exiting my 4th and final year as a camper, I wanted to leave a review to personally thank all those that make deerhorn so special. Although I will be on the staff next year, it will not be the same. The friends I have made here are incredible and the ACs and counselors are easy to talk to. If you are considering sending your children here, listen to the story of my good friend Pablo. Pablo is a kid from Barcelona that has just finished his final summer as a camper as well. After each time we did something for the last time this year, we received talks from counselors telling us how great staff would be. Unfortunately, this did not apply to Pablo, as due to international labor laws he needed to be 18 to attend Deerhorn as a counselor. We all felt bad for him, but there was nothing we could do to cheer him up. However, one day Pablo appeared much more cheerful than normal. When I asked him, he told me that he figured out a way to return to camp. He told me that he was planning on asking if he could come to camp as an Assistant Counselor without pay. Although he acknowledged that he would lose lots of money, he didn’t care in the slightest. That story alone should prove to you the magic of Deerhorn. A camper from Spain on his third year was determined to keep the bonds he made at a camp halfway across the world because of the magic of it. If you send your kids here, you will not regret it for a single day and neither will they.

★★★★★Meggan Flom

Camp Deerhorn is my boys favorite place in this world! By boys I mean my husband also, who went there when he was a kid. My boys started going as soon as they were old enough and started with Deerhorn’s Father Son Camp, which is a remarkable opportunity for fathers and sons to bond and enjoy the gift of the great outdoors. Deerhorn is more then just camp and friendship, it is the opportunity for your son to live the creed and become a stronger, kinder, more generous and optimistic gentleman! Boys make life long friendships with boys from all over the country and they are so excited to see each other every summer and to be welcomed back to their Deerhorn family like no time has passed at all. Every year when I visit and pick up my boys I have no doubt that Deerhorn is the perfect place for them and how remarkable the Deerhorn family is.

★★★★★Anne Zagotta

After doing an extensive amount of research to find the perfect summer camp for our son, we landed at Camp Deerhorn — and it has by far exceeded all of our expectations. Our son loves everything about the camp from the counselors to the traditions to the new friends that he has made to the leadership opportunities to the camp dogs. And, my husband and I continue to be impressed with the amount of care, consideration and thoughtfulness that goes into everything that happens at Deerhorn. Most importantly, we have seen our son over the past few summers build real skills (both tangible and intangible) that will last him a lifetime.

★★★★★Warren Lynn

I experienced Camp Deerhorn through my son's many summers as a camper, and then eventually during his years as a staff counselor. Being a part of the camp community each summer has been, and continues to be, an experience he always looks forward to with much joy. His diverse community of Deerhorn friends, the high moral values of Deerhorn he has come to claim as his own, abundant opportunities for incredible outdoor recreation, and more -- have all come together in a sort of north-woods alchemy to help shape him into the fine adult man he is today. I also cannot say enough great things about the active and wise leadership of the camp's directors, as they create and sustain a camp of summertime fun each year, wherein boys experience a trustworthy cohort of friends and learn skills of leadership that help them become the kind of leaders our world so needs. I do not ever hesitate to recommend Camp Deerhorn to friends who have young boys, as a place of summer fun wrapped within an intentional developmental program of great enjoyment, good food, outdoor recreation and nurturing friendships -- all in a safe northwoods forest setting. My only complaint is that I didn't know about Camp Deerhorn when I was a kid, but then they also have Father-Son camps at Deerhorn, so .... :-)

★★★★★Jon Betts

There are few experiences as formative in my life as the time I spent at Camp Deerhorn. While a camper, I knew how fortunate I was to have the opportunity to spend my summers in Rhinelander. The bonds I formed with fellow campers as well as with staff have endured and I remain close with many of them two decades later. Now, as an elementary teacher and high school coach, I reflect on the impact Deerhorn has had on me with a deep appreciation for the environment and culture that they have cultivated. Structure and supervision are balanced with freedom and exploration, campers are challenged, and growth is celebrated all within the framework of the Deerhorn Creed, an ethos that emphasizes kindness. Following my time as a camper, an experience I was fortunate to share with my younger brother and cousins, I had the privilege of continuing at Deerhorn as an assistant counselor then counselor. That perspective only strengthened my love for the program and its profound positive impact on everyone in the community. It should be telling that, on numerous occasions, my desire to share the Deerhorn magic with my non-camp friends has led to 7 hour drives just to walk the grounds. I even talked my wife into spending a summer up north with me where she worked in the Deerhorn kitchen. (Side note: I can't say enough about the food, even though I might not have always been as rabid about pizza bagel day as my fellow campers and counselors were.) I think often and fondly about my many summers in the north woods. Camp Deerhorn is not just a subject of nostalgia, it remains at the core of my development and continues to provide shape to my aspirations as a husband, father, educator, and a human striving to "greet the dawn with a smile" and to "be kind, because manliness requires kindness."