There’s No Place Like Camp

Levi Thompson, ’82, and Maria Thompson, ’84, share how Camp Michigania has created lifelong memories for their family.
Read time: 2 minutes

Camp Michigania is a magical place that welcomes families year after year, creating memories that last long after summer has passed. In this testimonial, Levi Thompson, ’82, and Maria Thompson, ’84, share how camp has created lifelong memories for their family.

Camp Michigania is one of those places we look back on after each summer and think that we’ve walked away with far more than we were ever owed. From learning to sail together, to arts and crafts, to the enjoyment and the memories we’ve shared with our kids and their grandmother, camp gets better and better each year.

For us, summers at Camp Michigania started after Levi took his staff on a retreat there nearly 15 years ago when he served as associate dean for undergraduate education in the College of Engineering. Our daughters, who were 6 and 8 years old at the time, fell in love with it immediately and dreamed of becoming staff one day; it has been a big part of their lives ever since.

Each year, our family continues to return for countless reasons—whether it has been Levi presenting a talk on energy and sustainability at the Faculty Forum, the joy of meeting new people, sailing together on Walloon Lake, or spending time with our daughters, who (sure enough) both attended the University of Michigan and have spent their college summers on staff at camp.

Above all, we see Camp Michigania as a place that brings alumni and their families together and a place where the Michigan spirit grows strong. We always look forward to the opportunity to spread the word about campus and the Michigan story to those who don’t have the opportunity to be in Ann Arbor as often as we do.

This giving season, we hope you’ll think back on your time at Camp Michigania, too. Let those memories, the feeling of coming home each time you pull onto Camp Sherwood Road, or the look of excitement on a child’s face inspire you to do something special for a place that has given all of us so much.


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