![]() ![]() "It takes a lot of time and money to keep things looking the same," he would say.īut his most important job was nurturing the Thunderbird spirit, making sure that young people - many of whom started as campers at age 8 and stuck around to become counselors - could discover the young adults they were meant to be. He married Carol Altman, and together they took over administration of the camp in 1971, the year after the camp for girls was started on the east bay of the lake.įrom then on, his life's work was recruiting campers and staff, putting together programs and making sure that the facilities were in good shape. ![]() Luckily for him and for Thunderbird, they found each other. "If I hadn't found Thunderbird," he said, "I would have had to find another camp." Later, he studied outdoor education programming at the University of Illinois, but he always found himself looking forward to summer, where he could practice what he was learning in the classroom. (He would remain active in environmental causes throughout his life, both in Missouri and Minnesota.) He got a volunteer job in the park district and was a junior counselor in Clayton schools. Even in seventh grade, Moe was sensitive to problems with the environment and began a campaign to save the Earth. It was a calling he began preparing for early. He returned to Camp Thunderbird the next year as a junior counselor, and in a very real sense, he never left. The beauty of the woods, the smell of the pine needles and the majesty of the horseshoe-shaped lake captured him immediately. Sigoloff's first sight of the place where he would spend more than 50 years came in 1957, when he went to visit the Altmans' daughter Carol. "Speedy" and Margaret "Honey" Altman, who founded the camp for boys in 1946 on the shores of Lake Plantagenet near Bemidji, Minn., as a place where boys could bond, learn about teamwork and challenge themselves. ![]() When we go home, we go back to the wilderness."Īllen Sigoloff didn't start Camp Thunderbird that distinction belongs to Gene H. "When we come to camp, we come to civilization. When you go home, observe how people treat each other in the so-called civilization. "In camp," he would say, "look at how we trust each other, how we communicate with each other, how we care about each other. And at the center was Sigoloff, known to all campers as Moe, whose love and caring and special means of inspiring everyone around him made it all work. In camp, everyone had a nickname, everyone had a special place. 19, 2008) at his home in Creve Coeur, the world worked in just the opposite way. Louis Beacon: Novem- After an idyllic stay in pristine natural beauty, among critters and pine trees and dear friends, most people would think that returning to their everyday lives would mean a return to civilization.įor Allen Sigoloff, 68, the longtime director and the heart of Camp Thunderbird who died Wednesday (Nov. ![]()
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