CategoriesUncategorized by

WO-HE-LO WARDROBE REFRESH

Nakanawa families, are you ready to gear up for Summer 2026? New Camp Nakanawa uniforms and spirit wear are now available in two camp stores so you can arrive at the Cove ready for all the fun, Wo-He-Lo, and traditions ahead.

From our TGI Store, you can order new uniforms, sweats, skorts and quarter-zip jackets in classic Nakanawa style. These items can be shipped to your home ahead of time or waiting for you at Camp when you arrive. All TGI orders are due by May 26, and the link is on our website.

Our Camp Square Store, also linked on the website, has fun new spirit items including embroidered sweatshirts, sticker packets, a pennant t-shirt and sweatpants—perfect for showing your Nakanawa spirit all year long. These items are pick-up only at camp, so you can scoop them up once you’re on the mountain with your cabin friends.

Stock is limited, and the order deadline is May 26 for the TGI Store, so be sure to visit the website, explore both stores, and get your camper (and alumnae and parents!) outfitted in team colors or camp green and ready to sing, cheer, and play all summer long. Wo-He-Lo—Work, Health, Love—see you at Camp Nakanawa soon!

CategoriesAlumni, Reunions, The Valkazon by

Tent Row 1966 Reunion in Pensacola, FL

Lolla Page’s beautiful new poem from Tent Row ’66 is a love letter to Lake Aloaloa, Council Ring nights and the friendships that have held fast for sixty summers and more. As you read their words about threads unbroken and “The Spirit of Nakanawa,” let it nudge you to reach out to your own Tent Row and make sure you’re registered to come back, sing together and keep those TIES strong at this year’s reunion events.

Sixty summers circle back
to one bright place in time—
Tent Row ‘66, still standing
in the echo of our rhyme.

Pensacola gathers us again,
not just to reminisce,
but to feel the threads unbroken
in every laugh and kiss.

Sixty-five years of friendship—
a lifetime, and then some—
woven through Lake Aloaloa’s shores
where we first became “we,” from “one.”

Amazon fierce, Valkyrie strong,
we carried banners high,
not just in games or victories,
but in the way we tried.

Council Ring beneath the stars,
hands joined, voices clear,
where stories shaped our younger selves
and still draw us back here.

“The Spirit of Nakanawa”—
our anthem, bold and true—
not just a song we used to sing,
but a promise we still do.

Time has weathered, softened, changed,
yet something holds us fast—
a lake, a song, a circle wide,
where present meets the past.

CategoriesCamp News, The Valkazon by

Values Matter, Character Counts: 

Nakanawa Sponsors Fifth Annual Crossville Character Banquet 

A crowd of outstanding young athletes, their coaches, families and banquet sponsors filled the Cumberland County Community Center on the evening of April 11 for the Fifth Annual Character Banquet. The event honors character with college scholarships awarded to nominees from Cumberland County and Stone Memorial High Schools. Camp Nakanawa’s name and directors were prominent on this special evening, an initiative of Pepe and Ann Perron, to promote values we share: team over self, sportsmanship before score, hard work with personal integrity. 

Keynote speaker Chris Lofton, University of Tennessee All-American basketball star and recent Hall of Fame inductee was a focus of the festive evening. Tennessee orange was prominent in the room, but Nakanawa provided table runners in sky blue and gold for the CCHS Jets and black and gold for the SMHS Panthers. The Nakanawa office crew extraordinaire including Program Administrator Corie Wilson, Registrar Rene’ Smith, Executive Director Cindy DuBose and David BuBose were vital to set-up and clean-up as they greeted local leaders from the education, business and health care sectors of Crossville. Master of Ceremonies Pepe coordinated introductions and thank-you’s. Cindy DuBose gave the blessing before dinner.

Twenty-three nominees representing all high-school teams submitted essays on character; three athletes from each high school were chosen to receive $500 college scholarships. Their honors extend a different kind of win, $500 to their teams. This year’s cross country, soccer, girls’ flag football, tennis and basketball teams have double victories.  

