Staff T-shirt Quotes

A collection of shirts

Every summer the staff receive a staff t-shirt with a quote on the back. The quote is usually symbolic of that summer in some way or was said a lot that season. The quote starts with "Summer of (and the year)...(then the quote)". Below is a list of the quotes and the story behind them.

Summer of...

1984 Facilitators of Fun This was the first year of the quoted t-shirts. It was a huge hit with the staff, and Director Ben Brewster was credited with the idea. This was however Ben's last summer

1985-1988 NO QUOTES With Ben gone, the idea was lost.

1989 Making a Difference One of the staff members from the 1984 staff returned for one last summer on staff before he needed to move into his career. It was Peter Herzig who mentioned a fond memory to the '84 shirts and asked that we order one for the '89 summer. A piece of paper was passed around at a staff meeting for quote ideas and after a brief debate it was David Jenkins' quote that was chosen.

1990 We're Just Not Kidding The summer of 1990 was one of the most memorable summers. Many summer camps were starting to close do to a lack of enrollment and BRC only had about 26 campers and SIX staff. There was no funds for T-shirts so they were never ordered. About 4 years later, the Mattson brothers ordered 1990 quoted shirts and mailed them to the 1990 staff. It was such a memorable and crazy summer that shirts were just needed. As a staff we had to pull off so many outrageous things and persevere through so much that we often had to say to people We're Just Not Kidding when we said what we wanted to do or what we had done.

1991 Chief Ain't Runnin' No Country Club This is one of the most popular and most well known of camp's shirt quotes. During the '91 season a movie was shown about a summer camp with a director named Chief. In the movie the campers sing a song called Chief Ain't Runnin No Country Club. Although the name of the movie escapes memory, the song was sung around camp a few times that summer.

1992 A Sideshow The summer of 1992 was a total blast! Led by Director Bob Van Dyk, the staff was often referred to as a sideshow. Every single staff member that summer could have pulled off being an elite Campfire MC. The announcements after meals would be referred to as sideshows and would last twice as long as the norm with counselors giving 2 or 3 crazy announcements per meal. With little budget, killing time with goofy announcements worked wonders.

1993 Stay On Target This is an obvious Star Wars reference. Star Wars references were used quite a bit in 1993. For example, when a camper would ask the Head Counselor a million questions the HC might eventually say, "No Jabba, You Bodda" while waving his finger. Stay On Target was often used to get the campers to gain focus when they're not paying attention or drifting.

1994 Walking Your Own Mile This quote was meant to promote independence which is a skill that many campers come to camp to work on and to inspire them to go after their personal goals in life.

1995 Rising To A Higher Level This is one of the best quotes symbolically. After about five summers of waivering over whether or not camp is going to open each summer. Many decided to stand tall and say, "We will keep the Rock open". With this declaration and the support of many the Lodge Reconstruction happened. Plans were in the works for better equipment and training. BRC was on its way back up to the top again.

1996 Another Day, Another Badge During the summer of 1996, Archery instructor Jared Levine would get up just about every day with a badge announcement. By the tenth time of starting the announcement the same way, he started saying "Another Day", and then every one else would say, "Another Badge". The idea that badges were being awarded to campers everyday was great.

1997 United We Stand Led by Director Deering and a great older, experienced staff, Birch Rock decided to become accredited with the American Camping Association. It was a major effort to get everything from paperwork and training, equipment and maintenance, staff regulations, etc. up to ACA standards, but once we were done Birch Rock had become a top notch camp and a recognized camp within the industry. This move would put our camp on the map and enable us to grow and gain a larger camper base. The staff was proud to work together with little argument and were 100% united in its effort to gain an A rating within the ACA ranks.

1998 Shake A Hand, Make A Friend This was a major summer for the presence of visiting staff member Dave Weeks. In 1998 Dave gave an announcement to the kids about how to introduce yourself to people with confidence, a strong handshake and good eye contact. Now, usually when someone is introduced to the camp, they will be introduced by saying something like, "This is my brother Jim. So Shake a hand, Make a friend.

1999 Greatest Camp In The World During Introductions on Opening Day of 1999, CJ Nesher gave a terrific introduction of himself and then went into a speech about how the campers should be psyched to be at camp because Birch Rock was literally the greatest camp in the world. This hit home with so many that it came up many more times that summer.

2000 Chief Ain't Running No Country Club We were late in ordering the shirts in 2000 and needed a quote quickly after a brief debate we decided to reprint the 1991 quote because it was the most memorable. This made the 2000 shirt kind of the millennium shirt of remembering the best of the past.

2001 Building New Legends When it came time to pick the quote for 2001, it was Josh Pincus who was talking about the fact that we always glorify the heroes of the early years of Birch Rock without recognizing the more recent greats. Josh said as we move into the new millennium we need to build Birch Rock some new legends. "I mean that's what we're doing," he said, "we're building new legends."

2002 Run With The Pack As we prepared for the upcoming season, Director Mike Mattson decided to order a quoted shirt for staff to have right away as a morale booster. The plan was also to have a "Summer of" quoted shirt but many thought that the one shirt was enough. That's why the 2002 shirt is the only one without the year on it.

2003 Make It Happen During Staff Orientation Week, junior counselor Ben Young was wearing a baseball cap with the words, "Make It Happen" on it. The staff loved it so much that it became a motto and statement of the summer. In fact it is still used around camp often still.

2004 Running Like a Well Oiled Machine There were many times in June leading up to the summer that Director Mike Mattson would refer to his staff as running like a well oiled machine when asked by parent, board members, etc. how they look. It was often enough that he started calling them WD-40. At the end of the summer the 2004 shirt had "WD-40" where "staff" would have been on the front of the shirt.

2005 Another Day Not Touched Yet In 2005, the staff seemed to have the campers sing "Hit the Hay" much more often then the norm. In fact, for many events, they sang it once seated and then a second time as they left for bed. By the end of the summer it was the only song the new kids had learned.

2006 Green is the Tertiary Color The staff wanted to green Birch Rock staff shirt so badly that they were arguing that green is the third camp color behind crimson and gray. The argument was that green symbolized the surrounding nature. In the end, we allowed the green shirt, just this one time.

2007 Ain't No Time For The Jibba Jabba Director Mattson had a cell phone that had a ringtone of Mister T saying, "Ain't No Time For the Jibba Jabba". The staff started saying it around camp as a way of saying less talk, more action.

2008 This Phoenix Will Soar Four days prior to Opening Day, Chief's Cabin, the cabin the director lived in, burned to the ground while the staff were all off campus. Upon return and when the realization of the fire hit, the first thought for many was are we going to open on Wednesday. The answer was yes, this phoenix will soar.