It’s been two weeks since summer 2025 ended. Tihana has been working tirelessly to get through the lost and found and I (Eli) was reminded of this blog entry I wrote eight years ago (feels like yesterday!). Some things have changed: My kids are all grown up so these days, post-summer life means going on vacation with Cam, my husband, reading a book, riding my bike, and playing the piano. Many things have not changed: there are still many pairs of goggles in the lost and found (We still haven’t found the tie dye ones). And kids are still basking in the friendship and independence and voice they found through their experiences at camp this summer.

Here’s the original entry from 2017:

Lost and Found

Since summercamp ended a few weeks ago, I have been slowly becoming my regular (never normal!) “Eli”-self again, exercising, driving my kids around, listening to NPR, going to Kroger, cooking dinner, and reading for fun. Come late-April, these habits will recede again.

I just read Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Unsurprisingly, there were parts of it that reminded me of camp (most things do).

… Moments before, I’d removed my hiking boots and the left one had fallen into those trees, first catapulting into the air when my enormous backpack toppled onto it, then skittering across the gravelly trail and flying over the edge…disappearing into the forest canopy below, impossible to retrieve…My boot was gone. Actually gone… (Strayed, 3)

HAHAHA! I started laughing inside. She lost a boot! On top of a mountain! How does that happen?!!!

A similar thought that I have multiple times each week in the summer, “They lost a sock! On the road from the valley to Lakeview?! How does that happen?!!”

We find single shoes, too. Strangely, quite often. And here and there along the path lie a lone pair of undies, unimportant after changing into a swimsuit, yet sorely missed when swim time is over.

Please allow me to state that as a mom, I can appreciate how frustrating it is to you parents when your campers lose things at camp. And I am sure it doesn’t make sense to you why the camp counselor can’t locate said pair of undies when they are clearly marked with your camper’s initials (!)…

I wish there were a better way to help kids keep their stuff together. I wish teenagers were better at keeping kids’ stuff together for them. I wish everyone would just carry their water bottles around instead of leaving them sitting at the pool/lake/ropescourse/gaga pit/behind a tree.

The reality is: they’re not.

My best advice for you on Lost and Found:

Don’t send stuff that would make you cry/get angry if they lose it
Write your last name on everything. Initials are better than nothing, but to me, a last name or a label says, “Man, I’d really like someone such as the hardworking camp director to go above and beyond and dig this wet towel out of a smelly pile and get it back to my child.”
If they leave their whole dirty clothes bag, call us immediately! On average this happens to three campers per week. You are not alone.
Please don’t get mad if we can’t find it.

It was kinda fun to organize all the lost and found shorts by color shade, but no, I still didn’t find those purple shorts from week 6. Sorry.

(This is what the Lost and Found cage looks like! It’s currently full of all the L&F from weeks 4-9.)

When we do have a Lost and Found reunion, we celebrate. Believe me. That one blue gym shoe, size 2, with the orange laces? I am still smiling about having found that one for you, camp grandma.

How can we have 46 pairs of found goggles, but not the pink tie dye pair you lost? Sorry.

I wish I knew.

We will continue to hone our process.

(“Found” items that you reported lost, we called you about, alphabetized and waiting for pick up. I am so sorry we never found the white towel with the bear on it! (Or the other seven pages of items reported))

In the mean time, here’s what I do know:
Your camper may have lost his green Gatorade water bottle, but I bet he is among the 3500+ other children who found something else at camp this summer: themselves.

They found friends, confidence, nature, role models, character, fun, spirit, and the guts to keep their lights shining even when someone tries to shut them down.

They’ll outgrow their lost shirt, swimsuit, shoes, and probably even the goggles. But what they found at camp? That will last a lifetime.

Ernstlove,

eli