For many kids growing up in Minnesota, summer wouldn’t truly be summer without going to a sleepaway camp by a lake.
For Northfield native Erik Burton, that experience was transformative as a young camper, and later as a teen counselor, and now as an adult camp director.
Today, Burton is the director of YMCA Camp Pepin. He’s responsible for maintaining the 40-acre site that sits on Lake Pepin, outside of Stockholm, Wisconsin, just on the other side of Minnesota’s eastern border on the Mississippi River. He also hires staff, including cooks, counselors and groundskeepers, and he brings in campers aged 4 to 18 during the 10 weeks of summer.
Erik Burton said he wants to rebuild Camp Pepin’s strong connection with the Northfield community that he remembers when he was a camper.
“One thing I remember from back when I was a counselor was that we seemed to have 10-plus campers from Northfield attending camp each week of the summer, something I was super happy about being from there myself,” he said.
The past few years, Burton said the camp has seen increasing numbers of campers from Northfield, but one of his goals is to strengthen that tie, “The addition of the Northfield YMCA has been an incredible benefit for the community, and while they offer summer programming during the day, we offer a summer full of the traditional overnight/sleepaway camp experiences.
Burton said the Northfield YMCA has been “very supportive of Camp Pepin and our work to connect with Northfield again.”
Tyler Powell, Northfield Area Family YMCA CEO, said one of the best parts of the YMCA is the diverse locations and services offered at different Associations. “We feel fortunate to have a great relationship with the Redwing Y and Camp Pepin both of which have longer histories than the relatively young Northfield Y,” said Powell.
“The two staffs often share ideas, attend joint events, such as Healthy Kids Day, and will promote the benefits of programs in both locations. Our Summer Day Camp is one of the best programs the Northfield Y has to offer the community, but we also recognize how special an experience a week at an overnight camp can be for kids,” he said. “Since the Northfield Y cannot offer the unique overnight camp experience, we are more than happy to encourage our campers to head to Camp Pepin for a week or so and then return to us for the remainder of the summer, often with some great stories and experiences.”
At YMCA Camp Pepin, the options for campers range from day camps for ages 4-12, to resident camps for grades 2 to 8; and speciality camps from grades 6-10 to teen camps for grades 7-12.
Since the YMCA Camp Pepin is not sponsored by a local school district, campers come from all across eastern Minnesota, western Wisconsin and northern Iowa.
“We are the closest camp to Northfield,” said Burton, who graduated from Northfield High School in 2008. In 2012, Burton graduated from St. Olaf College with a degree in education and social studies and an English language concentration.
Erik taught world history and English language at Northfield High School from 2019-2021. During that time was an assistant coach to longtime Raider football coach Bubba Sullivan, and also coached middle school basketball and football.
Although he said he deeply enjoyed his teaching career, Burton left the classroom behind to become the camp’s director because the camp “has a special place in my heart.”
Not only did Burton find his profession and his passion at the 40-acre camp located on the shores of Lake Pepin, but he also meet the love of his life, Emily, when she was also a teen counselor.
A Hallmark movie
Emily admits she had a crush on Erik when they worked as counselors at Camp Pepin in either 2006 or 2007. They continued their friendship, despite a number of years of globetrotting. Their subsequent romance may sound like the plot of a Hallmark movie, especially after his proposal near the camp’s fire pit overlooking the lake where he got down on one knee to do the asking.
The couple married two years ago after Erik returned from international stint teaching in the Marshall Islands and Emily finished her graduate program in English literature in Uppsala, Sweden.
Today, Erik and Emily live in the director’s home, not far from the dining cabin and the first aid cabin. At the end of every hard day’s work, they said they now enjoy watching brilliant sunsets streaking across the lake together.
“We both wrote our college entrance essays about why summer sleepaway camp was so transformative to us,” he said. “The training our counselors receive in our leadership program helps guide them the rest of their lives.”
Global awareness
“I credit my experiences as a counselor at camp as a major source of interest and passion for teaching and mentoring youth, while ultimately led to the education path” he explained.
Melissa Bernhard, recreation coordinator, Northfield Public Schools Community Education, said Burton was the go-to recreation guru whenever her department needed to fill staffing holes, or desired assistance with a certain project.
“He could be counted on to show up early, know what was going on, and would interact with community members in a professional manner,” she said. “He organized and led the adult open gym dodgeball program, and was one of our veteran flag football site supervisors for years. You could also often find him at the middle school on Saturday mornings, leading birthday parties. Parents would go out of their way to give positive feedback about their experiences of Erik working with their children in recreation programs, and he was often requested as an instructor for a number of activities.”
Bernhard added that Community Ed recently partnered with Erik at Camp Pepin to offer a variety of outdoor experiences for families in the Northfield area. “Erik was forward thinking, driven, responsible, and always found ways to contribute what he could to the Community Education department. We are thankful for the collaboration, and the ways he continues to use his talents to serve our community.”
Best summer ever
Lake activities include Sailing, canoeing, kayaking, paddle boarding and pontooning. Land based activities include ping pong, archery, target range, high ropes, yard games, carpet ball, yard bowling, volleyball, outdoor survival and birdwatching.
Of course the jam packed daily schedule also includes zany songs, silly skits, goofy costumes, all activities that help solidify friendships among campers and counselors. “We don’t want them to be embarrassed being goofy,” he explained. “It’s all part of the fun.”
Burton said that it’s not too late to sign up for a camp experience for this summer. Even though it is already early June, he said there are still spaces left in many of the overnight camps throughout the 10 weeks of summer.
“My approach is that I will work as hard as I can to give each camper the best experience here,” he said. “We want them to come back next summer.”
Burton said the 11 rugged cabins now have vinyl plank floors and blue-painted exteriors. He is still working to remove as much of the buckthorn as possible along the miles of backwood trails.
One of the extra special experiences of summer camp, he explained, is the chance for kids to experience an overnight camp. “There are so many traditions that come with overnight camp that are truly special to Camp Pepin, such as Zany Campfire, Friendship Fire, all-camp games, such as Wells Fargo, Mr. and Mrs. Camp Pepin. Overnight camps really solidify the feeling of being part of our community and the Camp Pepin family.”
One tradition that Burton said is especially memorable is the last night of camp, each cabin paints their names on a log and during the bonfire ceremony, campers watch each log burn down to ashes.
“There’s always a lot of tears when they realize there’s a little bit of everyone left in the ashes,” he said.
INCLUSIVITY To make camp affordable for any kid who want to come to camp, YMCA Pepin may be able to offer discounts, payment plans, fundraising opportunities and scholarships. To learn more about summer programs at YMCA Camp Pepin, log onto camppepin.org. 086b64ef-9e17-42dd-896d-b4e32c77c7fb
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