Camp spirit, tradition and continuous excitement keep our campers coming back year after year. Weekly special events along with highlight day trips out of camp are all designed to keep everyone enthusiastic about camp not just every day of the summer, but every year they come back.

• Carnival
• Battle of the Sexes
• Olympics
• Wacky Water Day
• College Confrontation

Each evening is filled with a fun activity. Whether it's a “broadway” production in our theatre, a campfire, masquerade social, outdoor games or contests or a late-night league game on one of our lighted courts, evening activities are among the best times of the day at Timber Lake West. Before bedtime, a stop with friends at the coin-free video game room and a treat from our Canteen (the camp store) end the day on just the right note.

Each session ends with our annual Color War, pitting one half of the camp against the other in a variety of events for 4-5 days of fun competition. Our surprise "break-outs", which start the event, are unsurpassed in camping. The highly anticipated moment at which the two teams are announced is called Breakout. Through the years we have had a few special visitors help us break the news that Marathon has begun:

AVERAGE JOE
Adam Mesh, the star of ‘Average Joe’ made a more than average appearance at Timber Lake West to breakout July Marathon 2004. To our surprise, who knew his cousin is a camper of ours!?

CLAY AIKEN
American Idol Star, Clay Aiken, delivered a special performance to breakout Marathon 2003! It’s hard to believe that only one year before appearing at TLW, he was a camp counselor in North Carolina.

TOBY MAGUIRE
Spiderman, Spiderman, Does Whatever A Spider Can... Toby McGuire, star of last summer's blockbuster hit movie, Spiderman, swung into camp for a surprise Marathon Breakout.

CARSON DALY
Host of MTV's TRL, Carson Daly was our celebrity host to initiate Breakout 2001! Two days later his surprise visit was mentioned live on TRL - what a hit!

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
The cheering and excitement reached an all-time TLW high when Justin Timberlake, lead singer of N'Sync showed up to breakout Marathon.

SUPER-MODEL TYRA BANKS
Continuing the tradition of exciting Color War Breaks, super models Tyra Banks and Antonio Sabato, Jr. surprised campers by making their way down the runway during a fun fashion show event. Straight from the cover of Sports Ilustrated, Tyra Banks poses with campers.

SHAQUILLE O'NEAL
Shaq's surprise visit will surely go down in history! If anyone had told our campers that Shaq was going to break Color War - they would have surely replied, "Fake Out! Fake Out!"

MARCUS CANBY
With the helicopter buzzing overhead it was becoming tough to contain the excitement... and making a grand entrance into camp to the tune of "Go, NY, GO!" came New York Knick, Marcus Camby.

HAKEEM OLAJUWON
The NBA's 1994 Most Valuable Player was our Color War Breakout that summer, having recently carried the Houston Rockets to the NBA title. An 11-time All-Star standing 7-feet tall, Hakeem is the only player in NBA history to be named MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and playoff Finals MVP in the same season.

CHARLES BARKLEY
Charles, a 10-time All-Star, was our 1993 Color War Breakout after leading Phoenix to the NBA Finals that year, earning league MVP honors in the process.

JASON PRIESTLY
In 1991 Jason left the set of Beverly Hills 90210 to Timber Lake West 12776.