History 

75 years of history

In 1948, Highland Park high school swimmer George Hiller started a camp for 7 through 9-year-old boys as a predecessor to overnight camp. In the same year Highland Park resident Joe Rosenheim started a day camp initially called “Johnny’s Kids”. In 1949, Rosenheim’s cousins, Tom and Bob Leopold, joined the two other counselors to create Ge-Bo-Jo-To, named after the first two letters of our founders. Fred Newman, cousin of the Leopold’s, reported to have changed the name in the 1950’s based off of an African river and thus we have Camp Cuamba. Since then, the camp’s ownership has been passed down every year to the next counselor in line. A single counselor is hired every year and is required to have been a camper at Cuamba to carry on our lasting traditions.

Nicknames: A tradition lasting since the beginning of Cuamba, nicknames are an integral part of our camp’s culture. Each camper is honored with a nickname based off of a special personality trait or certain characteristic. Once given the nickname campers are known by their “Cuamba name” whenever at camp. Since all counselors are alumni of Cuamba, to campers the counselors are solely known by the names that were given to them when they attended Cuamba. A fun and simple tradition that adds to the exclusiveness of the Cuamba family!