Chris Lofton recounted stories of dedicated practice, clutch-victories, lonely disappointments and challenges to his faith in times of adversity. The grit and work ethic Chris brought to his team delivered great wins and long after the buzzer, his humility and grateful attitude exemplify character-based leadership for which Nakanawa is proud to stand.

CategoriesCamp News, Newsletters, The Valkazon by

Bold & Ready: Shelly Landau Renews Wilderness First Aid

Strengthening Nakanawa’s Safety Legacy

Shelly Landau recently returned from CU Boulder, where she recertified with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) Wilderness First Aid program. This two‑day course prepared students to assess, treat and make critical decisions for injured or ill people in remote environments—skills that fit hand‑in‑glove with Camp Nakanawa’s long commitment to safe outdoor adventure.

Note Taking
Shelly's studious scribing during the two day event.
NOLS Handouts
Illustrations of specific wraps for injuries while in the wild.
Workshops
First person POV at the National Outdoor Leadership School Wilderness First Aid

Shelly brings this knowledge back to camp to help educate and train her fellow counselors. During counselor training, Shelly and Margaret Matens give “an overview of basic hiking first aid while at Nakanawa,” which reminds everyone that our safety practices are rooted in the real places our girls explore—from trails around the lake and the Dam to nearby Cumberland Cove, “only a 15 minute drive from camp… at the edge of the Cumberland Plateau.” Using slides filled with familiar photos and stories, Shelly walks counselors through the everyday issues we’ve quietly managed for generations: dehydration, sunburn and heat illness, insect stings and ticks, blisters and the occasional sprained ankle.

 

She gives simple but powerful habits—packing water, hats, sunscreen, insect repellent and closed‑toe shoes; drinking before you feel thirsty; and treating every sting with care, including knowing when an epi‑pen and 911 are needed—showing how good planning makes adventure possible. In this way, today’s training echoes the example set in the 1920s by Col. Rice, who first inspired our Bold & Ready outdoor education by leading campers on long trail walks from camp to Cumberland Cove, where they camped out and explored the Plateau. His spirit of preparation, resilience and love for the woods still motivates us every time we lace up our boots and head down the trail with our girls.

Shelly, Margaret and the entire Bold & Ready team continue Nakanawa’s long history of pairing outdoor exploration with thoughtful, up‑to‑date safety. For more than a century we’ve taken girls into the woods, along the trails and out onto the water, always with trained counselors, on‑site nurses and doctors and clear protocols guiding each step. As Shelly says, we are “really looking for some young blood to start taking this on,” and we are still seeking active, enthusiastic Bold & Ready counselors who feel called to carry this legacy forward for the next generation of Nakanawa girls. That legacy continues in our Bold & Ready program, where campers hike to places like Cumberland Cove, play in the waterfalls and learn to love wild spaces—backed by leaders who know that “YOU set the tone” and that true boldness grows best in a carefully tended, safe environment. Wo‑He‑Lo!

CategoriesAnn & Pepe Perron by

Ann & Pepe Honored with Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Philanthropy

Ann and Pepe have always shown us what it means to carry Nakanawa’s spirit of service and leadership out into the wider world and now that light is being seen and celebrated beyond the shores of Lake Aloaloa.

The Tennessee Board of Regents has honored Ann and Pepe Perron with the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Philanthropy for their decades of vision, generosity and hands-on support of Roane State’s Diane and Jay Brown Campus in Crossville. Since 1995, they’ve helped remove barriers for local students by backing the first permanent campus facility, championing expanded health science and nursing programs, and offering matching gifts to grow a new health science wing. Through The Ann and Pepe Perron Annual Scholarship more than $240,000 has been given for students, they continue to build pathways for the next generation—just as they have always encouraged campers to be brave, kind and ready to lead for decades.

Please join your Nakanawa family in celebrating Ann and Pepe’s remarkable example of living out camp values in their community,and in cheering them on as they help shape so many young lives for the better. Read more about this special honor and their incredible impact here.