WHAT iS DEAR CAMP?
Dear Camp is a love letter to the U.P. It is part virtual visitor center, part art project that centers on Yooper joy & nostalgia.
It celebrates the region's history, culture, traditions, landscapes, humor, and sensory experiences through visual storytelling, travel, and keen observation.
Dear Camp w i d e n s the lens beyond the U.P.'s caricatures to celebrate both the iconic and the overlooked, the adventurous and the ordinary, the rugged and the tender. It urges you to notice more, learn the lore, and delight in the oddities.
HOW DiD iT COME TO BE?
Dear Camp is my way of staying rooted in a place I now find myself geographically separated from, but influenced by in many ways. Because my family still lives there & I visit often, I've become the token troll transplant, unofficial tour guide, & adventure dispenser for friends and family headed north.
Distance from the place I called home for so long has enabled the art of noticing. The quirks, the humor, & the ordinary things I was once too close to see.
Sometimes you have to step away from a place to fully appreciate what makes it unlike anywhere else.
CORE VALUES
Dear Camp exists to help people discover, notice, protect, and connect with the Upper Peninsula. Love of place is the throughline, and these four values are the compass that guides everything you'll find here.
ABOUT ME
Jaci here!
I'm a Yooper who married a Cooper & ended up south of the Mighty Mac.
I possess an insatiable appetite to learn, an ever-growing collection of hobbies, & an uncanny ability to convince myself I have time for just one more. You'll usually find me gardening, reading, making something with my hands, wandering a trail, flipping through vinyl bins, or planning my next trip.
My little mutt Milo is my ultimate sidekick. He zips around with me in a backpack on my eBike, enjoys wheelbarrow rides, and serves as captain of our kayak.
I have a soft spot for late-'60s design, an incurable thrifting habit, and color-number synesthesia.
By day, I help shape the future of a large public library system, so dreaming up the philosophy, strategy, and little details behind Dear Camp has been one of my favorite creative projects.
LET’S CONNECT!
Send me a note and I will be in touch!